Sir William Berkeley (; 16059 July 1677) was a colonial governor of Virginia, and one of the Lords Proprietors of the Colony of Carolina. As governor of Virginia, he implemented policies that bred dissent among the colonists and sparked Bacon's Rebellion. A favourite of King Charles I, the king first granted him the governorship in 1642. Berkeley was unseated following the execution of Charles I, but his governorship was restored by King Charles II in 1660. Charles II also named Berkeley one of the eight Lords Proprietors of Carolina, in recognition of his loyalty to the Stuarts during the English Civil War. As governor, Berkeley oversaw the passage of many of Virginia's most restrictive laws governing enslaved people, including the 1662 slave code that determined slavery to be inheritable through the condition of the mother. As proprietor of Green Spring Plantation in James City County, he experimented with activities such as growing silkworms as part of his efforts to expand the tobacco-based economy. He was the author of Discourse and View of Virginia, where he argued for diversifying the colony's tobacco economy. Early life Berkeley was born in 1605 in Bruton, Somersetshire to Maurice Berkeley (died 1617) and Elizabeth Killigrew, of the Bruton branch of the Berkeley family, both of whom held stock in the Virginia Company of London. Referred to as "Will" by his family and friends, he was born in the winter of 1605 into landed gentry. His father died when he was twelve and, though indebted, left Berkeley land in Somerset. His elder brother was John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. Young Berkeley showed signs of a quick wit and broad learning. His informal education consisted of observing his elders; from them he learned "the moves that governed the larger English society and his privileged place in it". Also, as part of the English country gentry, he was aware of agricultural practices, knowledge which would influence his actions as governor of Virginia. Though his father died in debt, Berkeley secured a proper education. He entered grammar school at about six or seven years old where he became literate in Latin and English. At eighteen, like the other Berkeley men, he entered Oxford. He began his studies at Queen's College in the footsteps of his forebears, but quickly transferred to St. Edmund Hall, a "throwback to medieval times". He received, though not necessarily completed, a B.A. in