Reverend Thomas Goulding of Dorchester England is described as follows in Dr. Charles H. Gaulden’s book The Gaulden, Gauldin, Gaulding Family History: A Seven Hundred Year Study, Volume 1:
“In response to the suggestion made by Dr. Sherburne Anderson that the John Gaulding of New Kent Co. was the son of Rev. Thomas Goulding, "who came from Dorchester England in the great migration of more than 1000 Puritans who helped establish Dorchester, Mass." Dr. Gaulden writes, "Rev. Thomas Goulding, son of Jacob, moved with the church from Dorchester, Mass. to Dorchester, SC which the Congregationalists (Puritans) founded ca. 1720...John Goulding was born ca. 1698 and ultimately moved with his parents to York, County, New Kent County, Virginia. John Gaulding as a young man moved to the then Amelia County (later Prince Edward in 1754) Virginia. John married Elizabeth Geers and she was the relict when John's estate was probated in Prince Edward County in 1772." (Gaulden, 1999)
The Gouldings of Dorchester are well documented but information pertaining to this specific Thomas Goulding from 1630 is somewhat scarce. Who was he and where did he come from? I found an interesting notation regarding the family of Reverend Frank R. Goulding (Smith), pastor of a Presbyterian church at Richmond Bath, an antebellum summer resort. He supposedly wrote a book called The Young Marooners, a fact which is rather inconsequential except for the declaration that he was the descendant of the Gouldings who founded Dorchester S.C. from Dorchester, Mass.
“Dr. Goulding came of good stock. The Gouldings were descended from the colony that founded Dorchester, Mass., in 1630, Dorchester, S.C., at a later date, and Dorchester, Ga., at a still later date. Dr. Thomas Goulding, his father, is said to have been the first native Georgian to become a Presbyterian preacher, and the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Columbia, S.C., was founded by this Dr. Goulding. The mother was Ann Holbrook, and came of New England stock also. Frank R. Goulding was born in Liberty County, Ga., in 1810. The first years of his life were spent on the seacoast, near Savannah, Ga., and it was during these years that he acquired the familiarity with sea birds and fishes which he afterwards used to such advantage in his great story. When he was about ten years of age, his father removed to the upcountry, and settled near Lexington, in Oglethorpe County, Ga…..In 1833 he married a Miss Howard, of Savannah..His first wife dying, he was married in 1856 to a Miss Rees, who resided near the town of Darien, Ga.; and then settled in a fine old home belonging to his wife in this locality…Robert and Frank were Dr. Goulding's sons; Mary, who showed so much courage when she scalded the bear, was his daughter; and Harold McIntosh was his wife's nephew, and his real name was Jett Howard. Dr. Gouding spent the last years of his life in Roswell, the home of Mittie Bulloch, the mother of President Roosevelt, and died in this old town, in Cobb County, Ga., in 1881.” (Gaulden, 1999)
These two men were of the family line of Peter Goulding of Sudbury, Massachusetts and Thomas Goulding has a biography in Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1600-1889, Vol II:
“Goulding, Thomas, clergyman born in Midway, Georgia 14 March 1786 and died in Columbus, Georgia 26 June 1848. He was educated at Wolcott, Conn. And studied law with Judge David Daggett in New Haven, but determined to devote himself to the ministry and was the first licentiate of the Presbyterian church in Georgia that was born in the state…His son Francis Robert Goulding, author, born in Midway, Georgia 28 September 1810 died in Roswell, Georgia 22 August 1881…” (Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1600-1889 Vol II, n.d.)
The story that Rev. Thomas Goulding of Georgia was a descendant of ‘the colony that founded Dorchester, Massachusetts” came down three generations. If this is true, what is the history of the Founding of Dorchester and is there any evidence of Rev. Thomas Goulding in those records?
