GOSS.
The first known settlement of the Goss family was in that
part of Albemarle, which in its division in 1761 was erected
into Buckingham. A James Goss was witness to a deed,
conveying land on a branch of Slate River, in 1749. The
head of the family now living in the county was Benjamin,
who with a large household emigrated to Georgia. In process
of time two of his sons, Jesse and John, returned to
Virginia.
John soon became a teacher in the family of Governor James
Barbour. He married Jane, daughter of James Walker, of
Madison, and for a time had his residence in that county.
He, as well as Jesse, entered the ministry of the Baptist
Church. In 1803 he settled in Albemarle in the Priddy's
Creek neighborhood, where he passed the remainder of his
days, preaching for the most part to the church of that
name. In 1816 he was appointed a magistrate. His death
occurred in 1838, at the age of sixty-three. His children
were Harriet, Sarah, the wife of Nimrod Bramham Jr., James
W., John W., William, and Ebenezer, who died some years
ago near Somerset in Orange.
James, when a young man, was engaged in the drug business
on the public square in Charlottesville, in partnership
with John Field Jr. In 1836 he took a leading part in establishing
the Disciples' Church on Market Street, becoming a
minister in that denomination, and publishing for a short
period one of its organs, the Christian Intelligencer. He
was appointed a magistrate in 1841. He was afterwards
successfully employed in educational work, founding the
Piedmont Female Academy near Priddy's Creek, and at the
time of his death in 1870, filling the presidency of a similar
institution in Hopkinsville, Ky. His wife was Jane A.
Grigsby, of Rockbridge county.
John was in early life a merchant in Charlottesville in
partnership with Christopher Hornsey. He married Polydora,
daughter of Major John Lewis, of the Sweet Springs,
and sister of Mrs. John Cochran. In 1838 he succeeded his
father as a magistrate, and in 1854 and 1855 represented the
county in the Legislature. Since the war he occupied the
offices both of Sheriff and County Clerk. He died in 1883,
aged sixty-eight.
