GODWIN, John II

Josiah Wedgwood’s observation that ‘there were more than one John Goodwin’ is hard to contradict.2 HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 383. Even four centuries after the Norman conquest the flattering family name of England’s last Anglo-Saxon King was shared by many men of lesser status. To complicate the identification of the Calne MP of 1453 further, both his name and that of his colleague, John Wolaton*, were inserted into the sheriff’s indenture over erasures, indicating strongly that they were outsiders imposed over the burgesses’ original choice. It seems that the most likely candidate among the many John Godwins was one who resided at Wooburn in Buckinghamshire. The Buckinghamshire Godwins held their property (later known as the manor of Wooburn Goodwin) from the feudal lord of the manor of Wooburn Deyncourt, who in 1453 was the former treasurer, Ralph, Lord Cromwell, holding in the right of his wife.3 VCH Bucks. iii. 105-12. At that time Cromwell was deeply embroiled in a dispute over the valuable manor of Ampthill in Bedfordshire with the violent young duke of Exeter, Henry Holand, and it is easy to see why he might have desired to have his own supporters and tenants returned to the Commons. Furthermore, at Yattendon in Berkshire the Godwins were near neighbours of the prominent courtier John Norris*, a man who secured no less than two seats in the Parliament of 1453 for himself.4 VCH Berks. iv. 125-30. Norris was intimately acquainted with the parliamentary boroughs of Wiltshire, and had himself as sheriff engineered the enfranchisement of Hindon in 1449.

John Godwin of Wooburn was no very substantial landholder, but his property at the time of his death (which extended to nearly 400 acres in Wooburn, Hitcham, Taplow, Hedsor, Wycombe and Beaconsfield on the Buckinghamshire border with Berkshire, and also included a smaller holding at Yattendon, Bucklebury and Thatcham in the latter county) was said to be worth some £20 p.a.5 CIPM Hen. VII, i. 426; C1/95/12. He had not risen to any great prominence in the service of the Crown, although in 1446 he had been appointed a tax collector.6 CFR, xviii. 38. It is not clear whether he had any personal motives for seeking return to the Commons in 1453, or whether he simply accepted election at his patron’s bidding, but a journey to the provincial backwater of Reading, where Parliament initially met, probably presented less of an inconvenience for him (as the holder of property not far away), than for many other men. Nevertheless, there is some suggestion that he availed himself of the proximity of the institutions of the King’s government when the Lords and Commons moved to Westminster for their second session in early 1454. By the end of the year, he was active in the Westminster staple court, seeking to recover debts from a Berkshire neighbour, Robert Jacob of Bradfield.7 C131/69/13; C241/238/2.

Following his single spell in the Commons, Godwin seems to have withdrawn into private life and disappears from the record until his final months. He made his will on 4 Feb. 1488, and six weeks later, on 16 Mar., added a short codicil. He asked to be buried in the parish church of St. Paul at Wooburn, where a brass commemorating him and his wife still survives. Small bequests were donated to the high altar and the Holy Cross light, but he was evidently more concerned with the belfry, to which he left the substantial sum of £5, while a further sum of 20s. was set aside for the mending of one of the bells. Livestock on his lands was settled upon friends and servants. Godwin’s widow was to have his dwelling house in Wooburn and a share of his agricultural implements and other moveable property, while the lands themselves were placed in the hands of trustees during his elder son’s minority, and in the event of the latter’s premature death were to be sold to provide for a chantry. Compared with many other testators whose extravagant instructions far exceeded the goods available to their unfortunate executors, Godwin showed a degree of common sense in instructing that his executors were to fund his bequests by selling as much timber as necessary.8 Eng. Goodwin Fam. Pprs., i. 167-8; VCH Bucks. iii. 110. Godwin died at his home at Wooburn on 17 Apr. The heir, John, remained in the custody of his mother, Petronilla, who went on to marry her Buckinghamshire neighbour Richard Nasshe (d.1499) of Aylesbury.9 CFR, xxii. 188; CIPM Hen. VII, i. 426; ii. 299. For a number of years after his father’s death, the younger John Godwin was embroiled in litigation with the MP’s feoffees over the possession and revenues of the family lands.10 C1/95/12-15. He is not known to have sat in the Commons, but his grandson was the prominent Elizabethan and Jacobean MP Sir Francis Goodwin†.11 The Commons 1558-1603, i. 204-5; 1603-29, iv. 420-7.