Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/87

 COLONIAL PRESIDENTS AND GO\"ERNORS

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enterprising German and Scotch- Irish settlers. Norfolk was chartered a town, and i'rcder- icksburg, Winchester, Richmond and Peters- burg were founded. The first newspaper in the colony, the \'irginia Gazette, was published in Williamsburg in 1736. The boundary line i)etwe(.ii \'irginia and North Carolina was run. In 1740. on account of the unexpected death of Major-("ieneral Alexander Spots- wood, Ciovernor Gooch assumed command of the four colonial battalions transported to join the Pritish troops under Admiral \'ernon in an attack on Carthagena in New Granada. He was absent one year, during which time Rev. Dr. James P.lair. president of the college, acted as governor. The campaign proved un- successful, Gooch was severely wounded, and contracted the fever from which many of the English troops died. Upon his return to \'ir- ginia in July. 1741. he resumed the govern- ment of the colony, and among other events which followed, the capitol accidentally caught on fire and was burned in 1746. On June 20. 1749. he embarked for England, to the great sorrow of all the people of his colony to whom he had endeared himself by his noble and dis- interested conduct. He died in London, De- cember 17. 1 75 1. Giovernor (iooch was created a baronet November 4, 1746. His wife was Rebecca, daughter of William Stanton, Esq., of Hampshire. England. He had an only son, William Gooch. v,ho died in Virginia. His wife survived him till 1775, and in her will left a beautiful silver gilt communion service to the college chapel. This memorial of this excellent woman, who was once the first lady of \'irginia, is still preserved in Bruton Church in Williamsburg.

The family of the Gooch name in X'irginia are descended from Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Gooch, who was living in York county in

i56, and was an adherent of Nathaniel Paeon, Jr., in 1676. Pie was probably a member of Governor Gooch's familv.

Keppel, William Anne, second Earl of Albemarle and titular gxivernor of Virginia from the death of George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney, 1737, to his own death in 1754, son of Arnold Joost \'an Keppel. first earl, and his wife Geertruid Johanna Ouirina vander Duyn, was born at Whitehall, June 5, 1702; was baptized at the Chapel Royal, Queen Anne being his godmother, (hence his name Anne) ; was educated in Holland and on his return to England (as \'iscount Pury) was appointed August 25, 1717. captain and lieutenant of the grenadier company of the Coldstream Guards. In 1718 he succeeded to his father's title and estates, and in 1722, at his family seat in ( luelderland, entertained the Bishop of Munster. In 1725 he was made Knight of the r>ath : in 1727 aide-de-camp to the king; and November 22, 173 1. was appointed to the col- onecy of the 29th Foot, then at (libraltar. which he held until May 7, 1733, when he was appointed colonel of the third troop of Horse Guards. He was made governor of X'irginia in 1737. a brigadier-general July, 1/39' major-general February, 1742, and was transferred to the colonelcy of the Coldstream Guards in October, 1744. He went to Flanders with Lord Stair in 1742, and was a general on the staff at Dettingen. where he had a horse shot under him, and at Fontenoy, where he was wounded. He commanded the first line of Cumberland's army at Culloden, and was again on the staff in Flanders and present at the battle of Val. At the peace of 1748 he was sent as ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at Paris, and was appointed commander-in-chief in North Britain, and in