Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt (c. 1717 – 15 October 1770) was a British Tory politician and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Virginia from 1768 to 1770, when he died in office. While serving as rector at the College of William & Mary, Berkeley endowed the creation of the Botetourt Medal, an award to incentivize student scholarship. After his death, the Virginia General Assembly commissioned Richard Hayward to produce Lord Botetourt, a marble statue depicting Berkeley that stood in the Capitol in Williamsburg. The original survives on the campus of the college, while a replica stands in front of the college's Wren Building.
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Origins
Norborne Berkeley was born about 1717, the only son of John Symes Berkeley of Stoke Gifford, Gloucestershire by his second wife Elizabeth Norborne, a daughter and co-heiress of Walter Norborne of Calne, Wiltshire and the widow of Edward Devereux, 8th Viscount Hereford. The Berkeleys of Stoke Gifford were descended from Maurice de Berkeley (d.1347), who died at the Siege of Calais, who had acquired the manor of Stoke Gifford in 1337, the second son of Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley, 7th feudal baron of Berkeley (1271–1326), Maurice the Magnanimous, of Berkeley Castle. His descendant Sir Thomas Berkeley (d.1361) of Uley, Gloucestershire married Katherine Botetourt (d.1388), a daughter and co-heiress of John Botetourt, 2nd Baron Botetourt. His son and heir was Sir Maurice Berkeley (1358–1400), of Uley and Stoke Gifford, MP for Gloucestershire in 1391.