Samuel Goodman Sr., of Louisa and Hanover County, Virginia

ca 1701-1783

See his profile, with sources,  notes and Memories on FamilySearch.

Samuel Goodman (Source: Ancestry of Janie Blackwell Hughes 1879-1968, PG 89-93. Copy in the Library of Virginia in Richmond, and LDS Library in Salt Lake.) was christened 27 April 1701 in St Peter’s Paris, New Kent Co, VA (Source: Register of St. Peter’s Parish New Kent County VA 1684-1786.), and died before 1782, probably in Beaverdam, Hanover County, VA (Source: Louisa Co. DB G. p. 91. Son Timothy, sold land as directed by his father’s Will.). The children shown in Samuel Goodman Sr’s  profile have been identified by various sources, including Timothy Goodman’s later will, and other land transactions and wills of those children. His wife’s name is currently unknown. Her name does not appear in any surviving records, most of which are in Louisa County.

Samuel Goodman had extensive lands that straddled Hanover and Louisa Counties in British Colonial Virginia, much of which was inherited from his father, Benjamin Goodman, as shown in Benjamin Goodman’s will of 1735, and more of which he purchased later. He owned land in Hanover Co. on June 4, 1734. (Wm. and Mary Quarterly, 1 st ser., vol. 21, p. 52.). He bought land in Louisa Co. on Sept. 5. 1745 (Louisa Co. DB A. p. 200) and on July 20, 1746 (Louisa Co. DB A. p. 241), but he evidently never lived there, as all Louisa County records refer to him as a “Planter of Hanover County”. Some of his lands were processioned in St Paul’s Parish until about 1736, and there seems to have also been lands in St Martins Parish about the same time. He subsequently, in 1750, gifted some of those lands, on the Little River in St Martins Parish, to his sons Samuel and Benjamin.

On January 5 1744 (1745 New Style), Samuel Goodman of St Martin’s Parish, Hanover County, sold to Benjamin Dumas of same, one acre of land with mill and houses on the northerly side of the Little River, for L25 current money. (Deed Book A, 1742-1754, Louisa County, Virginia, pp. 175 at bottom of page – 176). This land and mill were later sold by Benjamin Dumas to Robert Goodwin. This land, mill and its mill pond is currently known as “Swift’s Mill”, and is located on the north side of the mill pond, just west of Buckner Road in Louisa County, where it crosses the Little River, at N37.94375° W77.80277°. See: Topo Map.

Mill and Pond, about 2009

Samuel Goodman Sr (or “The Elder”) was probably married about 1726, as two of his sons, Samuel Goodman, Jr., and Benjamin Lewis Goodman b. ca. 1732, were old enough on 23 October 1750 for their father to deed them 150 ac. each, as recorded in Louisa Co. (Louisa Co. DB A p. 403). Samuel gave each of his sons 150 ac of his lands on the Little River, which was around the Hanover / Louisa County border, and the Goodman lands straddled the two counties. Son Benjamin Lewis Goodman sold his 150 ac. and plantation on the Little River, the same land as gifted to him by his father, on 23 Oct 1754 for £140. His then wife Maria Goodman was a party to the transaction. Under her maiden Williams name, she had witnessed a Power of Attorney on 2 May 1752, along with her father, Daniel Williams, her mother Ursula Henderson Williams, and brother Henry Williams. Therefore, Benjamin Lewis Goodman and Maria Williams must have married ca. 1753.

On Sept. 14, 1767, a Samuel Goodman purchased more land in Louisa County. He was living in Hanover, VA on 27 August 1768, when he wrote a Deed of gift of slaves to his grandchildren, children of his daughter Mary Hill, believed to be the wife of Samuel Hill. Samuel Goodman may have been living with and under the care of his daughter Mary and her family from that date until he died. Samuel Goodman and brothers Samuel, David and James Hill had at l;east two several land transactions with each other, one of them identifying them as sons of John Hill, Dec’d.

His son Samuel Goodman who is sometimes referred to in deeds and court records as Samuel Goodman Jr, or “The younger”. Some of the deeds recorded in Louisa County in the 1770s and early 1780s may be his.

Two of his sons who had remained in Louisa County, Joseph Goodman and Timothy Goodman, were the executors of his will, and from 1785 to 1788, they filed several claims for debts owned to their father. On June 20, 1791, Timothy Goodman, who appears to have been only surviving executor of his father at that time, sold (belatedly) what appears to be the tract of land Samuel had purchased in September of 1767, as directed by Samuel’s last will and testament, as recorded in the 1791 deed recorded in the County Court of Hanover Co. (Louisa Co. DB G. p. 91.) It is unfortunate that this deed fails to give the date on which the will of Samuel Goodman was recorded in Hanover Co., and that it is not among the fragmentary surviving Hanover County records.

Samuel Goodman probably was dead by 1782, as he is not listed in the 1782 Virginia census that was used to reconstruct the destroyed 1790 US Census. We know that he was dead before August 3, 1784, as he is identified as “deceased” in a deed of that date by his grandson Mordecai Hill. (Wm. and Mary Quart., 1 ser. Vol. 22, p. 121.)

There are no known sources that establish that this Samuel Goodman ever married an Elizabeth Horsley, as some old and yet to be corrected Ancestry trees show. Wherever this tidbit came from, it is highly suspect, and needs specific sources to be believed. Elizabeth Horsley, ca 1744-1802, daughter of Roland Horsley, actually married Charles Goodman, who was a son of this Samuel Goodman, before July 1761, in Albemarle County, VA.