Robert Beverley

Born in colonial Virginia in the late seventeenth century, Robert Beverley Jr. was a planter and public official as well as a writer. He served in Virginia’s political world, including work connected to the House of Burgesses and the governor’s Council, and he came from a prominent family deeply involved in colonial government.

He is remembered above all for The History and Present State of Virginia, first published in London in 1705. The book is often described as the first published history of a British colony written by a native-born North American. It combines history, description of the land and its resources, observations about Indigenous peoples, and a portrait of Virginia’s government and society.

Beverley’s writing is still valuable because it captures how one well-placed observer saw early Virginia from inside the colony itself. Modern readers also approach the book with care, since it reflects the attitudes and limits of its era, but it remains an important source for understanding colonial America.