The Family of John and Ann Gaulding

The Descendants of John and Ann Gaulding of New Kent County, Virginia

For full lineage details, see: Outline Descendant Report: Family of John Gaulding and Ann of New Kent (Gaulding Origins)

The Gaulding family story in colonial Virginia begins with John Gaulding, an English-born indentured servant who rose to the status of free man and small landholder in St. Peter’s Parish, New Kent County. With his wife Ann, he established the earliest documented Gaulding line in America. Their presence is preserved primarily through the St. Peter’s Parish Register, one of the few surviving records from a county devastated by courthouse fires and record loss. These entries anchor the family in New Kent during the early 1700s and provide the framework for reconstructing their children’s lives.

John and Ann had a large family, but the surviving evidence reveals a stark contrast between the destinies of their sons and daughters. Their daughters—Anne, Honour, Sarah, Martha, and Elizabeth—appear in the parish register through baptismal entries, yet no later records survive for any of them. The absence of marriage, land, or probate references strongly suggests that all the daughters died young, victims of the high childhood mortality that characterized Tidewater Virginia. Their brief appearances in the register are the only traces of their short lives, a poignant reminder of the fragility of early colonial families.

The sons, however, survived to adulthood and carried the Gaulding name into the next generations. John “Matthew” Gaulding, the eldest, was born in New Kent and later migrated westward into Hanover, Goochland, Amelia, and ultimately Prince Edward County, where he established a substantial line of descendants. Alexander Gaulding, born in 1717 and baptized in St. Peter’s Parish, followed a similar path into the Piedmont. He died in Prince Edward County in 1752, leaving two minor children whose guardianship records confirm his identity and placement within the family.

The youngest son, Samuel Gaulding, was born about 1732 and appears in one of the most revealing records connected to the family. In October 1742, at roughly ten years old, Samuel was apprenticed by the churchwardens of St. James Northam Parish in Goochland County to Thomas Edwards, a carpenter. The court described him as an “orphan boy,” indicating that his father, John, had died by that date and that no family member was able—or permitted—to assume responsibility for him. Samuel later moved into Amelia and Prince Edward Counties, where he married and raised a family, becoming the ancestor of many modern Gaulding, Gaulden, and Gouldin descendants.

Together, the three sons—John “Matthew,” Alexander, and Samuel—formed the foundation of the American Gaulding line. Their westward movement from New Kent into the Piedmont mirrors the broader migration of Virginia families seeking land and opportunity. The daughters, though their lives were brief, remain an essential part of the family’s earliest chapter, preserved only through the fragile parish entries that survived. Through careful reconstruction using parish registers, court orders, and county histories, the family of John and Ann Gaulding emerges as a foundational Virginia lineage—one shaped by hardship, migration, and the enduring legacy carried forward by their sons.

Read more about the Family of John and Ann Gaulding of New Kent on Gaulding Origins

Descendant Report: Family of John Gaulding and Ann of New Kent

The Sons of John and Ann Gaulding: The Founders of the American Gaulding Line

The Daughters of John and Ann Gaulding of New Kent, Virginia

Honour Gaulding, the daughter of John Gaulding and Ann

Anne Gaulding, the daughter of John Gaulding and Ann