Philosopher, bishop and friend of Yale and Harvard. Short biography and "Pointers for Prayer".

George Berkeley 1685-1753

George Berkeley was born in Kilkenny in 1685. He was the son of William and Elizabeth nee Southerne. William was a gentleman farmer whose family originally came from Staffordshire in England while Elisabeth Southerne was the daughter of a Dublin brewer. George grew up in Dysert Castle, near Thomastown, which his father owned. He entered the Duke of Ormonde's School in Kilkenny in July 1696 and studied there until January 1700 and although still not fifteen years of age, he entered Trinity College, Dublin. His primary academic interest was in mathematics. After graduating he prepared an elementary textbook in which he explored the basis of arithmetical notation. In 1706 a College Fellowship became available and, after taking some extremely demanding competitive examinations, he became a Junior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin on 9 June 1707.

He was ordained in the Church of Ireland in 1709. Although Berkeley continued to hold his fellowship at Trinity College, Dublin, until 1724, he spent most of the period from 1713 to 1724 away from Dublin. He went to London in January 1713 where he arranged publication of some of his works. In November of that year he set off for Italy as chaplain to Lord Peterborough. Berkeley returned to Italy in 1716 with George Ashe, son of the Trinity College provost, and he spent four years there. He witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius in 1717.

In May 1724 Berkeley resigned his position at Trinity College to become Anglican Dean of Londonderry, but he never resided in the city spending most of the next four years in London. Over these years he published a plan to establish a college in Bermuda to train the sons of colonists and Native Americans whom he wished to convert to ‘religion, morality, and civil life’. Funds of ten thousand pounds for Berkeley's project were promised after a vote in the House of Commons in London supporting the project.

On 1 August 1728 he married Anne Foster, and soon after they set sail from Gravesend to Newport, Rhode Island where they
bought a farm. Their first two children Henry and George were born while the family lived there. Berkeley waited for the ten thouand pound grant to be paid which would enable him to build the planned College. However, by the middle of 1731 it became obvious that he would not receive the grant, and he returned to London in October. He wrote a number of articles during his time in America which he published in the two or three years after his return. Whilst in America he became friendly with two ministers, an Episcopalian and a Congregationalist, who had close links with Yale and he encouraged the development of both Yale and Harvard. He ensured that the library at Yale received a gift of a first class collection for its library and the income from his farm was also given to the college. The Berkelian scholarships and prizes thus established, have been awarded since 1733.

In January 1734 Berkeley was appointed Bishop of Cloyne and was consecrated in St Paul's Church, Dublin, on 19 May 1734. In this office he devoted himself to the social and economic plight of Ireland, doing his best as an Anglican bishop to help the conditions of all in the predominantly Roman Catholic country. He wanted to support employment. and he set up a school to teach spinning to children, and he wanted to make possible the manufacture of linen.

Berkeley remains one of the foremost philosophers of the western hemisphere.His major works were: Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Alciphon and The Querist. Amongst his contemporaries were Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and Joseph Addison.

He was seriously affected by the death of his eldest son in 1750 and moved to Oxford where he died in 1753 and is buried in Christ Church.

POINTERS FOR PRAYER

+ In his ministry Berkeley combined serious thinking with a practical concern for the spread of the Christian Gospel in “the New World”. Thank God for those people you have met who were visionary, practical and thoughtful.

+ Pray for those in our universities and colleges who explore responsibly the ‘big’ questions of human existence and creation.

+ Thank God for those who acted as gate-openers in your life and encouraged you to explore new ideas.

Text - Copyright, Dean of Belfast, 2005.