Frances Culpeper1
Female, #8476, (1634 - after 31 May 1695)
| Parent* | Thomas Culpeper of the Middle Temple (s 1602 - s 1652) | |
| Parent* | Katherine St. Leger (c 1602 - 1658) | |
Frances Culpeper|b. 1634\nd. after 31 May 1695|p8476.htm|Thomas Culpeper of the Middle Temple|b. say 1602\nd. say 1652|p8470.htm|Katherine St. Leger|b. circa 1602\nd. 1658|p8473.htm|John Culpeper of Astwood in Feckenham, co. Worcs.|b. 1565\nd. circa 16 Dec 1635|p8385.htm|Ursula Woodcock|b. before 27 Jan 1566\nd. before 2 Jun 1612|p8455.htm|Sir Warham St. Leger|b. 1579\nd. 11 Oct 1631|p8838.htm|Mary Hayward|b. circa 1580\nd. 1662|p36800.htm| | ||
| Name Variation | Frances Culpeper was also known as Culpepper of England. | |
| Name Variation | Frances Culpeper was also known as Colepeper. | |
| Baptism | 1634 | She was baptized at Hollingbourne, co. Kent, England, in 1634. |
| Birth* | 1634 | Frances was born at Hollingbourne, co. Kent, England, in 1634. |
| She was the daughter of Thomas Culpeper of the Middle Temple and Katherine St. Leger. | ||
| Married Name | 1652 | As of 1652, her married name was Stephens. |
| Marriage* | 1652 | She married Samuel Stephens of Warwick, VA in 1652. |
| Married Name | 1670 | As of 1670, her married name was Berkeley. |
| Marriage | 1670 | She married William Berkeley Governor of Virginia in 1670. |
| Married Name | 1680 | As of 1680, her married name was Ludwell. |
| Marriage | 1680 | She married Philip Ludwell of James City, VA in 1680. |
| Death* | after 31 May 1695 | She died after 31 May 1695.2 |
| Biography* | She was baptised in Hollingbourne, May 27, 1634, as 'Francis, dau. of Thomas Culpeper, esq. and Katherine his wife.' The earliest evidence for her in Virginia is the reference in the will of Samuel Filmer (1667, P.C.C. Penn, 58; cf. Va. Mag., xv, 181) to 'my friend and cousin Mrs. Frances Stephens wife of Mr. Samuel Stephens of Virginia.' Stephens' death and her subsequent m. to Sir William Berkeley are recited in a Virginia act of September, 1674 (Hening, ii, 322). Her final m. is reported in Lord Culpeper's letter to his sister in 1681 (Va. Hist. Register, iii, 192) ; and it was from the son of her third husband by an earlier m. who succeeded to Green Spring, that the Lees inherited her portrait which we reproduce. She was living in good health in her fifty-sixth year in July, 1690, as reported by William Byrd the elder (Va. Mag., xxvi, 128), but must have died soon after, for there is no mention of her in the will of her brother, Alexander (1691). She was buried in the church yard at Jamestown, where Dr. Tyler (Cradle of the Republic, p. 129) deciphered a fragment of her tombstone as follows: "...yeth the Bod... Lady Franc... eley..." Dame Frances Berkeley appears in Virginia history a woman of high spirit, loyal and intensely partizan. When Col. Jeffreys and the other Commissioners reached Virginia to investigate her husband's conduct of the government during and after Bacon's Rebellion, she organized the 'Green Spring faction' to frustrate their politics and with the aid of Ludwell and Robert Beverley carried the Assembly along with her. The best of the anecdotes of this campaign is of her putting the common hangman up as an improvised postilion when the Governor's coach conducted the Commissioners away from a visit of ceremony at Greenspring (See Jeffreys' complaints in Am. & W. I., 1677-80, passim). At Leeds Castle the Historical MSS. Commission (Sixth Report, 465) brought to light a document in this quarrel–a. letter addressed to Berkeley, dated Virginia, August 2, 1677, and signed 'F. Berkeley,' It begins: 'My dear, dear Sir,' and, after some discussion of property in Jamaica, proceeds, 'as soon as your back was turned, the Lieut. Governor [Jeffreys] said he would lay 100 £ that you would not be permitted to see the King, but would be sent to the Tower.' On the date of this letter the Governor was already dead, but the news had not reached Virginia. It was her last message to her husband, and came into her brother's hands. Under Berkeley's will (Hening, ii, 558, in which she is described, six years after marriage, as 'my dear and most virtuous wife') she became one of the proprietors of Carolina. By a curious combination of circumstances she had the good fortune to sell this interest twice, in 1682 and again in 1684, and each time to be paid for it. The story is well told in McCrady, South Carolina under the Proprietary Government, p. 234.3 |
Family | Samuel Stephens of Warwick, VA (say 1631 - 1670) | |
| Charts | Charlemagne's Descendants, Part 2: William Malet to Henry Culpeper of Lower Norfolk Descendants of William Culpeper of Hunton and Wigsell, from 1509: 7 generations |
| Last Edited | 11 Sep 2007 |
Citations
- Col. F.W.T. Attree R.E./F.S.A. & Rev. J.H.L. Booker M.A., "The Sussex Colepepers, Part I", Sussex Archaeological Collections, XLVII, 47-81, (1904) http://gen.culpepper.com/historical/sussex/default.htm.
- Warren M. Billings, compiler, The Papers of Sir William Berkeley, 1605-1677, Richmond, Virginia: Library of Virginia, 2007.
On 31 May 1695, Frances wrote a letter from Green Springs to her nephew, Sir Abstrupus Danby (son of her sister, Anne). - Warren M. Billings, compiler, The Papers of Sir William Berkeley, 1605-1677, Richmond, Virginia: Library of Virginia, 2007.