The tax record of 1773 for Louisa County, Virginia first shows Thomas Gooch as a resident of St. Martin's Parish. He is identified as the oversser for Cornelius Dabney; a wealthy Tidewaters Virginia planter. Thomas serves as overseer until 1778 when he removes to Trinity Parish in Louisa and is taxed upon his two slaves York and Dinah; however, he is not taxed on land. In that same year, a James Gooch purchases land in Trinity Parish, suggesting the two may have been kinsmen and jointly farmed the land owned by James. James' name never appears on subsequent tax records suggesting he was too old to pay a poll tax or that he was not a resident of Louisa, though he should have been taxed upon the land he purchased in 1778.
Other than these early records in Louisa, little else is found to clearly identify Thomas Gooch. During the same time period in Louisa there was a Thomas Gooch who has been identified as the husband of Lucy Higgs (or Higgins). The Higgs family is well documented and it is probable that Thomas Gooch of the 1770s Louisa tax list is the same man who married Lucy Higgs.
Thomas Gooch, who came to Louisa county in 1773 as the overseer for Cornelius Dabneys land, is believed to be the same man who died about 1803 leaving probate records. Those records are found in the form of a chancery suit to divide his land in Louisa and establish his family [re: Louisa Order Book 1808-10, pg.457-8]. It is said that Thomas was married to Lucy Higgs or Higgens; I have not seen proof of her maiden name. A Williams Higgins purchased land in St. Margaretıs Parish, Caroline County in 1723 along Maple Swamp and then along the South Fork of South River in 1725. The will of William Higgins in proved in 1747 by Elizabeth and William Higgins Jr.
The names of Thomas' children suggest kinship to Rowland Gooch of Louisa, John Gooch of Caroline, and Stephen Gooch of Louisa. Among Thomas Goochıs children is a Gideon Gooch, but little is known of him or his descendants. Some researchers have confused Thomas' son Gideon with the son of Rowland Gooch of Louisa; who married Rosa Settle and died childless. Thomas & Lucyıs son Gideon may be the man who turns up in the papers of President James Madison, apparently serving as an overseer for his estate in Albemarle County, Virginia; however, conclusive evidence of this has not been proven. It is interesting to note that in the names his eldest son Pleasant Overton Gooch and thus again Rowland Gooch's family, his grandson Dabney Gooch (1786-1859) naming patterns suggests a link between Thomas and Rowland.
The primary informant on this family is researcher Randolph C. Thompson of Fairfax Station, Virginia. I have not done any research on this line. The children of Thomas Gooch and his wife Lucy are as follows:
İ 1999 mahard@jps.net