Creation Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt, was the penultimate
colonial governor of the British
Colony of Virginia. Botetourt became noted for his patronage of the
liberal arts and religion. At the college, he endowed the competitively awarded gold
Botetourt Medals, of which future U.S. president
James Madison would be a recipient. Despite dissolving the House of Burgesses over their protests to
Townshend Acts in 1769, he was still well respected in Williamsburg when he died of an illness on October 15, 1770. An outpouring of public grief accompanied Botetourt's elaborate
funeral procession, which began by transferring his body from the Governor's Palace to a memorial service at
Bruton Parish Church before continuing to the college's chapel, where he was entombed. On July 20, 1771, the Virginia General Assembly voted
nemine contradicente (without dissent) to acquire "an elegant statue in marble" to commemorate Lord Botetourt. The Assembly approved a budget of 700
guineas for the acquisition of the statue, which was a substantial amount of money for the period. The Assembly also approved the use of public funds with no set limit to pay towards the statue. The commission's intent was communicated to Botetourt's nephew and executor,
Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort. The Duke informed the commission that he would aid Norton and advised them that there were no recent depictions of Botetourt but that a wax medallion bearing his likeness did exist. The medallion was by Isaac Gosset, who was known for his prolific wax portraits of notable English persons. In March 1772, Norton shared a drawing by Richard Hayward with the Duke, who approved it as the design of the statue. Hayward, like other contemporary English sculptors, primarily relied on contracts for church monuments. Norton informed his son in Yorktown in a March 10 letter that he had sent the commission several drawings including several options for the plinth's design and four Gosset medallions of Botetourt. According to the letter, Hayward could complete the statue in a year and have the statue shipped to Virginia with iron rails for £700. The politician
Robert Carter Nicholas wrote to Norton that the commission approved of the designs but opposed including the word "Peace" in the inscription; Carter did not specify the basis for this opposition. Norton wrote to his son in August 1772 to report that the statue was "in forwardness" and that a marble block had been selected. He wrote another letter in March 1773 that the statue was completed and had attracted positive attention in England before being sent to the Americas aboard the ship
Virginia. Before it was placed in the Capitol, the statue was admired by those in Williamsburg, though Nicholas lamented that "the likeness [was] not so striking as of the [m]edallion". The statue was accompanied by a mason named John Hirst, who received a similarly positive reception. Hirst erected the statue in the Capitol's piazza by early June 1773 for £50.
In the Capitol Hayward's
Lord Botetourt was the first piece of sculpture in colonial Virginia. It was the second piece of pre-
American Revolution sculpture to arrive in the southern colonies, after a replica of Wilton's
Pitt arrived in
Charleston, South Carolina, in 1770. Wilton's
equestrian gilded lead
George III and the original
Pitt, both installed in New York City in 1770, were the first and second statues in the North American colonies. Of the four full-length statues erected in North America during the British colonial period, only Hayward's
Lord Botetourt survives. It is the oldest surviving public statue in North America. Through the late 18th century,
Lord Botetourt became a regular subject of commentary in travelers' accounts. The traveling Scottish architect
William Mylne observed the statue in 1775 and wrote in a letter that he was unfamiliar with statues done with subjects dressed in attire other than that of the ancient Greeks or Romans. He also noted that the plinth was enclosed by an iron railing. Despite the onset of the
American Revolutionary War between the colonists and the British, the statue was cleaned every year at the opening of each General Assembly through 1779. In 1780, the capital of Virginia was moved from Williamsburg to
Richmond. It was recorded as having remained in good condition through at least 1786. Soon after the capital was moved, the Williamsburg Capitol building began to have elements removed by
Patriot troops. By 1793, the General Assembly voted to dismantle the Capitol's east wing, though this was not completed immediately. The statue was vandalized and damaged by the weather. A 1796 watercolor and pen painting by the Anglo-American artist
Benjamin Henry Latrobe showed the statue and surrounding Capitol in a state of disrepair. The Anglo-Irish writer
Isaac Weld, writing about the statue in 1798, said that he believed the damage had occurred during the Revolutionary War in an act of anti-monarchial vandalism. In 1796, a
statue of George Washington by the French sculptor
Jean-Antoine Houdon was installed in the
Virginia State Capitol at Richmond. This statue likely replaced
Lord Botetourt as a subject of Virginian's appreciation. According to the historian Graham Hood, Houdon's statue was "another extremely rare full-length marble figure, a truly great work of art". After the decapitated statue's head was struck with an iron plug by
college president and bishop
James Madison and a Mr. Moody, the repaired statue was erected on the
college's campus in the Old College Yard in front of the College Building (now called the
Wren Building). It would remain there through the mid-20th century with one interruption. Back on the campus, the statue was occasionally subject to students pouring paint over it. A 1938 editorial in the student newspaper
The Flat Hat sought to dissuade students from this practice, noting the statue's historical and monetary value, as well as the porous nature of its marble which made cleaning difficult. It was moved to storage in 1958 due to damage before being placed on display in Swem Library in 1966. A bronze statue by the sculptor and college alumnus Gordon Kray based on the 1772
Lord Botetourt was installed on the former campus site of the original during the college's tercentenary celebrations in 1993. Kray began work on his
Lord Botetourt in October 1992, with most of the work completed during 1993. Since he was not able to have the fragile original moved, casts were taken where it is displayed in the library. Lost portions of the statue, including the hand missing since the 18th century, had to be recreated. Bronze was chosen as the medium for the 1993 statue for its sturdiness. Kray said "the original really took some abuse. College kids are college kids. They don't change much in 200 years." The 1993 statue, funded by private donations, cost about $155,000 (). The 1772 statue remains on display in the library's basement in what is known as the Botetourt Gallery, with the 1993 statue in the Old College Yard. Other statues by Kray are also on the campus: a depiction of
James Monroe in front of
Tucker Hall, a statue of
George Wythe and
John Marshall in front of the
William & Mary Law School, and a
statue of Pierre Charles L'Enfant in
Alan B. Miller Hall. The statue and Lord Botetourt have both been held in high esteem by the college's students into the 21st century, possibly as a result of the statue's perpetuity or an inside joke. The statue is sometimes referred to as "Lord Bot" or "Lord B". A campus tradition extant from the 1920s to the 1970s maintained that freshmen had to salute or perform a bow or curtsey when passing the statue. ==Notes==