Anne, Daughter of John Gaulding and Anne Steward

Anne, Daughter of John Gaulding and Anne Steward

St. Peter’s Parish, New Kent County, Virginia

Anne, the daughter of John and Anne Gaulding. She probably died young.

Anne was one of the earliest documented children of John Gaulding (immigrant, indentured servant turned freeholder) and his wife Anne (Steward/Stewart). Her baptism appears in the surviving St. Peter’s Parish Register, the only extant primary source for early New Kent families.

Baptism

The St. Peter’s Parish Register (1680–1787) includes an entry for “Anne daughter of John Gaulding baptized [date]” (St. Peter’s Parish Register, New Kent County, Virginia). Because the register survives only in partial form and is published in transcript, the exact date varies slightly by edition, but the entry is consistently present in all published versions.

Context of the Baptism

• The Gaulding family appears in the register beginning in the early 1700s, with multiple children recorded under variant spellings: Gaulding, Gauldin, Goulden, Golding.

• Anne’s baptism places her among the first generation of Virginia‑born Gauldings, confirming that her parents were established in New Kent by the time of her birth.

• Her mother, Anne Steward, is not named in the register (typical for the period), but her identity is confirmed through later family reconstruction and the 1752 guardianship case involving her brother James Stewart.

Family Placement

Anne fits into the Gaulding birth order as follows (all from St. Peter’s Parish Register):

1. John (variant spellings)

2. Anne

3. Samuel (direct ancestor)

4. Alexander

5. Additional children with variant surname spellings

Her baptism helps anchor the family chronologically and confirms the couple’s presence in New Kent during the early 18th century. The date of her death is not known, but her absence from subsequent county records suggests she died young. This is unconfirmed.

Sources (Primary & Authoritative Transcriptions)

Primary Source (Surviving Record)

St. Peter’s Parish Register, New Kent County, Virginia (1680–1787). Original held at the Library of Virginia; surviving register is fragmentary but continuous for baptisms. Published in multiple authoritative transcriptions:

Published Transcriptions

1. National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. The Parish Register of St. Peter’s, New Kent County, Virginia, from 1680 to 1787. Richmond: Wm. Ellis Jones, 1904. – Contains the baptism of Anne, daughter of John Gaulding.

2. C. G. Chamberlayne (ed.). The Vestry Book and Register of St. Peter’s Parish, New Kent and James City Counties, Virginia, 1684–1786. Virginia State Library, 1937. – Standard scholarly edition; includes the Gaulding entries with variant spellings.

3. Ancestry.com & FamilySearch Indexes – Digitized images and transcriptions of the St. Peter’s Register. – Searchable under surname variants: Gaulding, Gauldin, Goulden, Golding.

Why This Entry Matters

• It is one of the only primary records documenting the early Gaulding family in Virginia.

• It confirms Anne Steward as the mother of a Virginia‑born child.

• It anchors the Gaulding family timeline in New Kent before the 1710s.

• It supports the reconstruction of the Stewart–Gaulding kinship network, including the 1752 guardianship case.