Ralph Lazier Berkshire (born April 8, 1815[1] or 1816;[2] died November 8, 1902) was a lawyer, judge, and Republican politician who helped found the state of West Virginia and became the first chief justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia (from June 20, 1863 to December 31, 1866).

Although defeated for re-election, Berkshire again served from September 10, 1868 until December 31, 1872, and later represented Monongalia County in the West Virginia Senate (1874-1878) as well as continued practicing law.

In 1817 his father, farmer William Berkshire moved his young family across the Ohio River from what had become Maryland to Monongalia county (then in the state of Virginia).

[5] Judges Joseph L. Fry, Edwin S. Duncan and Daniel Smith admitted Berkshire and Waitman T. Willey to the Virginia bar in Morgantown in 1840.

As West Virginia became a state in its own right, the Union Convention nominated Berkshire as one of the first judges of the new Supreme Court of Appeals.

However, new elections were held in 1872 under the new state constitution adopted that year, and Democrats replaced all Republicans, including Berkshire.