Eliza Berkeley

Eliza Berkeley (née Frinsham; 1734–1800) was an English author. She was connected to the , and after bereavements in the 1790s began to edit family papers, and write on her own account.

She was born in 1734 at the vicarage of White Waltham in Windsor Forest. Her father, the vicar the, was the Rev. Henry Frinsham, previously curate at Beaconsfield; her mother was a daughter of Francis Cherry of Shottesbrook House, Berkshire, who left a fortune, diminished by the South Sea Bubble, to Mrs. Frinsham and her sisters, known as Duke Cherry, Black Cherry, and Heart Cherry. Lord Bute rented Waltham Place to be near Henry Frinsham, and he frequently played cards at the vicarage. Here Eliza Berkeley passed her childhood, since her father would not accept preferment on condition of voting against his principles.

A tomboy at six, Eliza at 11 wrote two sermons. She and her sister Anne were placed at Mrs. Sheeles's school, Queen Square, London. for a year, until their father's death. She read Hickes's Preparatory Office for Death every Thursday, and attended prayers at church every afternoon.'

In 1754, Eliza being in her twentieth year, her mother died. She and her sister succeeded to her large fortune, and they took a house in Windsor. She was a little creature, and very short-sighted; she read Spanish, Hebrew, and French, always taking a Spanish prayer-book to church. She was intimate with Catherine Talbot, and she knew Elizabeth Carter, Elizabeth Montagu, George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton, and the rest of their set.

In 1771 Dr. Berkeley, her husband, became prebendary of Canterbury, and they then went to reside at The Oaks, the area at Canterbury Cathedral which had once been the monastery garden. Eliza, supported by her friend Susanna Duncombe, became a dominant figure in the group of wives of the chapter.

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