Background
Born to Colonel Sir Edward Villiers of Richmond and Lady Frances Howard (a descendant of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk), Barbara became a maid of honour to the princesses of York before Mary married William in 1677.
Born to Colonel Sir Edward Villiers of Richmond and Lady Frances Howard (a descendant of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk), Barbara became a maid of honour to the princesses of York before Mary married William in 1677.
Her sister Elizabeth Villiers (later Countess of Orkney) was the acknowledged mistress of William III of England from 1680 to 1695. Naturally ambitious like the rest of her family, Barbara mixed scintillating wit with devious deception in order to promote dissatisfaction against the Churchills, who came to abhor the reign of William and Mary (1689–1702). Barbara was thought to be a secret Jacobite.
Barbara married John Berkeley, 4th Viscount Fitzhardinge of Berehaven (1650 – 19 December 1712).
They had two daughters, neither of whom inherited their father"s title:
Honorary Frances Berkeley, married Sir Thomas Clarges, 2nd Baronet before 1721.
They had two children. Honorary Mary Berkeley (bef 1671 – 3 June 1741), married Walter Chetwynd, 1st Viscount Chetwynd of Bearhaven on 27 May 1703 in Saint Martin-in-the-Fields in Church, Covent Garden, London.
She was a maid of honor to Queen Anne.