Robert Goodman Emmigrant

Of England, Jamesown and York County

On FamilySearch.org: Robert Goodman

Robert Goodman, born ca. 1600 in England or Wales, possible ancestor of the Goodmans of New Kent / Hanover, VA. Needs more research. See following.

Young Robert Goodman was very excited. He was the first of his family to take on the adventure of living in the new Virginia Colony. At age 19, his elder brothers had already inherited the family property in England, so he was left with few choices for social and financial advancement there. As he left the port of London on the 190 ton “Bona Nova” on August of 1619, and as a single man, he had no idea that he would later found a large and prosperous family dynasty in the new world. Captain John Huddleston, Master of the Bona Nova, had already made one trip to Virginia in 1618. He probably tempered his passenger’s excitement with a dose of reality: “Virginia is a wild and unsettled place. All should plan on hard physical work and dangers from the savages, weather and vicious insects.” The 120 colonist passengers would find the truth of that soon enough. The Bona Nova arrived in Virginia, probably at Jamestown, and discharged her passengers in November of 1619, just before a harsh winter that many did not survive.
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On his arrival in Virginia, Robert rented a land parcel in Elizabeth City, where he is listed on the Quit Rents Roll of The Virginia Company in 1624 as “Robart Goodman”. He was age 24 in that year, a free man in the muster of John Ward. He is also listed in the book “Original Lists of Persons of Quality 1600-1700“. Elizabeth City (formed 1634), now part of the independent city of Hampton, is at the tip of the peninsula between the James and York Rivers. This Robert Goodman is again mentioned in a list of land holders in 1637, by which time the Virginia Company had been dissolved and taken over by the Crown. He was probably the same Robert Goodman, then of York County, which is adjacent to and just north of Elizabeth City, who was owed a debt by Richard Wyate (sic: Wyatt) in a 1646 York County court record.

Nothing more for certain is known about Robert Goodman and his family, since the records of New Kent and Hanover Counties were lost in courthouse fires. However, from the known surviving records of York County, parent of New Kent and Hanover, it seems that he prospered and became a landowner. Assuming he married, he and his wife probably had several children, and males among them. Based on his age and single status in 1624, he did not marry until at least 1625, and children would probably have been born between 1626 and 1640.

In 1695, in the estate of Capt. John Goodman of York County, VA, two slaves were valued at 60 pounds sterling together (Records of York County, vol. 1694-1702, p. 410, VA State Library). Since this John Goodman is not listed as an emigrant, he was probably the son or grandson of one of the earlier prominent Goodmans of York County, possibly the Robert Goodman who came in 1619, and possibly born ca 1626-1640. This estate record indicates that we need to further research all available and surviving York County records, and those of James City, King William, King and Queen counties as well.

In the Vestry book of Blisland (Blissland) Parish, New Kent and James City Counties, Virginia, 1721-1786 by Chamberlayne, C. G. (Churchill Gibson), 1876-1939, there is a 1775 map of early Eastern Virginia, including New Kent and adjoining counties. This map includes some family names and locations of their lands. In Gloucester, on the border of James City and Gloucester counties, at the confluence of the Pamunkey and Mattaponi Rivers, where the York River begins, there is name that appears to me to be Goodman. This river confluence area was, in the middle 1600s, all part of York County.

See more about the applicable Colonial Virginia Counties: York and New Kent Counties in Virginia