During the 19th century, the statue suffered further damage due to vandalism and was briefly stored in Eastern State Hospital during the American Civil War.

Hayward's posing of Lord Botetourt is reminiscent of a c. 1737 depiction of Hans Sloane in the Chelsea Physic Garden by Michael Rysback.

[1] Facing the statue's front, the right side inscription addresses Lord Botetourt's "many public and Social Virtues which so eminently adorned his character".

[10][note 2] The rear is a bas-relief of two women personifying Britannia and Virginia or America exchanging olive branches above the sacred flame of liberty on the altar of peace, which bears the word "CONCORDIA".

America is depicted as an Indian princess possesses a bow and a quiver of arrows but lacks a feathered headdress, anticipating a neoclassical model of this personification that would appear several decades later.

[15] Art historian Wayne Craven found the sculpture's styling as within the Baroque tradition, commenting on its similarities to Hyacinthe Rigaud's "grandiose" portraits of Louis XIV.

[16] Architectural historian Marcus Whiffen – noting the substantial damage to Lord Botetourt's likeness and his missing right hand – positively appraised the original statue in 1958, comparing it to the portraiture of painter Joshua Reynolds.

Botetourt proved amiable and, despite his pronounced loyalty to the Crown, was broadly popular even with aggrieved members of the House of Burgesses.

[21][note 3] An outpouring of public grief accompanied Botetourt's elaborate funeral procession, which began by translating 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.

[23][note 4] On July 20, 1771, the Virginia General Assembly voted nemine contradicente (without dissent) to acquire "an elegant statue in marble" to commemorate Lord Botetourt.

[3] The appropriation authorized a six-man commission to seek an artist from outside the colony to create the statue, with acting governor William Nelson at its head.

Nelson appointed House of Burgesses member John Norton, a London merchant who was represented in Virginia by his son at Yorktown, as their agent in England.

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.

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.

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.

[35] 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.

[44] A 1796 watercolor and pen painting by Anglo-American artist Benjamin Henry Latrobe showed the statue and surrounding Capitol in a state of disrepair.

[45][note 8] 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.

[45] The statue was there at the outset of the American Civil War, where it survived an 1863 skirmish on the campus but was moved to Eastern State Hospital in 1864 to preserve it from harm.

[52] The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation utilized three-dimensional scans from both Lord Botetourt statues and fragments from the original plinth in constructing a digital version of the now-lost Capitol building.