William Herbert (MP died 1593)

Sir William Herbert (c. 1554 – 4 March 1593) was a Welsh colonist in Ireland, author and Member of Parliament.

He was son of William Herbert of St. Julians in Monmouthshire, then an estate lying between Caerleon and Newport. His mother was Jane, daughter of Edward Griffith. He was sole surviving legitimate heir-male of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, as the great-grandson of Sir George Herbert of St. Julians, the earl's third son. Born after 1552, he was a pupil of Laurence Humphrey, President of Magdalen College, Oxford, presumed to have been a private pupil.

Herbert was a savant, and 1 May 1577 he sent John Dee notes for Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica. In 1581 he was residing at Mortlake, and enjoying Dee's learning. Thomas Churchyard the poet was another admirer, and Churchyard dedicated to Herbert his 'Dream,' which forms 'the ninth labour' of 'the first parte of Churchyardes Chippes,' 1575.

He was appointed a Justice of the Peace (J.P.) for Monmouthshire and High Sheriff of Monmouthshire for 1579–80. He was elected a knight of the shire (MP) for Monmouthshire in 1584, 1586 and 1593.

On 14 February 1588 Herbert wrote to Francis Walsingham that he desired to show posterity his affection for his God and his prince 'by a volume of my writing,' by 'a colony of my planting,' and by 'a college of my erecting.' The first two objects he accomplished, the last he did not carry further than a plan to place a college at Tintern, where he owned a house and property. The colony was in Ireland. He was a relative and friend of Sir James Croft who had been lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1551–2. Herbert became an 'undertaker' for the plantation of Munster on 5 May 1586, and on 17 June applied for three 'seignories' in Kerry. In April 1587 he arrived at Cork, and was allotted many of the confiscated lands which had been the property of Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th Earl of Desmond.

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