University of Virginia Library

GOOCH.

William Gooch, written in the early records Gouge, came to
the county from Hanover. In 1751 he bought land from John
Graves in the Everettsville neighborhood, which nine years
after he sold to Benjamin Sneed, and it is believed, removed
to Amherst. Another William, who, from being denominated
Junior, is presumed to be his son, purchased land on the
south fork of Hardware in 1764, but in 1770 began buying in
the Ragged Mountains south of Ivy Depot, and in that vicinity
fixed his residence. His dwelling stood where his son Dabney
afterwards lived, and where still later W. O. English
taught school. He died in 1796. He and his wife Lucy had
ten children, Matthew, Philip, Dabney C., Nicholas L., William,

Thomas W., Elizabeth, the wife of Nathan Dedman,
Martha, the wife of William Thurmond, Susan, and Mary,
the wife of William Moore. Matthew, who was admitted to
the Albemarle bar in 1796, and Nicholas removed to Kentucky.
Philip removed to Amherst, and to him his father transferred
the land which he first bought on the Ragged Mountains, and
which somehow acquired the name of Little Egypt, included
the present reservoir, and was sold by his son Claiborne to
the Houchens and Mayo families that still live on it. Claiborne
Gooch removed to Richmond, became Adjutant General
of the State, and was associated with Thomas Ritchie in
publishing the Richmond Enquirer.

Dabney married Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. William Irvin,
of the South Garden, and had a daughter Mary, the wife of
her cousin, Dr. William F. Gooch. He died in 1844.
Thomas W. married Nancy, another daughter of Mr. Irvin,
and for many years kept a tavern at the D. S. He died in
1838. His children were Alonzo, Edwin, Meade, Angelina
and Elizabeth, the wife of John Fray Jr. Alonzo was for
some years a merchant in Charlottesville, and a magistrate
of the county, and lived on the lot west of the Episcopal
Church, now occupied by Capt. H. Robertson. His wife
was a daughter of B. F. Porter, of Orange, and died in 1897
in Bluefield, W. Va.

Dr. William F. Gooch was a grandson of William Jr., and
came to Charlottesville from Amherst about 1823. The next
year he married his cousin Mary, the only child of Dabney C.
For many years he practised his profession actively both in
town and country. His town residence was the house now
occupied by James F. Burnley on High Street. He was
appointed a magistrate in 1843. Not long before the war
he removed to his farm south of Ivy, where he died at an
advanced age in 1881. He had two daughters, Maria, the
wife of Paul H. Goodloe, and Elizabeth, the wife of W. O.
English.

Another person bearing the name of Gooch belonged to
the county in former times. He married Sarah, daughter of
David Wood, and sister of the elder Drury. He had four

sons and five daughters. Two of the sons, John and Roland,
appear to have owned land on Rough Run, a branch of
Moorman's River. They all removed to Lincoln County,
Kentucky, probably in the closing years of the last century.