Thomas Christopher Gowen

http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Gibson_Gowen.htm [BROKEN LINK]

5. Thomas1 Gowen (Michael1), born say 1660, was living in Westmoreland County between 1693 and 1702 when he was involved in several minor court cases, both as defendant and plaintiff, for debts. In 1703 he provided security of 2,000 pounds of tobacco for Chapman Dark that he would return to the county after travelling to Maryland to get testimony that he was a free man. On 1 March 1704/5 the court ordered him to pay Edward Barrow 1,200 pounds of tobacco which Thomas lost to him in a horse race [Orders 1690-98, 90, 244a, 250a; 1698-1705, 33, 39a, 56a, 109, 174, 190a, 190, 238a, 254a]. He was called Thomas Goin of Westmoreland County on 8 June 1707 when he was granted 653 acres in Stafford County below the falls of the Potomac River. This land was adjoining Robert Alexander's land according to a 29 May 1739 Prince William County deed [Gray, Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants, 39, 125]. In an 8 May 1767 land dispute a seventy-year-old deponent, Charles Griffith, related a conversation which he had with Major Robert Alexander forty-three years previously in 1724. Major Robert Alexander, who owned land adjoining the Gowens, supposedly said of them,

he had a great mind to turn the Molatto rascals (who were then his tenants) of[f] his land.

Griffith further stated that he was at a Race in the same year where the Goings were (who then had running horses) and that the old people were talking about the Goings taking up Alexanders land and selling it to Thomas and Todd which land the old people then said was in Alexanders back line or at least the greatest part of it ... and if it were not for the Alexanders land ... the Goings would not be so lavish of their money of which they seemed to have plenty at that time ... [Sparacio, Land Records of Long Standing, Fairfax County, 89].

"Thomas and Todd," mentioned in the abstract, owned 1,215 acres in Stafford County on Four Mile Creek adjoining Robert Alexander on 3 August 1719 which was land formerly surveyed for Thomas, John, William, and James Goins [Gray, Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants, 69]. Later in his testimony Griffith mentioned conversations with Thomas and James Gowen. Thomas' children may have been

1. 9 i. William2, born say 1680.
2. 10 ii. James1, born say 1683.
3. iii. Peter Goeing, born say 1690, granted 187 acres in King George and Stafford counties adjoining Alexander Clements and Shrines' land on 7 October 1724, but the deed was canceled and the land granted to John Mercer [Northern Neck Grants A:86].

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Thomas Going was born about 1650, in Maryland, British Colonial America. He married Unknown MNU in 1678, in Stafford Courthouse, Stafford, Virginia, United States. They were the parents of at least 4 sons. He died after 1729, in Stafford, Virginia, British Colonial America, at the age of 80.

Records show that Thomas Gowen was living in Maryland in 1671. He does not show up in records in Westmoreland County, Virginia until 1693. He must have met and married his spouse (name unknown) in Talbot County, Maryland.

Thomas Going is first noted in 1671 in Talbot County, Maryland along with Esau Goeing in 1672 (with Esau's wife Ann). In 1693 both Esau Going and Thomas Going show up in Westmoreland County, Virginia records - both in cases involving an Abraham Smith.

There are NO will records naming ANY "Thomas Going" in Virginia in the 1650s.

http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Gibson_Gowen.htm

4. Christopher1 Gowen (Michael1), born say 1658, may have been named for Christopher Stafford, Michael1 Gowen's master. Christopher and his wife Anne Gowen were living in Abingdon Parish, Gloucester County, in January 1679 when their son Michael was born [Wynn, Abingdon Parish, Gloucester County, Register, 319]. Their children were

7 i. Michael2, born in January 1679.

8 ii. ?Philip2, born say 1685.

iii. ?Christopher2, purchased 150 acres on the north side of the Roanoke River in Bertie County, North Carolina, on 25 March 1728 [DB C:23].