Bishop George Berkeley,1685-1753, was an Irish-born enlightenment philosopher, Anglican Bishop, philanthropist, and proprietor of Whitehall in Middletown from 1729-1731. After his return to Ireland in 1732, he was soon consecrated Bishop of Cloyne and continued his philosophical writings. His poem “On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America” is famous for the oracular line “Westward the course of Empire takes its way.”