William Moody Golden, born before 1792 SC, death 1831 Bibb, Alabama

Table of Contents

A Probable History of the Golden Family
of Newberry, South Carolina Since 1761
Updated 2025.09.07

William Moody Golden appears in some 50 pages of legal documents. At no time does he have a middle name. His surname can appear as Golden or Goulding, a variation of Golding.

? Is there a Moody connection? I am DNA kin to William Moody Golden, whether he is one of my Goldens or he is one of the five yDNA distinctive different Golden and Golding families that settled in the Ninety Six District area of South Carolina between 1750s-1772. A Moody connection strongly shows up in DNA matches: … DNA matches lead back to the Virginia family of Robert Moody / Moudy, 1684–1790, and Ann Waller Ashton, 1700–1731, of Charles City and Prince George, Virginia.

Virginian Moody descendants settled in the Marion County area of South Carolina by the mid-1700s. A second set of Moody DNA matches are with a Charleston, South Carolina family, also living in South Carolina by the mid-1700s. Kinship between the two Moody families has not been verified or even claimed.

The individuals below may appear in your DNA matches.  

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PROFILE

• Parents:  Unknown. Some unsourced genealogies indicate that his parents were Richard Golding 1759–aft.1850? and Ann Walton 1778–aft.1850?… they were Virginia born and  may have lived out their life in Davie County, North Carolina.William Moody Golden (WMG) was mostly likely South Carolina born. Was living in the Newberry, South Carolina area where he met and married Mary Elizabeth (Elizabeth) Lagrone, first child born 1812 at Newberry.  If the son of  Richard and Ann Walton Golding then he would have been just age 10 or less and living apart from them as they married 3 May 1798 at Orange, Virginia. Their son Richard Golding was born the following year in 1799 at Orange, Virginia. Circumstantially, we know they were in Virginia and not in South Carolina when WMG would have already been at least 6-7 years old at the time of their 1798 marriage — 6 to 7 years old already based upon the ages of WMG’s own children, born as early as 1709.
• DNA Tested?
  ~~~ No known descendants are yDNA tested. If a Golden male from this lineage is willing to yDNA test then contact Bill Golden, Norfolk1956@gmail.com. A FamilyTreeDNA test will be provided at no cost.
  ~~~~~~ We may never know the answer to the question of which Golden or Golding family William Moody Golden come from. I have tracked out all of the descendant lines that I have been able to identify. With high confidence I believe there may be only one male WMG Golden line that has a living male Golden since the 1990s. 
  ~~~ Yes. Multiple descendants are DNA (atDNA) tested. atDNA matches exist with our Goldens in the lines of AXG, CAG, WDG.
• Birth: Probably before 1792. Where born is unknown, however it is most probable that his family was living in the Ninety Six District of South Carolina, and a good assumption is that he lived in the Newberry SC area. See discussion below in timeline for 1792.
• Death: Probably late 1831. His estate underwent a number of years of being assessed and sold off before 12 Nov 1834 when a probate claim was closed and signed at Bibb County, Alabama. We know this probate to be WMG’s because it appoints Nicholas Lagrone as administrator. Nicolas Lagrone was a paternal first cousin to WMG’s wife Mary Elizabeth (Elizabeth) Lagrone. The Lagrone / Legrone / LeCrown Family itself is well documented as having arrived as German palatinates in 1752, settling in Newberry SC.
• Children:
  ~~~ Yes, there were approximately eight to nine children. All were daughters except for one son.^[1]Children of William Moody Golden and Mary Elizabeth (Elizabeth) Lagrone can be found at https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/173427102/person/142504465429/facts The Bibb County Probate and Orphans Court also has records which allow us to accurately know which children were claimed as orphans at the time of WMG’s death in 1831. The names on the folder exclude three daughters which may have married by 1831: Abigail, Orrena / Irena, and Epsey Golden, all born between 1809-1815. These three daughters would been age 16 or older and not considered orphans.
• Military: No known military service. Probably served in local district militia. Was not of age to require military service in any active war during his lifetime.
• Working Notes: Yes.
• A Last Will and Testament and/or Probate documentation exists: Yes. There is no will but there is an extensive probate record as WMG owed others at the time of his death and his estate went to the Orphans Court^[2]A final estate probate claim was filed 12 Nov 1834 at Bibb County, Alabama with the original documents still existing. See estate Files (Bibb County, Alabama), 1815-1924; Index, 1815-1916; Author: … Continue reading
• Relationship WDGolden: Unknown. DNA matches with descendants. 

