Peterson Goodwyn

Peterson Goodwyn (1745 – February 21, 1818) was an American planter, lawyer, soldier and politician from Virginia.^[1] He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1803 until his death in 1818.

Early life

Born at his father's plantation "Martins" near

Goodwyn was married to Elizabeth Peterson in Dinwiddie, Virginia, in 1779.^[3] They had three sons, Edward Osborne, Albert Thweatt, and Peterson Goodwyn Jr., and four daughters, Martha, Lucy Ann, Eliza Peterson, and Emma Eppes Goodwyn.^[3] Their marriage lasted until Peterson's death in 1817.^[3] The Goodwyn's daughter, Eliza, was the great-grandmother of actor Joseph Cotten.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Goodwyn became a planter and named his plantation "Sweden". He also was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1776, and began his legal practice in Petersburg and surrounding areas.

Military service

During the

Voters in Dinwiddie County elected him multiple times as one of their two representatives in of the Virginia House of Delegates (a part-time position). Goodwyn served from 1789 to 1802, except in the 1795-1796 session, when Drury Jones and Alexander McRae, both of whom he had served alongside, became the county's two representatives.

Voters elected Goodwyn as a

On February 21, 1818, a year after the death of his wife Elizabeth, Peterson Goodwyn died at his estate "Sweden" in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. He was interred in the family cemetery on the estate. Goodwyn also has a cenotaph at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

In the 1830 U.S. Federal Census, his son Peterson Goodwyn had a household which included 6 additional white persons and owned 63 enslaved persons; the county at the time included 1048 free white males, 2372 male slaves and 2309 female slaves, as well as 332 free colored persons.^[4] In the 1860 U.S. Federal Census his grandson Dr. John P. Goodwyn owned 15 enslaved persons; his holdings in 1850 are listed on a Virginia census not available online. In 1850 Edward "A." Goodwyn owned 20 enslaved persons, and William H. Goodwyn considerably more^[5]

By 1835, a post office on the stage road in southern Dinwiddie County was called Goodwynsville, which still existed in 1892. A descendant of the same name, Peterson M. Goodwyn, served in the 12th Virginia Infantry during the American Civil War. However, even the tavern which once stood at Goodwynsville has disappeared; after the Civil War, a railroad linked Petersburg to North Carolina through Dinwiddie County, which led to the development of McKinney, Virginia but Goodwynsville languished.

• List of United States Congress members who died in office (1790–1899)

References