GODFREY, John.

He was possibly the man of this surname (the first name was omitted), mentioned in a 15th-century rental of the estates of Tavistock abbey as being a tenant of property in Tavistock; but this reference could equally well have been to his contemporary, Nicholas Godfrey, who frequently appears in the records of the town.Devon RO, Bedford ms D18/1; T1258M/S21, f. 122. It may have been the MP who in about 1417 was accused of the unlawful disseisin of Thomas Topcliffe of lands in Worthele in Ermington, Devon.C1/4/9. There is no evidence to identify him with John Godfrey of Ilfracombe, bailiff and receiver in two hundreds in Somerset for John Holand, earl of Huntingdon (d.1400), who took part in the earl’s rebellion against Hen. IV but was afterwards pardoned for a murder committed at Ilfracombe: CIMisc. vii. 74, 273; CPR, 1401-5, p. 213; 1405-8, p. 117.