TIMELINE 

1792 or before — When and where born? Unknown. Circumstances: William Moody Golden‘s (WMG) wife was Mary Elizabeth (Elizabeth) Lagrone, born c1791 at Newberry SC, where they met, married and had most of their children. Per census records, the first child born in Alabama was 1827 and the child prior to that was 1825 in South Carolina.

Parents of WMG are unknown. Some unsourced genealogies claim that WMG’s parents were  Richard Golding 1759–1822 and Ann Walton 1778–aft.1850 … both Virginia born from the Hanover, Virginia area; both may have left Virginia and moved  to North Carolina where there is a Richard and Ann Golding in the 1850 census for Davie, North Carolina.

!! yDNA testing could at least help resolve which Golden, Golding, or Goulding family WMG was born to. There were Orange County, Virginia Goldings that had moved to the Newberry SC area in 1772, just not the family that is claimed in some genealogies (Richard and Ann Walton Golding). My own Goldens moved from the Albemarle and Goochland area in 1759 to the Newberry area. There was a third Golden family that came out of Virginia and settled north of Newberry in what is today Anson County, North Carolina. Each of these families came from the same region of Virginia and each have very different yDNA. A test would resolve if WMG belongs to any of them.

William Moody Golden was very likely a child raised in the Newberry, South Carolina area as he met his wife there and was having children there by 1809-1812. Richard and Ann Walton Golding / Golden married 3 May 1798 at Orange, Virginia. Their son Richard Golding born the following year in 1799 at Orange, Virginia. If WMG were their son they would have had a son born before 1793, five or more years before they married, with the son being raised in South Carolina while they were living in Virginia. As for census records, the 1810 census for Orange County, Virginia was burned in the War of 1812. Richard and Ann Golding of Orange, Virginia do not show up in any census records except for 1850s Davie County, North Carolina.

 

1809:  An unsourced claim is that WMG had a daughter born c1805-1809 at Newberry SC: Abigail Golden^[3]Abigail Golden, c1809–1873), married to Edward John Giddens, 1805–1873. There is some concern as to whether Abigail was a Golden or was herself a Geddings / Giddings. Was she a real person or … Continue reading. WMG would/should have been born before 1790 to have a daughter born in 1805; 1785 would be even more appropriate for WMG’s birth year.

1812: Daughter Orrena / Irena Golden born 1812 in South Carolina, no specific location claimed. She married 25 Dec 1833 Perry, Alabama, to John Goldin aka Gooden and Goodwin; most records are under the Goodwin name. Multiple atDNA matches with this lineage across three separate of our Golden branches that split before or about time of the Civil War. WMG would have been born before 1793 (age 19 if ’93) to have a daughter born 1812.

1815-1831: There were other children born to WMG but their birth provide less circumstantial evidence for when he may have been born. Those children are:
Epsey Golden (Butler), 1815–1890
Sarah “Sally” Golden (Colburn, Downey), 1819–1906
Mary Helen “Polly” Golden, 1823–??? DAC?
Nancy Golden (Nichols), 1825–1889
Jacob Logan Golden (Crews), 1827–1877
Martha Golden, 1829–
Elizabeth “Betsy” Golden (Lake), 1831–1895

 

1832: William Moody Golden passed away. His death would create some 40+ document pages regarding his estate management in the Bibb County court system.

1834 12 Nov: Probate for the estate of William Moody Golden completed at Bibb County, Alabama. We know this probate to be William Moody Golden’s because it designated Nicholas Lagrone as administrator.  Nicolas Lagrone (Harrison) was the paternal 1st cousin to Mary Elizabeth (Elizabeth) LaGrone (Arendall, Golden), wife of William Moody Golden.

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©2025 William Golden, Norfolk1956@gmail.com // Material may be shared without requesting permission and with appropriate attribution: A Probable History of the Golden Family of Newberry, South Carolina Since 1761, compiled by William Golden