Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Allen C. Browne
Taken: January 18, 2014
Caption: William Byrd II
Additional Description: This 1700-1704 portrait of William Byrd II (1674-1744) by Sir Godfrey Kneller hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

“William Byrd II inherited a great deal of property In Virginia that, together with the force of his personality and his own accomplishments, made him one of the most prominent and powerful men in the colony. He was educated and practiced law in England and traveled extensively there and on the Continent. Before returning to America, he commissioned this stylish portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller, the principal painter to the British monarch. Byrd was a successful tobacco planter and served for many years on the Virginia Council. In 1728 he played a lead role in surveying the Virginia-North Carolina boundary line. One result of this work was Byrd's book, The History of the Dividing Line Run in the Year 1728, a colorful account of Virginia's history and its flora and fauna. Late in life he built Westover, a Georgian mansion on the James River, where he housed his collection of thirty portraits of family and other persons of note.” — National Portrait Gallery
Submitted: September 22, 2016, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Database Locator Identification Number: p363564
File Size: 0.968 Megabytes

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