Botetourt County was created in 1770 from Augusta County.
The County is named for Norborne Berkeley, known as LORD BOTETOURT,(1718-1770)
who was a popular governor of the Virginia Colony from 1768 to 1770, who died suddenly while in office.
Fincastle was founded in 1772 and named after the son of Lord Dunmore, or Lord Fincastle,
Virginia's last royal governor.
As the seat of Botetourt County, Fincastle was the last outpost of The Western Frontier
and was a supply station for settlers heading West.
Fincastle administered to a massive governmental district which reached the Mississippi River
and included parts of modern day Wisconsin.
Fincastle's courthouse was designed by Thomas Jefferson and today still stands as the county government functions
for a much smaller county and contains a vast archive of public records relevant to the late colonial period of Virginia & the History of Western expansion .
George Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson and other prominent Virginians either appeared in Fincastle
or sent their agents to lay claim to tracts of wilderness lands. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark departed from Fincastle
when they were commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Purchase.
A little over a year after his arrival back in Virginia, Clark married Julia Hancock of Fincastle, a cousin, on January 5, 1808.

Botetourt County is now part of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area,
and the southern parts of the county have become increasingly suburban in recent decades.
Much of the area's former farmland and orchards have been developed into residential subdivisions and businesses.

Notable native

• Mary Johnston - Novelist and women's rights activist.