William Byrd II (March 28, 1674August 26, 1744) was an American planter, lawyer, surveyor, author, and a man of letters. Born in Colonial Virginia, he was educated in London, where he practiced law. Upon his father's death, he returned to Virginia in 1705. He was a member of the Virginia Governor's Council from 1709 to 1744. He was the London agent for the House of Burgesses in the 1720s. Byrd's life showed aspects of both British colonial gentry and an emerging American identity. He led surveying expeditions the border of Virginia and North Carolina. He is considered the founder of Richmond, Virginia. Byrd expanded his plantation holdings. He commanded county militias. His enterprises included promoting Swiss settlement in mountainous southwest Virginia and iron mining ventures in Germanna and Fredericksburg. A member of the Royal Society, he was an early advocate of smallpox inoculation. Byrd may be best known for his writings in his diary and the narratives of his surveying, some of which have been published in American literature textbooks. He recorded his exploits, which are notable for its openness on matters of sex and punishment of his slaves. Early life and education William Byrd, the eldest child of Mary Horsmanden Filmer Byrd and her second husband, William Byrd I (ca. 1652–1704), was born on March 28, 1674, in Henrico County, Virginia. His father was a planter, public official, and a Native American trader. When he was two, his mother took him with her to visit relatives in Purleigh, Essex County, England. He was in England and living with his mother's relatives in 1681, when he was enrolled in Felsted School, where he studied Hebrew, Italian, and French. It was his father's goal that Byrd was educated to become a gentleman and had first-hand experiences with aristocrat. He was an apprentice in London and Rotterdam for two years for tobacco trading companies, where he learned about commerce. During that time, he acquired the social graces of a gentleman. He then studied law at Middle Temple from 1692 to 1695, when he was admitted to the bar to practice law. The following year he was elected as a Fellow in the Royal Society with the support of Sir Robert Southwell, his father's friend. By this time, Byrd spent much of his childhood in England, but born in Virginia, where he was expected to return, he was not accepted as an Englishman.