There is a book called History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, published by a committee of the Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society. In Chapter 1, page 2 is recorded the following:
"The earliest recorded evidence of the presence of civilized man upon the soil of Massachusetts may be found in the oft-quoted voyage to New England in 1614 made by Captain John Smith of Virginia notoriety, a reference to which is especially appropriate to the History of Dorchester..Smith entered what is now Boston harbor in the summer of 1614 in a boat with eight men, leaving his vessels engaged in taking fish on the coast of Maine. He undoubtedly landed on the Dorchester Shore, carried on some traffic for furs with the Neponset Indians and then ran down the south shore towards Cape Cod." (Society, 1859, p. 2)
Chapter 3 of that book describes the emigration movement to Dorchester and the role that Rev. John White played. "Among the mass of emigrants who landed upon the shores of Massachusetts, from all parts of England in 1630, the first settlers of Dorchester may be regarded as the special delegation of the western counties, the home of Raleigh, Gilbert, Popham and Gorges, that region which had almost monopolized the intercourse with the northern part of the American continent from its first discovery by Cabot in 1497 until the settlement of the Bay 133 years afterwards...The Rev. John White of Dorchester emphatically the prime originator of the movement which resulted in the Massachusetts charter and the settlement of the Bay found therefore little difficulty in collecting a company among a population to whom the New England coast was not an unknown region..." (Note: He was the second son of six children of John White senior (1550-1618) by his wife Isabel Bawle (1552-1601). (Society, 1859)
Rev. John White was the organizer of the settlement of Dorchester. William "the Clergyman" Goulding of Bermuda was connected to Rev. Nathaniel White. See my page on this website called "The Story of William 'the clergyman' Goulding of Eleuthera"
"What was the real motivation behind what the Congregationalist ministers in Bermuda were trying to do? It depends on who is telling the story. Norwood, who was a member of the Church of England naturally opposed them and saw the efforts of White, Copeland and Golding as ministers who were trying to seize control. He also complained that Governor Sayle who was thought to have been a Puritan but was later accused of Royalist sympathies was too influenced and guided by them, therefore Norwood made an appeal to the new Governor for protection in a letter of March, 1642-43 "Some say our Ministers are as supreme heads under Christ of their several small churches here, and not subordinate in these days Ecclesiastical to Parliament or any other power on earth whatsoever".
The three ministers answered the challenge by renouncing their ties to the Church of England. On January 31, 1643-44, Mr. Oxenbridge not being present--
'Master Nathaniel White, Master Patrick Copeland and Master William Golding did...at a fast day by them ordained and not commanded by any authority to be held, in the Pagetts Tribe in the Summer Islands in the afternoon of the said day draw themselves together in the body of the said Church and did then and there publicly manifest and declare, that they...did lay down renounce and relinquish their Office of the Ministry in the Church of England, acknowledging themselves to be but private men, yet so as they held themselves to be a church of themselves, and to that end had entered into a covenant among themselves and would be ready to receive into their covenant such as would submit thereunto.' (Transactions, Volume 12, 1911, p. 171)
Shortly after that William Golding resolved to go to England and stopped at Boston on the way to attend the Boston lecture. He returned to Bermuda and the four ministers divided two against two, some taking sides for Independency and some for Presbyterianism. Norwood joined the Independent side. (Transactions, Volume 12, 1911, p. 172)" (Gauldin, n.d.)
History of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts continues on page 15:
"Mr. White was the rector of Trinity parish, Dorchester in Dorsetshire and though he had not renounced the episcopal form of worship at the time of the pilgrimage to Plymouth, in 1620 he sympathized strongly with that movement and actually assisted the undertaking by pecuniary aid, his name being the first on the list of adventurers in that expedition." (Note: The Reverend John White in fact, appointed Rector of the parish of Holy Trinity, Dorchester in 1606 Source: Dorset Ancestors)
White's less radical Puritanism was different from that of the new company members but he was still a respected member of the reformed company. In August of 1629 he attended a meeting where the company patent and government were transferred from London to New England but his hopes for a moderate Puritan plantation in Salem was denied by the more elements in the company, chiefly by Endicott and the separatist ministers. It was at this time that John White composed "The Planters Plea." (John White - Minister of the Great Migration, n.d.)
