Tuesday, November 12, 2024

This long-dead historical figure is still very much alive. Here’s how

The bronze statue of Lord Botetourt in the Wren yard. (WYDaily Photo/Stephen Salpukas)
The bronze statue of Lord Botetourt in the Wren yard. (WYDaily Photo/Stephen Salpukas)

More than 250 years ago, Lord Botetourt relaxed in the Governor’s Palace and strolled the green grounds of William & Mary, but this unique character is still very much alive in the hearts and minds of the students.

Not just in the history books or the college’s long standing traditions, but through a much more 21st century phenomenon — his social media.

“I’m quite the fan,” rising William & Mary sophomore Julia Gibson said. “Me and my mom have gotten a kick out of reading the tweets for so long now.”

Dubbing himself “the most metal inhabitant of the Wren yard,” the statue of Botetourt is very vocal on both his Twitter and Facebook accounts, which over the last decade have garnered a combined audience of thousands. He leans toward commenting on college news and current events, all delivered in an on-brand 18th century vernacular.

“It’s fun to see this random historical figure complaining about our exams like us,” Gibson said.

When the ever-popular television show Game of Thrones came to an end last month, Botetourt took to social media to inform his fans that he had decided not to watch it.

“In all candor, after Oliver Cromwell, the Jacobite uprising, Guy Fawkes and the ill-advised 1776 business, I found #GOT rather, ah, insipid,” he posted on May 20.

He also has a habit of commenting on the people who visit him, using screenshots from a nearby video feed.

“Miscreants, up to no good, I’ll wager,” he stated on March 27 about what looks like a tour group.

After numerous emails to students and faculty, WYDaily’s attempt to find out who runs Botetourt’s online presence turned up empty. That is, until we received a curious message in our Twitter inbox — Botetourt himself consenting to an interview with reporter Benjamin West.

“He may present decorous questions via this channel,” he stated, “trusting of course that said Mr. West is of genteel character and free of Whiggery in thought, word and deed.”

So here you have it, folks. The very first interview conducted with a person dead for more than two and a half centuries.

The original marble statue, photographed in the early 19th century. (WYDaily Photo/Wikimedia Commons)
The original marble statue, photographed in the early 19th century. (WYDaily Photo/Wikimedia Commons)

Who was Lord Botetourt?

Born Norborne Berkeley between 1717 and 1718, Botetourt held multiple offices throughout his life including a seat on the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The name “Lord Botetourt” is actually a title — one that had not been held in more than 400 years. In 1764, Botetourt became the fourth Baron Botetourt through lineage to the third who had died in the 14th century.

According to Botetourt’s Twitter account, his status as a popular figure began when he was appointed as the governor of Virginia in 1768. He was also named Rector of the College, among other distinctions. 

“I made a point of attending morning prayers with the students. And, as an aside, it’s one of the traditions I would like to see revived,” he — well, his Twitter account — wrote in a message.

Botetourt died of a sudden illness in 1770, but, he stated, “My popularity continued after my earthly demise.” This was in the form of a marble statue that stood in front of the Capitol building and was later bought by William & Mary in 1801. Over the next 150 years, the statue witnessed the Civil War and a quickly changing campus. In 1958, it was placed in the Swem library where it can still be viewed, and in 1993, a bronze version was placed where the old one had stood, according Swem Library Special Collections Research Center.

It is in this bronze form where “my ethereal presence is based,” Botetourt said.

Perhaps because of the hundreds of years he has watched over William & Mary, or maybe simply as a college-life in-joke, Lord Botetourt is loved and often talked about by his fans. A quick search in The Flat Hat records, William & Mary’s student-run newspaper, turns up over 180 results to Botetourt over the years, some dating back to the early 1900s.

A poem penned in the May 12, 1922 edition of The Flat Hat reads in part:

“He sees the past with its glories,

That the College has handed you

An embodied prayer is marble,

He pledges her children true.

What sees Lord Botetourt coming

As he stands in the dawn of the

day,

Gazing adown the distance,

Through the wondrous haze of

May?”

Many traditions recognizing the statue carry into the present. He is often decorated during holidays and celebrations, which his Twitter account describes as “festoonery.”

“Wreaths at the Yule season. Balloons at other festive times. Never a greatcoat in the winter, though. Bah!” he stated.

And it is popular to rub his foot for good luck, which is evidenced by a glossy sheen on the statue’s shoe from the oils of a thousand hands.

There is also a running rumor that the statue finds especially foolish.

“There are certain folks that believe, on especially hot days, that it might be clever to fry an egg on my foot. I can tell you that it doesn’t get that hot. It doesn’t work.”

Ultimately, Botetourt’s statue has seen many things, and he stated that he admires the students’ and faculty’s dedication to history. He remembers when “young Mr. Jefferson” began work on a nearby set of buildings which are now only a series of foundations under the Sunken Garden. And he saw freshmen students who, for the better part of a century, were required to pay their respects by a bow or a curtsy. But among his most gratifying moments is when alumni visit with their children who are about to become William & Mary students themselves, stating that he sees their “pride mixed with anxiety.”

“They know, you see, that I remember their academic triumphs as well as any little lapses from the path of scholarship,” he stated. “My lips are sealed, though. Literally.”

Related Articles

MORE FROM AUTHOR