Goode was born to plantation owner and horse racing enthusiast John Chesterfield Goode and his wife Lucy Claiborne Goode at their plantation "Inglewood" near the Roanoke River in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. He would later establish a plantation of his own, "Wheatland", about five miles northeast of Boydton. He had another relative John Goode, locally known as Race Horse John, who predeceased John C. Goode, who had inherited 13 slaves which were in his estate inventory, as were many horses, some owned by various partnership. William Goode graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1819. He married twice. In 1820, while in law school, he married Sarah Bolling Tazewell of Williamsburg, Virginia. She died July 9, 1825, aged 22, after her second childbirth, although that son, Tazewell Goode, would die as an infant, as had his brother William O. Goode Jr. In 1829 William Goode married Sarah Maria Massie, who bore several children who lived to adulthood, but also died shortly after childbirth and her daughter Sarah Massie Goode died as a child. Two of her sons married, Lucy Herbert Waller Goode Baskerville and Henrietta Waller Goode Boyd. Three of their sons became Confederate States Army officers after their father's death and Virginia's secession, of whom William Osborne Goode Jr. died in battle. John Thomas Goode, who had attended the Virginia Military Institute but resigned before graduation to accept a lieutenant's commission in the U.S. Army, would relinquish it and rise to the rank of Major in the Confederate States Army. They son Edward Branch Goode would also become a Confederate officer and survive the war. J. Thomas Goode would marry four times, and his son, Morton G. Goode would follow the family's traditional careers in law and politics to become president pro tem of the Virginia senate.
Goode died in Boydton on July 3, 1859. He was buried at his nearby plantation of "Wheatland", which did not survive into the 20th century, although his birthplace "Inglewood" did.
Electoral history
1841; Goode was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives with 75% of the vote, defeating Independents Richard H. Baptist and a man identified only as Marshall.
1853; Goode was re-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives with 65.34% of the vote, defeating Whig Wyatt Cardwell and Independents William C. Flournoy and William S. Scott.
1855; Goode was re-elected with 61.27% of the vote, defeating American Littleton Tazewell.
1857; Goode was re-elected with 75.97% of the vote, defeating an American identified only as Collier.
1859; Goode was re-elected with 63.79% of the vote, defeating Independent Democrat Flournoy.
