The surname of Goodwin occurs on the Surrey-Sussex borders in the Middle Ages; John Godwyn sat for Reigate in 1302 and Hugh Godewyn for Bletchingley in 1432. Goodwin’s ancestry, however, cannot certainly be traced beyond his great-grand-father, who represented East Grinstead in the Reformation Parliament. Goodwin himself, a younger son who became a professional lawyer, married well and acquired property, mostly leasehold, as far afield as Warwickshire and Somerset. He was probably a Presbyterian, like his brother, but less prominent politically. A parliamentary supporter during the Civil War, he conformed after Pride’s Purge and continued to prosper during the Interregnum. He did not sit after the return of the secluded Members in 1660, but was returned at the general election for Bletchingley, where he occupied the largest house in the borough. He was an inactive Member of the Convention, making no recorded speeches and being named only to the committee of elections and privileges and to those for the drainage of the fens and the prevention of profanity. Lord Wharton sent him a copy of the case for modified episcopacy. Goodwin did not stand himself in 1661, though he gave his interest at Reigate to the country candidates. He was disbenched by the Inner Temple for refusing to read, and seems to have been an object of local suspicion in Surrey, though his will, in which he nominated the rector of Bletchingley as a trustee, suggests that he accommodated himself to Anglicanism as easily as to Independency. He died on 18 Feb. 1674 and was buried at Worth.
biography text
Volume
Parliamentarian
55760