The Essex County Museum and Historical Society Presents “On the Road in Essex County”

Historical Marker N-27

Gouldborough Plantation

(later Goldberry)

Located: Tidewater Trail (Rt.17) approximately 4 miles northwest of Tappahannock, near Caret.

"Just east of here was the seat of the Waring family, members of which served the colony and our fledgling nation in elected and appointed offices and as officers in the county militia and the Continental Line. Thomas Waring II (ca. 1690–1754), Burgess 1736–1754, built a mansion here in 1733. His son Francis (1717–1771), Burgess 1758–1769, was an organizer of the Sons of Liberty and a signer of the Leedstown Resolves. The house, having survived three wars, burned in the late 19th century.”

Gouldborough Plantation was a tract of land that rested on a bluff overlooking the Rappahannock River. Captain Thomas Gouldman had obtained the patent for the property in April of 1667. He was one of the founders of Tappahannock along with Bartholomew Hoskins, Thomas and Benjamin Goodrich and Harry Beverley. Gouldman’s son Francis served as a Justice for Essex in 1696 and 1700. In the early 1700’s Francis’ daughter Elizabeth married Thomas Waring. She inherited Gouldborough where they built a home and named it Goldberry. 

The Waring family from Essex County boasts a long and time honored legacy dating back to the fight for Independence and the emergence of the new nation.  Colonel Thomas Waring came from England in the mid 17th century. He served as a Burgess from Essex County. He also served as a justice and member of the vestry. 

(A Burgess was an elected or unelected member of the House of Burgesses which was the legislative body for the new Colonies. This was a carryover from old England. A vestry was an individual involved with the church. Prior to 1776, the Church of England, the only religion allowed in the colonies, established parishes. Each parish included the church with a minister and served a defined territory. It was governed by a vestry which maintained religious and civil authority. Initially the twelve members of a vestry were elected for life. Later they had to run for re-election. They were essentially responsible for upholding law and order by presenting offenders to the courts, maintaining the roads, providing for the poor and raising the taxes to pay the minister.)

Like his father, the oldest son, Colonel Francis Waring also served as a justice and a vestryman and was as a member of the legislature in Williamsburg.  Col. Francis Waring and Col. William Roane of Essex joined Thomas Ludwell Lee and Richard Henry Lee, both of Westmoreland, to rebel against the hated Stamp Act. They met at Brays Church in Westmoreland where they drafted six resolutions confirming their allegiance to England but also declaring their unhappiness with the restrictive taxes without representation. The Leedstown Resolutions were among the first of such documents.

Waring was also among the four hundred men who called themselves "The Sons of Liberty.” They demanded that Colonel Archibald Ritchie, a local merchant and supporter of the British Stamp Act, reverse his stance; which he did. Ritchie later became one of the great defenders of the new nation. The Sons of Liberty had proven to the colonists that they could organize and fight for independence.

The historical marker contains the term "Continental Line.” In the early 1770’s the State militias were loosely formed. As the 1770’s progressed they became more structured. The Continental Congress required that the colonies provide regiments that were proportional to the population: these became the State Line units. Together, the State Lines formed the Continental Line. The State Line units were developed for tactical purposes, however, to a lesser extent administrative as well, because the colonies were responsible for feeding, housing and clothing the regiment.

The Waring men served well throughout history in many capacities; one was a Colonel in the Revolutionary War. Another was a Captain in the War of 1812. Patrick Waring was appointed to explore and map the wilderness by President James Buchanan. In 1862, he also fought many battles in Robert E. Lee’s outfit. Gouldborough Plantation was a silent witness to much of that history.

The accounts of Tappahannock’s development are well documented in the writings that are available on the museum’s website http://www.essexmuseum.org or stop by the museum which is located at 218 Water Lane in Tappahannock, Virginia; the hours are from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. except Sundays and Wednesdays. 

Zorine Shirley is a volunteer Board Member and handles public relations for the Essex County Museum and Historical Society.