John White had a brother named Josias White and he also was a Minister of the Gospel. "(2.1) Rev. Josias White MA (1613-1643) baptized at Hornchurch in Essex on the 8th August 1613, his education was also committed to New Inn Hall Oxford at the age of 13 (admitted 15 Jun 1627) and he went on to obtain his BA at Magdalen Hall Oxford in 1630/1 and his MA in 1633. He was incorporated at Cambridge in 1635 and went on to obtain holy orders. He was appointed to the living of Langton Matravers on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset in 1640 taking over from the Rev. John Ball (1591-1639), undoubtedly at the behest of John White who I notice signed the Protestation Return for Langton Matravers on behalf of Josias on the 27th Feb 1641/2. Possibly he was already ill as Josias junior died and was buried at Poole on 10th December 1643. He left a Will which was also summarized by Rose Troup:-(This is the will of Josias Jr., not the Rector of Hornchurch)
(Visitation of Hampshire)
Josias White Clerk, Rector of Langton Dorset (PROB 11/193) Proved 16th May 1645 - Will dated 6th Nov 1643 Josias White Clerk of Lankton [Langton] in the Isle of Purbeck but lying sick in the town of Poole. To be buried at Poole if I shall die there without Church Service read to the Corps. To my most dear mother for her care of me, lands in Roxwell in parish of "Rittle" [now Writtle] Essex, called Thetches or Fetches, left to me by my father Josias White clerk adjoining Cookes land which my mother lately bought from my brothers John & William White. These I give her "because I know not upon what straightes her old age may be cast and my brothers being young are better able to shift for themselves . To brothers John, William and James £10 each. Executrix my mother Mrs Mary Drake now living in Yarmouth, I.W. [Isle of Wight] Overseers may said brother. Witnesses Robr Butler, barret land, George Starr, Theo Mann. Some of the deeds of the said land are in the hands of my Aunt Mrs Mary White of Dorchester. proved 15th May 1645 by the oath of Anne or Mary Drake his mother.
(2.2) John White (1615-1659/60) bap Hornchurch 31st Aug 1615, John according to the 1634 Visitation of Hampshire, married Mary the daughter of William Darby [Derby] of Dorchester who was an investor in the Dorchester Company where there is more information about him. Rose Troup thought that he was probably the John White buried in St Peters Dorchester on 8th Feb 1659/60." (Fordington, 2009, last updated 2021)
James Bacon had lands in Hornchurch which at that time was in Essex. Details on my website page entitled Descendants of James "Alderman of London" Bacon. "James Bacon, Alderman and Fishmonger of London and the children he had with his wife Mary Rawlins.
James Bacon and Mary Gardiner had a daughter Anne who married John Ryvett
A transcription of the following will comes from The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (Staff, 1903)
The will of James Bacon.... etc. Black gowns to each of the following--Thomas Bacon my brother in law and his wife, Sir Lyonell Duckett, Knight, Lord Mayor, and the Lady his wife, Lady Barbara Champion, widow, the swordbearer Sir John White and the Lady his wife, ...my son Ryvett and his wife, Thomas Bankes and his wife, Thomas Sharpe, my cousin Cockes in Lumbardstrete and his wife, Mr. John Cooper and his wife, my neighbor Pyrowe Cottie, George Lordinge, clerk of the Fishmongers, the deputies of my ward and the bedell of my warde, the Goodman Golding of Hornechurche, co. Essex and his wife, Humfrey Bawdrick and his wife, William Ashebolde, M.A., and Thomas Cattell, curate of St. Dunstan's in the East. ..my cousin Thomas Sharpe, Bartholomew Kemp and his wife, the said Sir Lyonell Duckett, Knight, Lord Mayor, and his wife, the said Sir John White and his wife and others mentioned above, Nicholas Packington and his wife, .. My farm and lands in Hornechurch, County Essex, in tenure of Edmonde James als Pynner to my son William and his heirs, remainder to my son James and his heirs, and my daughter Ryvett and her heirs. ... etc. Codicil of 5 May 1573, relating to repair of houses on Dice Key and .... etc. Proved 2 October 1573, by Anne the relict and Extrx. named. P. C. C., Peter, 28. (Gauldin, n.d.)
