Samuel Goss & Elizabeth Martin were married in 1785 in the Anglican Cathedral in St. John’s. They are the earliest of the Torbay Gosses that we can connect in an unbroken line from their time to the present generation. They were not, however, the first Gosses in Newfoundland. The earliest documented references we have found to Gosses on the island go back to the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th. In the period 1699-1708 there were five Gosses in the St. John’s area -- Giles, Mark & Thomas reported to be brothers from Teignmouth in Devon and James and John. Most likely these men had been involved in the annual migratory fishery before they came to stay. It seems likely that they were the first Gosses to come to settle on the island.These were very chaotic times in Newfoundland. During most of the years between 1690 and 1713 France and England were at war. The French had establihed a fortified base at Placentia from which they repeatedly attacked the English settlements. As a result of these conditions the population dropped off sharply. Many of those who came from England stayed for awhile and then returned home, or moved on to the mainland colonies in New England. We do not know if any of the five Gosses remained in Newfoundland and became permanent settlers.

The first Goss we know about in Torbay was Stephen Goss. In 1755, when he was living in Salcombe in Devon, he made a deposition in connection with a legal dispute about the ownership of a “plantation” in Torbay. In this deposition he stated that 41 or 42 years before (1713 or 1714) he had been a “servant in the house with Samuel Blanks of Torbay”. We do not know what brought Stephen to Torbay in the first place. Maybe just the work. Or, possibly there were already other Gosses living there. In any event it seems clear that ultimately he returned to England.

In 1733-34 there is a record of Samuel Goss who was killed in an affray in Torbay by a man named William Blackmore. Blackmore was charged with murder but at that time there were no courts in Newfoundland authorized to try capital cases. Such cases had to be tried in England. This was done and the trial was held in Exeter, the county seat of Devon, at the Lent Assizes in 1734. Blackmore pleaded not guilty and was acquitted. The Gaol Book for the period in Exeter recites these facts but it is the only court record from this time that has survived. This incident is reported in two of the 19th century histories of Newfoundland because it had some historical significance in pointing up the inadequacies of the court system in Newfoundland and ultimately helped to bring about improvements. Next we find the first extensive record of a Goss family. Solomon Goss of Torbay and his wife Jane produced seven children between 1756 and 1776 and adopted an eighth. All were baptised in the Anglican Cathedral in St. John’s (there were no churches in Torbay at that time). Solomon was still living in 1794-95 when a census was made of St. John’s and nearby towns (including Torbay). Solomon is listed and from this census we know that he was born in Newfoundland. Given the baptismal date of his first child we have assigned to Solomon a birthdate of circa 1730.

At first glance it appears thar Samuel who married Elizabeth Martin would be a child of Solomon & Jane since there were no other Goss families in Torbay that we know about at this time. However, there is no Samuel recorded as one of their children. But, even if we allow that there may be another child of Solomon & Jane not recorded, or the record lost, there is still another problem. In the marriage of Samuel & Elizabeth one of the witnesses was another Samuel Goss. So, we have two Samuels to account for rather than one. In trying to puzzle this out we have come to believe that it was apparently not uncommon for a father to serve as witness at his son’s marriage in Newfoundland at that time. Based on that assumption we have tentatively concluded that Samuel, the witness, was the father of Samuel the bridegroom. We have then assigned a tentative birthdate of circa 1730 to Samuel the witness.

Based on this latter assumption one could suppose that Solomon who married Jane and Samuel the witness, both with birthdates of circa 1730, were brothers. One could also suppose that Samuel who was killed in the affray in 1733 was the father of these two brothers. Further supposition could lead one to speculate that one of the five Gosses in the St. John’s area in 1699-1708 could have been the father of Samuel who was killed in the affray. These are, however, suppositions and we cannot prove them based on the records that have been found to date. Nevertheless it does seem likely that Samuel Goss who married Elizabeth Martin was connected with some of these earlier Gosses. We do know, again from the 1794-95 census, that Samuel was born in Newfoundland and so we know that his parents were on the island when he was born which we estimate, from the date of his marriage, to be circa 1760.

A few words about the spelling of the Goss(e) name in Torbay and St. John’s may be useful. In all the Torbay and St. John's records during the 18th century, and most of the 19th, the name is nearly always spelled Goss. In the 1870’s the Torbay church records begin recording the name as Gosse and from then on nearly all Torbay records are in that form. We have not found any documentation to explain this change. As best we can tell, it appears that the priest in Torbay decided that Gosse was the correct, or preferred, spelling, that he started to record the records that way, and the change stuck. In St. John’s the name continued to be spelled Goss until the early 1920’s when they, too, changed to Gosse.

Contemporary useage in both England and the United States is mostly Goss but in Newfoundland Gosse remains the prevalent form.

Edwin Goss