London Gould (b. circa 1793 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-002918
Accomplice to slave flight, Queen Anne's County, Maryland
Biography:
London Gould, a free African American farmer, lived in the Centreville
District in Queen Anne's County.1 Although the county's land
records do not show him ever purchasing land, he sold land in 1840 in two
separate transactions. The names of most of his family members are unknown.
In 1830, the census showed him living with his family of seven in the Centreville
District. The following year, he manumitted the slave Rachel Wright for
one dollar, although their exact relationship is unknown.2 He
also had at least one son, for according to a 1905 death certificate, Benjamin
Gould was born around 1833 to London Gould and Eve Green.3
In 1840, Gould sold twenty-five acres of the tract "Mary's Fancy" to Pere Wilmer.4 That same year, he sold Joseph W. George a variety of property, crops, and land, specifically:
"one grey horse called Medley, one bay horse called Snorter, one brown horse called Canadin, one bay horse called Poney, two white milch cows, one pide cow, five calves ten hogs twenty pigs three bedsteads beds and furniture two cupboards one Dearban three horse carts two ploughs one dozen chairs two walnut tables one pine table, two trunks one desk one crop wheat raised on Clarissa Purnells farm one crop of oats and crop of flax raised on same farm one crop of corn now growing on said farm one crop of corn growing on a small farm where Henry Johnson now lives and a crop of rye on a lot in Damsel Town belonging to a free woman called Susan Wilson."5
In 1849, Gould was sentenced to five years and eight months in the Maryland Penitentiary for assisting and harboring a slave, named Harriet Turner. She had fled from Colonel John Tilghman,6 who lived at or near the Poplar Grove plantation in Centreville, Queen Anne's County.7 Although Gould appeared on the 1850 census (taken on August 27th),8 he had already died in prison on August 5th from dysentery.9J.G. Stong's 1866 map of Queen Anne's County showed a "W. Gould" living on Wilmer's Neck, north of Centreville.10 However, the only Gould living in that district in 1860 and 1870, whose given name fit the "W" initial, was a white man named William Gould. An interesting notation appeared in the Maryland Historical Society's file on a house on Wilmer's Neck, called the Northwest Point house: "Behind the house, to the northeast, is a small burying ground bearing the names of the Malloy and Gould families."11
When Gould's son Benjamin passed away in 1905, his death certificate listed the place of death as Gould Town, Queen Anne's County.12
Endnotes:
1. U.S. Census Record (Census
Burea, MD), for London Gould, 1840, Queen Anne's County, Centreville District,
Page 78, 8th line from bottom [MSA SM61-115, SCM 4723-2].
2.
MARYLAND
PENITENTIARY (Prisoner Record) Dates: 1811. 1826-1850. SE65. MSA SE65-4.
London Gould. Prisoner Number 4284. Page 56.
2. J. G. Stong's Map of Queen Anne's County. District 3. 1866
[MSA SC 5080-1]. Courtesy of the Queen Anne's County Historical Society.
6. MARYLAND PENITENTIARY,
(Prisoner Record), Dates: 1811, 1826-1850, SE65 [MSA SE65-4]. London Gould,
prisoner number 4284.
6.
"Sentenced." Baltimore Sun 1849 November 16: 1.
6.
SECRETARY OF STATE (Pardon Record) [MSA S1108-2 ], Harriet Turner, November
3, 1849, Page 66.
7. Queen Anne's County District 3, J. G. Stong's Map of Queen Anne's County, 1866 [MSA SC 5080-1]. Courtesy of the Queen Anne's County Historical Society.
9. MARYLAND PENITENTIARY, (Prisoner Record), Dates: 1811, 1826-1850, SE65 [MSA SE65-4]. London Gould, prisoner number 4284.
10. Queen Anne's County District 3, J. G. Stong's Map of Queen Anne's County, 1866 [MSA SC 5080-1]. Courtesy of the Queen Anne's County Historical Society.
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