Goochland - What's In a Name?

Although the Richmond Symphony has the beautiful Carpenter Theatre at CenterStage to call home for most of its concerts, keeping in touch with our neighbors outside of the City of Richmond is important. One way we do this is through the Metro Collection - a series of concerts that take place in venues across the metro Richmond area.

The first concert of this year's Metro Collection series is coming up this Friday at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Goochland.

Yep, Goochland.

Now, I am not a native to Central Virginia and since moving here three years ago, I have been both fascinated and amused by this county name. To be sure, there are plenty of interesting names around the Richmond region - Chippenham Parkway, Midlothian, Powhite Parkway (pronounced pow-height or po-white? The debate rages on!), and the like. But Goochland has always struck me as the most peculiar.

So, in honor of our first Metro Collection series concert of the season, I decided to find out exactly how Goochland got its strange moniker and share it with all of you.

Turns out that the origin of this unusual name is a man: Sir William Gooch, 1st Baronet, who served as Governor of Virginia from 1727-1749. In 1727, Sir Gooch petitioned the House of Burgesses to create a new county named to honor himself - and thus Goochland was born.


Naming counties, towns - even states after oneself wasn't unusual in the Colonial period. In fact, Sir Gooch eventually married Rebecca Staunton who - you guessed it - had her own city named after her: Staunton, Virignia.

Hope to see you all in Sir Gooch's former stomping grounds this Friday, October 1 for the Metro Collection Series concert!

~Kathryn

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