BOTETOURT, NORBORNE BERKELEY, LORD

also called Baron De Botetourt (b. c. 1718, Englandd. Oct. 15, 1770, Virginia ), colonial governor of Virginia (176870). After military and parliamentary service in England, Berkeley acquired a lordship, or barony, that had been in abeyance for more than three centuries, proving in 1764 that he was the legal successor. Four years later he was appointed governor of Virginia. Popular with the colonial assembly at the outset and secretly in sympathy with their strong position of protest against the transfer of political prisoners to England, he nevertheless dissolved the assembly after it passed resolutions demanding exclusive powers of taxation. He attempted, by correspondence with the British secretary of state for the colonies, to bring about a repeal of all parliamentary taxes, but he failed to modify the action of Parliament. His brief service of two years as governor had won the approval of the colonial assembly, and a life-sized statue of him was erected by the assembly in the colonial capital of Williamsburg. He was buried on the grounds of the College of William and Mary. On his death, the barony of Botetourt again fell into abeyance.