Elizabeth Turner & the Gaulding Family: Origins, Myths, and Documentary Evidence

The identity of Elizabeth Turner, wife of Samuel Gaulding of Goochland and later Campbell County, has long been clouded by family lore, repeated myths, and incorrect genealogical assumptions. Careful analysis of surviving records—wills, parish boundaries, land clusters, and marriage practices—reveals a far clearer and more historically grounded picture of who Elizabeth was, who she was not, and how her family fit into the Gaulding lineage.

One persistent myth claims that Elizabeth descended from the Brashear (Brashears) family of Maryland and Kentucky. This story circulated widely in unsourced online trees, but it has no basis in fact. The Brashear family left extensive records—land deeds, wills, and migration trails—and none contain a daughter named Elizabeth who married a Gaulding. Likewise, no Gaulding record ever connects Samuel’s wife to the Brashears by land, proximity, guardianship, or legal action. The absence of any such link in the surviving documentary record firmly establishes that Elizabeth Turner was not related to the Brashear family.

A second widespread myth asserts that Elizabeth descended from “three Turner brothers from Cornwall” who supposedly immigrated to Virginia and founded the Turner line. This story, too, collapses under scrutiny. No immigration record, parish register, land patent, or probate file supports the existence of such brothers, nor does any Turner family in colonial Virginia trace its origins to Cornwall. Instead, the Turners associated with the Gauldings were long‑established Virginians living in Goochland County, appearing in parish records, tithables, and land transactions decades before Samuel and Elizabeth married. The evidence places Elizabeth squarely within the Goochland Turner families, not an imported English lineage.

The most reliable document connecting Elizabeth to her family is the 1785 will of Samuel Gaulding, which names their children and anchors the family in the Goochland–Campbell migration corridor. Samuel’s will identifies the following children: William Turner Gaulding, Archibald Gaulding, Anne Gaulding, Elizabeth Gaulding, Martha “Patty” Gaulding, Kesiah Gaulding, and Lucy Gaulding. These names match the cluster of Gaulding families appearing in Goochland and later Campbell County records, confirming the family structure and providing a stable foundation for descendant research.

Frontier marriage practices also help explain gaps and inconsistencies in the Turner–Gaulding documentation. In rural Virginia, couples often postponed formal marriage ceremonies until a minister was available, meaning that bonds, consents, or later church entries may not reflect the actual date of union. The couple's first two children were born in King William County before their parents were formally married. Such delays were normal on the frontier and do not indicate unusual circumstances.

Taken together, the evidence paints a coherent portrait: Elizabeth Turner was a Goochland County Virginian, not a Brashear descendant and not part of a mythical Cornwall immigration story. Her identity is grounded in the real, documented Turner families of St. James Northam Parish, and her life is preserved through the will of her husband, the marriages of her children, and the migration patterns of the Gaulding family. By separating myth from record, the true story of Elizabeth Turner emerges—rooted in Virginia’s frontier, connected to its early families, and essential to understanding the origins of the Gaulding line.

Read more about Elizabeth Turner, the wife of Samuel Gaulding on Gaulding Origins

Elizabeth Turner who married Samuel Gaulding was not related to the Brashear Family "

The story about the three Turner brothers from Cornwall is a myth

The Will of Samuel Gaulding gives the names of his children