During the Revolutionary War, Goodwyn equipped his own company of Virginia militia and rose through the ranks from captain to major.

Voters in Dinwiddie County elected him multiple times as one of their two representatives in of the Virginia House of Delegates (a part-time position).

On February 21, 1818, a year after the death of his wife Elizabeth, Peterson Goodwyn died at his estate "Sweden" in Dinwiddie County, Virginia.

A descendant of the same name, Peterson M. Goodwyn, served in the 12th Virginia Infantry during the American Civil War.

The nearest town is Sutherland, Virginia, which was the site of a Confederate defeat on April 2, 1865 which led to disruption of the South Side Railroad, the last Confederate supply line in the closing days of the Appomattox Campaign that ended the American Civil War.

A chimney, stone foundation and graveyard existed about a mile past the intersection of county roads 613 and 631.