This will was proved in 1573, sixty years before Rev. John White orchestrated the Great Migration and the settling of Dorchester. Still the question is, who was the "Goodman Golding" of Hornechurch mentioned in the will of James Bacon?
The text above says "His great uncle Richard White (c.1508 - aft 1588) another Fellow of New College Oxford had also previously been vicar at Hornchurch." This is within the timeframe of the will of James Bacon. Was "Goodman Golding" listed in the Parish records of the church at Hornchurch?
Holy Trinity Church in Dorchester
Holy Trinity has origins as far back as the 11th Century but the present building on the site in Dorchester dates from the 19th century. Burials go back to around 1670's and there is no one named Golding or Goulding listed, making me think no one of that name was of the Parish. It is now a Catholic church.
A list of the Rectors of Holy Trinity Church from the early 16th Century are:
• William Tresham Occurs 1534.
• William Bryce pbr on the resignation of ...... instituted 13th May 1540:
• Nicholas Knewstubb instituted 1543.
• William Woodman instituted .......
• Edward Doughty, inst. 1580
• Richard Johnson, inst. 1585.
• John White, inst. 1605 See an account of John White in Fuller's Worthies, 1811, vol ii. p 233, under Oxfordshire
• Stanley Gower, rector 1650 [Rev. Stanley Gower BA (1603-1660) Notes also provided by JH have been incorporated into the account of his life - follow link]
• George Hammon, admitted 1660, ejected 1662.[George HAMMOND MA (1620-1705) Notes also provided by JH have been incorporated into the account of his life - follow link]
• John Knightsbridge, 30 June 1663 [i.e. John KNIGHTBRIDGE BD (1620-1679) - follow link for more information] (Holy Trinity Church, n.d.)
"Mr. White breathed into the enterprise a higher principle than the desire of gain. He had for some years cherished the thought of forming a community in New England where all who felt themselves aggrieved by religious or political persecution might find an asylum. This association sent several vessels into the Bay in 1624 and landed some 30 or 40 men at Cape Ann, the place selected for the settlement. This plantation was continued about two years, when misconduct among the people and great pecuniary loss to the undertakers discouraged them and Mr. Roger Conant, superintendent of the enterprise with a few of the remaining settlers, removed to Salem with the remnant of their effects in 1626. ..In the spring of 1628 we find that certain gentlemen of Dorsetshire, doubtless the friends and neighbors of Mr. White had negotiated with the Plymouth Council a purchase of the whole territory between the Merrimac and Charles Rivers. A part of these purchasers, however, soon became doubtful of the enterprise and Mr. White succeeded in enlisting the support of sundry gentlemen of influence in London - Sir Richard Saltonstall, Isaac Johnson, Matthey Cradock and others, writing to Conant, at the same time, that he had the promise of further aid from friends in Lincolnshire. The association being completed and one of the Dorchester grantees, John Endicott, consenting to embark as supervisor of the enterprise, a vessel was dispatched for New England and arrived at Salem in September 1628. On the 4th of March 1629, the Massachusetts charter, granted on the petition of this company, received the great seal and early in May followed three ships sailed from the Isle of Wight for Salem with 300 passengers accompanied by two ministers, Messrs. Higginson and Skilton, both of whom had been selected for the undertaking by Mr. White. They all arrived in safety before the end of June. Most of them came from the channel ports, and one of the ships, the "Lyon's Whelp" was entirely taken up by passengers from Weymouth and Dorchester." (Society, 1859, pp. 15-16)
