Goddard entered a short pedigree at the heralds’ visitation of Wiltshire in 1623, but did not claim kinship with the prolific gentry family of that name. His father, a merchant of Dorset origin, represented Southampton in 1589. Although Goddard was registered at the Inner Temple as a Gloucestershire man, and resided in Wiltshire during his first marriage, and again during the Interregnum, his principal interests lay in the county of his birth. A practising lawyer, he was appointed steward of the New Forest before the Civil War, and acquired a little property there. His second wife, the stepmother of Sir Robert Mason, brought him an annuity of £225, as well as an interest at Winchester. He raised a troop of horse for the King, but was taken prisoner at Christchurch by Sir William Waller I at the end of 1644, and on his release settled at Salisbury. He was fined £862 10s. for his delinquency, and forbidden to follow his profession under the Protectorate; but his standing was shown by his election as treasurer of his Inn in 1659. By the following year he had taken up residence in Winchester, where he was elected recorder at the dissolution of the Convention, and shortly afterwards returned to the Cavalier Parliament at the general election of 1661 when he must have been about 70. An inactive Member, he was appointed to only eight committees, none of which was of political significance. He helped to consider the bills for abolishing damage clere in 1661 and for reforming the Marshalsea court in 1663. He was included in the list of court dependants in 1664. He attended a meeting of the benchers of the Inner Temple on 1 July 1666, but died a few months later.
biography text
Volume
Parlimentarian
Parliamentarian
55746