Travels & the New World

Trinity Church

Berkeley took Holy Orders and left Dublin in 1713 for London. During the following year he travelled on the Continent.

He returned to England and then travelled again. During this period he refined his ideas. He became concerned with what he perceived as a decline in religious values.

In 1721, he returned to Ireland and resumed teaching and lecturing. He began formulating a plan to establish an educational college in Bermuda.

In 1724, he returned to London to get official backing and funding for the project. In 1728, believing such funding was forthcoming , he sailed to the American Colonies landing at Newport, Rhode Island.

He bought a farm there and built a house he called 'Whitehall'. He preached at Trinity Church in Newport as well as establishing a philosophical society.

His ideas influenced a local Reverend, Samuel Johnson.

He later was to become first Dean of Columbia College, New York and did much to spread Berkeley's ideas in the New World. Berkeley waited three years in Rhode Island but the promised funding never materialised.