"Mr. White, ever active in furthering his favorite project, immediately began to assemble a new company in the western counties. He wrote to Governor Endicott in the summer of 1629 to appoint places of habitation for 60 families out of Dorsetshire which were to arrive in the following spring. Great pains were evidently taken to construct this company of such materials as should compose a well-ordered settlement.. Two devoted ministers, Mrssrs. maverick and Warham, were selected.. Several gentlemen past middle life with adult families and good estates were added. Henry Wolcott, Thomas Ford, George Dyer, William Gaylord, William Rockwell and William Phelps were of this class. But a large portion of active, well-trained young men, either just married or without families such as Israel Stoughton, Roger Clap, George Minot, George Hall, Richard Callicott, Nathaniel Duncan and many others their age, were the persons upon whom the more severe toils of a new settlement were expected to devolve. Three persons of some military experience - viz, CAPTAIN JOHN MASON, Captain Richard Southcote and Quarter Master John Smith were selected as a suitable appendage, as forcible resistance from the Indians might render the skill and discipline which these gentlemen had acquired under de Vere in the campaign of the Palatinate, on the continent an element of safety essential to the enterprise. This company assembled at Plymouth, Devonshire where a large ship of 400 tons, the Mary and John with Captain Squeb, chartered for the voyage, was fitted out. She was destined for the Charles River, the spot doubtless pointed out for the company by Governor Endicott who had sent thither two Dorsetshire men, Ralph and Richard Sprague to explore the country the year before." (Society, 1859, pp. 17-18)
Captain John Mason was not on that ship nor were Southcote and Smith. Events in the life of Captain Mason, as I have already mentioned on the page on this website called "Captain John Mason of Connecticut" parallels many of the key events in the lives of the Golding and Goulding families as well as other allied families. John Mason went from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1632 and he settled first in Dorchester. If Dr. Sherwood Anderson's story is true, and there was someone named Rev. Thomas Goulding who went to Dorchester in 1630, he might still have been there when John Mason was the Captain, but it is equally possible that he was elsewhere because I cannot find his name recorded in any of the records. In 1633 Mason commanded the first American naval task force when he was elected to pursue the pirate, Dixie Bull. He routed him from New England waters and then he and Roger Ludlow planned and supervised the construction of the first fortifications on Castle Island, which later became known as Fort Independence. It was located in Boston Harbor. In 1634, he was elected to represent Dorchester in the Massachusetts General Court, where permission was granted for him to remove to the fertile Connecticut River valley. In 1635, he settled in Windsor, Connecticut at the confluence of the Farmington River and the Connecticut River; he lived there for the next twelve years and served as a civil Magistrate and military leader of the nascent Connecticut Colony. In 1640, he married Anne Peck, the daughter of Rev. Robert Peck and they had eight children. (Gauldin, Captain John Mason of Connecticut, 2022)
References
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1600-1889 Vol II. (n.d.). Retrieved from ancestry.com: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61360/images/47194_547525-00727?pId=14693
Fordington, C. b. (2009, last updated 2021). Rev. John White MA Patriarch of Dorchester and Founder of Massachusetts. Retrieved from opcdorset.org: http://wwww.opcdorset.org/fordingtondorset/Files/DorchesterRevJohnWhite1575-1648.html
archive.org, “Pedigrees from the visitation of Hampshire made by Thomas Benolt, Clarenceulx a 1530..” by Benolt, Thomas, d. 1534; Cooke, Robert, d. 1592; Philipot, John, 1589?-1645; Mundy, Richard; Rylands, W. Harry (William Harry), 1847-1922, https://archive.org/details/pedigreesfromvis64beno/page/230/mode/2up?q=hornchurch
Gaulden, D. C. (1999). The Gaulden, Gauldin, Gaulding Family History, A Seven Hundred Year Study, Vol 1. Self Published.
Gauldin, C. L. (2022). Captain John Mason of Connecticut. Retrieved from Gaulding Origins: https://www.gauldingorigins.com/
Gauldin, C. L. (n.d.). The Story of William the Clergyman Goulding of Eleuthera. Retrieved from https://www.gauldingorigins.com/: https://www.gauldingorigins.com/
Holy Trinity Church. (n.d.). Retrieved from opcdorset.org: https://www.opcdorset.org/fordingtondorset/Files2/HolyTrinityChurch.html
John White - Minister of the Great Migration. (n.d.). Retrieved from Dorset Ancestors: https://dorset-ancestors.com/?p=1656
Society, C. o. (1859). History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts. Boston, MA: Ebenezer Clapp, Jr. . Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofd00dorc/page/14/mode/2up
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