Peter Beverley

Peter Beverley (1663 – 1728) was an English-born planter and lawyer who served as the 27th speaker of the House of Burgesses as well as treasurer of the Colony of Virginia (1710-1723). His father Robert Beverley had been the clerk of the House and a prominent member of the "Green Spring" faction in the decade after Bacon's Rebellion, and Peter Beverley also served as clerk before winning election as a Burgess and serving as speaker in four of the five assemblies at the beginning of the 18th century.

Early and family life

Peter Beverley was the first of three sons born to Major Robert Beverley, and the only one borne by his first wife, Elizabeth, probably in Kingston upon Hull in Yorkshire, England, since he was christened in the parish of St. Mary Lowgate on May 7, 1663. His father emigrated to the Virginia colony after his first wife's death, and remarried. Thus, Peter may have been raised in England with relatives before emigrating to Virginia around the time of his father's second marriage, in March 1666. He also may have been sent back to England for his education.

In 1687, after his father's death, Beverley married Elizabeth Peyton, the daughter of Major Robert Peyton. They had three daughters: Susanna, Elizabeth and Anne. Their daughter Susanna, married Sir John Randolph. Their daughter Anne married Henry Whiting, probably the son of the burgess of that name, who last served in 1684.

Career By March 1681, Beverley was living in Middlesex County with his father, step-mother and soon his half-siblings. As the firstborn son, Peter Beverley acted as this father's agent in numerous land transactions which built a substantial estate in four counties. Around 1686, Peter Beverley became a licensed lawyer in the colony. Furthermore, although the crown had suspended his father from his public offices, Peter Beverley was appointed Middlesex County's surveyor, which Governor Effingham would later characterized as the county's most lucrative post. That became the first of several joint appointments, including as clerk of the General Court and the colony's Secretary (a position he transferred to his half-brother Robert Beverley in October 1693). In 1694, Peter Beverley became Clerk of Gloucester County, a position he continued to hold until 1719 or 1720. From 1695 until 1699, Peter Beverley also served on the committee to revise the colony's laws, and when that completed, became the Burgess' clerk until 1705 (including while he was also speaker of the body). Meanwhile, on October 20, 1698, the statehouse burned, and he and his half-brother Robert saved and then re-organized the public records. Also, members of the body elected him as its speaker on December 7, 1700 (defeating two other candidates) and he served in that post until replaced by Benjamin Harrison in October 1705. Although no record exists as to whether Harrison defeated Beverley in that contest, Beverley again won election as speaker on October 25, 1710, and continued in that position until the end of the 1714 session. In 1715, he was elected to the House of Burgesses in order to represent the College of William and Mary (on whose Board of Visitors he had long served), rather than nearby Gloucester County. However, after the House of Burgesses met, on August 13, 1715 upon the motion of Gawin Corbin the House declared the college unworthy of a seat in the body, and so ruled that election improper and unseated Beverley. However, Beverley continued to act as the colony's Treasurer until 1723. In 1723, he relinquished the office of treasurer to John Holloway who had also served as speaker. his great-grandson Beverley Randolph, became the eighth governor of Virginia. His granddaughter Elizabeth Whiting married John Clayton, a distinguished botanist and long-serving clerk of Gloucester County.

While one of William and John Randolph's brothers (Richard) married a lineal descendant of Pocahontas and later marriages among Randolph cousins linked Randolph descendants to her legacy, Peyton Randolph was not her descendant.