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The speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses was the presiding officer of the House of Burgesses, the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly during the period in which Virginia was a colony of the Kingdom of England and, after 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain.

The General Assembly itself was first organized in 1619, when the colony was owned and administered by the London Company. Twenty-two burgesses were elected to that Assembly, two each from eleven designated settlement areas in the colony. The Assembly formed a unicameral legislature made up of the burgesses and the appointed members of the Governor's Council, presided over by the Governor, George Yeardley. Yeardley designated his secretary, John Pory, a council member, as Speaker of the General Assembly. Pory, however, appears to have acted only as secretary of the Assembly.^[1]

The General (or Grand) Assembly met seventeen more times from that first session through 1642. Its legal standing was put in doubt when the London Company was dissolved in May 1624 and Virginia came under the direct administration of the Crown.^[1]^[2]

A crisis developed in the spring of 1635 when an unpopular governor, Sir John Harvey, was arrested and deported to England by his own Council. This led to the February 1639 reappointment of former Governor Sir Francis Wyatt. Wyatt's instructions acknowledged the legal status of the General Assembly and of land titles granted by the London Company, ending 15 years of legal limbo.^[2]

In late 1642 Sir William Berkeley was appointed Governor. He reorganized the Assembly into two houses along the lines of the English Parliament. The new lower house, the House of Burgesses, was to provide a counterweight to the Council-led group that had deposed Harvey. However, they maneuvered to elect one of their own, Thomas Stegg, as the first Speaker of the new House when it convened in March 1643.^[2]

Speaker Peyton Randolph supported independence in the 1770s. The House of Burgesses was called back by the Royal Governor Lord Dunmore one last time in June 1775 to address British Prime Minister Lord North's Conciliatory Resolution. Randolph, who was a delegate to the Continental Congress, returned to Williamsburg to take his place as Speaker. The House of Burgesses rejected the proposal, which was also later rejected by the Continental Congress.^[3] The burgesses met in conventions that served as a revolutionary provisional government for Virginia. Randolph served as the president of the conventions until his death in October 1775. The burgesses did not elect a new speaker, but did elect a new president for the conventions. They passed the role of the House of Burgesses to the House of Delegates when they adopted the Constitution of Virginia in June 1776.

Speakers of the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1643–1776
Order^[4]	Name	County or city	Born	Term began	Term ended	Died
1st	Thomas Stegg	Charles City County	unknown	1643	1643	1652
2nd	Edward Hill Sr.	Charles City County	unknown	1644	1645	1663 (ca.)
3rd	Edmund Scarborough	Northampton County	1617 (ca.)	1645	1646	1671
4th	Ambrose Harmer	James City County	unknown	1646	1646	1647 (ca.)
5th	Thomas Harwood	Warwick County	unknown	1647	1649	1652
				1650	1651
6th	Edward Major	Nansemond County	1615	1652	1652	1655 (ca.)
7th	Thomas Dew	Nansemond County	unknown	1652	1652	1691 (ca.)
8th	Walter Chiles	James City County	unknown	1653	1653	1653
9th	William Whitby	Warwick County	unknown	1653	1653	1655
2nd	Edward Hill Sr.	Charles City County	unknown	1654	1655	1663 (ca.)
10th	Francis Moryson	James City County	bef. 1628	1656	1656	1680/81
				1657	1657
11th	John Smith	Warwick County	1620	1658	1658	1663
2nd	Edward Hill Sr.	Charles City County	unknown	1659	1659	1663 (ca.)
12th	Theodorick Bland	Charles City County	1629	1660	1660	1671/72
13th	Henry Soane	James City County	unknown	1661	1661	1661
14th	Robert Wynne	Charles City County	1622	1662	1674	1675
				1675	1675
15th	Augustine Warner Jr.	Gloucester County	1642/43	1676	1676	1681
16th	Thomas Godwin	Nansemond County	unknown	1676	1676	1677/78
15th	Augustine Warner Jr.	Gloucester County	1642/43	1677	1677	1681
17th	William Travers	Rappahannock County	unknown	1677	1677	1679
				1678	1678
18th	Mathew Kemp	Gloucester County	unknown	1679	1679	1682
19th	Thomas Ballard	James City County	1630	1680	1682	1690
				1683	1683
20th	Edward Hill, Jr.	Charles City County	1637	1684	1684	1700
21st	William Kendall	Northampton County	1621	1685	1685	1686
22nd	Arthur Allen	Surry County	unknown	1686	1688	1710
				1689	1690
23rd	Thomas Milner	Nansemond County	unknown	1691	1693	1694
				1694	1695
24th	Philip Ludwell Jr.	James City County	1672	1695	1696	1726/27
25th	Robert Carter	Lancaster County	1662/63	1696	1697	1732
26th	William Randolph	Henrico County	1650	1698	1698	1711
25th	Robert Carter	Lancaster County	1662/63	1699	1699	1732
27th	Peter Beverley	Gloucester County	1668 (ca.)	1700	1705	1728
28th	Benjamin Harrison III	Charles City County	1673	1705	1706	1710
				1707	1709
27th	Peter Beverley	Gloucester County	1668 (ca.)	1710	1714	1728
29th	Daniel McCarty	Westmoreland County	1679	1715	1718	1724
				1719	1719
30th	John Holloway	York County 1720–22 Williamsburg 1723–26 York County 1728–34	1666 (ca.)	1720	1734	1734
31st	Sir John Randolph	Williamsburg	1693 (ca.)	1734	1736	1737
				1737	1737
32nd	John Robinson Jr.	King and Queen County	1705	1738	1765	1766
33rd	Peyton Randolph	Williamsburg	1721	1766	1775	1775

Notes

^ ^a ^b Kukla, pp. 7–10.
^ ^a ^b ^c Kukla, pp. 10–12.
^ "Virginia Resolutions on Lord North's Conciliatory Proposal, 10 June 1775". Founders Online, National Archives. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
^ The Virginia House of Delegates numbers its speakers uniquely, rather than assigning an ordinal to each discrete term, as with U.S. President Grover Cleveland. The House of Delegates convention is followed here.