[3] Gooch's father was barber and peruke maker to the gentry of Brockdish, church warden and also fulfilled the role of village constable for a short time.
[6] It had been presumed that Gooch would follow his academic career into the priesthood, but perhaps being aware of the need for an astronomer to join the Vancouver Expedition, before he had sat his final exams, his Cambridge associates Samuel Vince and John Brinkley, who had both attended the same school as Gooch at Harleston, suggested him to Nevil Maskelyne, the Astronomer Royal, who sat on the Board of Longitude.
[12] On 11 May 1792, Lieutenant Richard Hergest, commander of the Daedalus, embarked on the ship's cutter along with Gooch and a small crew to trade with the locals and re-supply with fresh water at Waimea on Oahu, in the Hawaiian Islands.
Gooch's story is recorded in his letters, many of which were to his parents, and journal which are housed as part of the Board of Longitude archive at Cambridge University Library.
[13] His biography, The Death of William Gooch: A History's Anthropology, was written in 1995 by Greg Dening and illustrates the dangers of cross-cultural encounters in the exploration era.