Yes, very interesting!  The same story is also told by Paul Jennings about James Madison; he also mentions in his account that the same story is told about George Washington.  Another variant of the Jefferson version is printed in _Virginia Folk Legends_, ed. Thomas E. Barden (UVA Press, 1991).  There's some good discussion of this story type in the footnote (#83): http://books.google.com/books?id=GN4_KGQKgSYC&lpg=PA10&ots=JvDceqjSAS&dq=%22virginia%20folk%20legends%22&pg=PA327#v=onepage&q=Jefferson&f=false and the introduction http://books.google.com/books?id=GN4_KGQKgSYC&lpg=PA10&ots=JvDceqjSAS&dq=%22virginia%20folk%20legends%22&pg=PA179#v=onepage&q=Jefferson&f=false.  It is apparently classified as folklore motif J914, "King shows humility by mingling with common people."

Anna Berkes
Research Librarian
Jefferson Library
Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Kukla [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 6:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VA-HIST] "An anecdote of Sir William Gooch"

"An anecdote of Sir William Gooch, sometime [i.e., former] Governor of
Virginia"

which I stumbled upon in *The Dublin Magazine for the Year 1764*:

Sir William Gooch being in conversation with a gentleman in a street of
Williamsburgh,
returned the salute of a negro, who was passing by about his master's
business.    Sir,
said the gentleman, does your honour descend so far as to salute a
slave?  Why (replied
the governor) Yes: I cannot suffer a man of his condition to exceed me in
good manners.



Jon Kukla
________________
www.JonKukla.com <http://www.jonkukla.com/>

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