North Texas Kirkland's :Information about John Goin Gowen GUYNES
John Goin Gowen GUYNES (b. Abt. 1615, d. date unknown)
Notes for John Goin Gowen GUYNES:
[Guynes_anc1600.ged]
[MICHAELGOWEN_ANC.ged]
FROM JAMESTOWN TO THE 20TH CENTURY:
A CHRONICLE OF ONE MELUNGEON FAMILY
The saga of the Gowen or Goin family, the largest branch in the Melungeon
family tree, begins with a lovers' triangle in early colonial Virginia.
African-American John Gowen was the servant of an Englishman named William
Evans in Elizabeth City, Virginia.John Gowen had first arrived in Virginia
prior to 1630.John, probably born in Angola about 1615, was possibly one
of a number ofprisoners taken from a captured Portuguese slave ship off the
coast of Angola in 1628, by the English pirate Arthur Guy.That year Captain
Guy traded his stolen Angolan slaves in Jamestown, Virginia for tobacco.The
plantation owner William Evans, as was the custom, offered a bid for Gowen in
Jamestown and John was indentured for about the usual term of 7-10 years.
FIRST GENERATION circa 1615: John GOWEN (or GEAWEEN)
Evans' neighbor was the planter Robert Sheppard.Lt. Sheppard was one of the
ranking leaders of the Virginia colony, serving in the Virginia House of
Burgess; North America's oldest continually existing legislature.Sheppard
had a Negro servant girl named Margaret Cornish.John Gowen married Margaret
and they had a son in 1635 whom they named Michael Gowen.Margaret remained
bound to the household of Lt. Sheppard with her son Michael, while John Gowen
worked for Evans and eventually earned release from his indenture and became
North America's first recorded free black man.
Next to the plantations of Evans and Sheppard lived another white planter
named Robert Sweat (sometimes spelled"Sweet").Margaret fell in love with
Sweat and she became pregnant with his child in late 1640.The affair was
exposed and she and the white man Sweat, were brought before the court.The
two were judged guilty of the charges and Virginia court records contain the
sentence handed down on October 17, 1640.
"Whereas Robert Sweat hath begotten with child a negro woman servant
belonging unto Lieutenant Sheppard, the court hath therefore ordered that the
said negro woman shall be whipt at the whipping post and the said Sweat shall
tomorrow in the forenoon do public penance for his offence at James City
church in the time of divine service according to the laws of England in that
case provided."
Within 5 months of the sentencing of his wife and Robert Sweat, the
African-American John Gowen petitioned the court for the freedom of the child
he and Margaret had produced five years earlier.The date of his suit
coincides with the time Margaret would have been showing the pregnancy of her
illegitimate child by Sweat.
March 31, 1641-Suit of John Gowen:
"Whereas it appeareth to the court that John Gowen, being a negro servant
unto William Evans, was permitted by his said master to keep hogs and make
the best benefit thereof to himself provided that the said Evans might have
half the increase which was accordingly rendered unto him by the said negro
and the other half reserved for his own benefit: And whereas the said negro
having a young child of a negro woman belonging to Lt. Robert Sheppard which
he desired should be made a Christian and be taught and exercised in the
church of England, by reason whereof he, the said negro did for his said
child purchase its freedom of Lt. Sheppard with the good liking and consent
of Tho: Gooman's overseer as by the deposition of the said Sheppard and Evans
appeareth, the court hath therefore ordered that the child shall be free from
the said Evans or his assigns and to be and remain at the disposing and
education of the said Gowen and the child's godfather who undertaketh to see
it brought up in the Christian religion as aforesaid."
In time John Gowen remarried and had at least one other son named Philip born
about 1650.Margaret bore Robert Sweat's child and later bore another child
out of wedlock, surnamed Cornish.Later, Margaret Cornish was freed, yet she
lived the rest of her days on a section of Sheppard's estate called 'Hog
Island'.The names of Gowen, Sweat, and Cornish are borne by Melungeon
descendants to this day.
More About John Goin Gowen GUYNES:
Naturalization: 31 Mar 1641, Petitioned court for the freedom of Michael Goin Gowen Guynes.
Occupation: 1628, Indentured Slave to William Evans of Jamestown, VA.
Children of John Goin Gowen GUYNES and Margaret Cornish are: