Editing Goochland County, Virginia (section)

===Formation of Goochland County===
Among the earliest European settlers in this area of the [[Piedmont (United States)|Piedmont]] were several hundred [[French Huguenot]] religious refugees, who were given land in 1700 and 1701 by the Crown and colonial authorities about 20 miles above the falls of the James River. They settled the villages collectively known as [[Manakin-Sabot, Virginia|Manakin-Sabot]] in this area. Soon they moved out to farms and plantations they developed. In neighboring [[Powhatan County]], to the south across the James, they settled [[Manakintown|Manakin Town]], but by 1750 had mostly moved out to farms.<ref name="neh">[http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/becomingamer/growth/text4/frenchvirginia.pdf "MANAKIN TOWN / The French Huguenot Settlement in Virginia * 1700-ca. 1750"] (includes primary sources), ''Becoming American: The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690-1763'', National Humanities Center, 2009; accessed January 11, 2019</ref>

Goochland was founded in 1728 as the first county formed from [[Henrico Shire|Henrico shire]], followed by [[Chesterfield County, Virginia|Chesterfield County]] in 1749. Goochland originally included all of the land from Tuckahoe Creek, on both sides of the [[James River (Virginia)|James River]], west as far as the [[Blue Ridge Mountains]].<ref name="GCHS" /> In its original form, Goochland contained the modern counties of Goochland, [[Powhatan County, Virginia|Powhatan]], [[Cumberland County, Virginia|Cumberland]], [[Fluvanna County, Virginia|Fluvanna]], [[Buckingham County, Virginia|Buckingham]], [[Nelson County, Virginia|Nelson]], and [[Amherst County, Virginia|Amherst]], in their entireties. In addition, the northern sections of [[Appomattox County, Virginia|Appomattox]], [[Campbell County, Virginia|Campbell]], and [[Bedford County, Virginia|Bedford]], and the southern two-thirds of [[Albemarle County, Virginia|Albemarle County]] were also within Goochland's original boundaries.   The creation of Albemarle County in 1744 and Cumberland County in 1749 removed most of Goochland's southern and western territory, reducing it to its modern size and boundaries.

The county was named for [[Sir William Gooch, 1st Baronet]],<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n138 139]}}</ref> the royal lieutenant governor from 1727 to 1749. The nominal governor, the [[Willem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle|Earl of Albemarle]], had remained in England. As acting [[List of colonial governors of Virginia|royal governor]], Gooch promoted settlement of the Virginia backcountry as a means to insulate the Virginia colony from Native American and [[New France]] settlements in the [[Ohio Country]].<ref name = "encva">"Backcountry Frontier of Colonial Virginia", ''Encyclopedia Virginia'' http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Backcountry_Frontier_of_Colonial_Virginia#start_entry Quote: "The major push toward the British occupation of the backcountry began with a series of land orders totaling close to {{convert|400,000|acres|abbr=on}} west of the Blue Ridge, issued by Lieutenant Governor William Gooch between 1730 and 1732" ..."Settlement of the valley by British subjects would secure and defend Virginia, not only in conflicts with northern and southern Indians, but also in the imperial struggles that had convulsed the Atlantic world for the previous three decades, during which New France had extended settlements and garrisons from Canada to Louisiana along the broad Ohio and Mississippi river systems."</ref>

As the colonists moved into the [[Piedmont (United States)|Piedmont]] west of Richmond, they first developed [[tobacco plantation]]s like those of the [[Tidewater Virginia|Tidewater]]. After the [[American Revolution|Revolution]], tobacco did not yield as high profits as markets changed. In Goochland, as in other areas of Virginia, many planters switched to growing [[wheat]] and mixed crops. This reduced their need for labor. In the early nineteenth century, some planters sold slaves in the domestic [[History of slavery|slave trade]], as demand was high in the developing Deep South where cotton plantations were developed.