GODOLPHIN, Francis II (1588-1652), of Treveneage, St Hilary, Cornw.

The Godolphins of Treveneage were distant cousins of the Godolphins of Godolphin: both were descended from John Godolphin, who lived at the beginning of the sixteenth century.13Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 183. The barton of Treveneage, in the south-western parish of St Hilary, had come to the cadet branch through marriage into the Gaverigan family later in the same century, and the young Francis Godolphin II enjoyed the upbringing suitable for the scion of a fairly prosperous gentry family, attending Exeter College, Oxford, and the Middle Temple, where his neighbour, Thomas Seyntaubyn of Clowance, stood as his manucaptor or surety.14Lysons, Magna Britannia (1814), iii. 130-42; Al. Ox.; MTR ii. 474. In 1616 he married a daughter of Richard Carew of Antony in eastern Cornwall.15Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 184. Little is known of Godolphin’s subsequent career, but he entered politics in the Short Parliament elections, when he apparently secured the return of Joseph Hall*, the son of the bishop of Exeter, in return for a lease for three lives, of the episcopal manors of Penryn Foreign and Minster.16Exeter Cathedral Archives, MS 3601, pp. 106-7.

In the autumn of 1640 Godolphin was himself elected, as MP for St Ives, for the Long Parliament. He was not an active in the Commons, and the references to ‘Mr Godolphin’ in the Journal of 1640-2 probably refer to his cousin, Sidney*, but he was presumably present at Westminster on 29 March 1641, when he was given leave to be absent ‘for some time’.17Procs LP iii. 211; CJ ii. 113b. Godolphin was resident at Treveneage in the new year of 1642, when he signed the Protestation, and he may not have returned to Westminster until 30 June 1642, when he joined two other Cornish MPs, Richard Erisey* and Ambrose Manaton*, in being readmitted and excused fines of £100 for absence at the call of the House earlier in the month.18Cornw. Protestation Returns, 62; CJ ii. 644b. He was evidently considered to be trustworthy by the king’s opponents in Parliament, and on 27 July he was one of the Cornish MPs chosen to return to the county ‘forthwith’ to put the Militia Ordinance into execution and to assist the deputy lieutenants in keeping the peace.19CJ ii. 694a. On 5 August he took part in the unsuccessful attempt to prevent the commission of array from being proclaimed at the Launceston assizes.20LJ v. 275b.

Godolphin was probably with the parliamentarians under Sir Richard Buller* who briefly held Bodmin before retreating into Devon; he was certainly in Plymouth by 20 October 1642.21New News from Cornwall (1642), 6 (E.124.20). While holed up in Plymouth, Godolphin was named to a number of local administrative bodies, including (from Feb. 1643) assessment commissions, and (on 1 July 1644) the Cornish county committee.22A. and O. He was active in raising money for the Plymouth garrison in the summer of 1643, and in August, as suspicions of Sir Alexander Carew* grew, Godolphin and his son-in-law, John Seyntaubyn*, were sent to St Nicholas Island, to persuade their kinsman to give up his command and go to London to face questioning.23Antony House, Carew-Pole BC/24/1/37; The Misdemeanours of a Traytor and Treasurer Discovered (1644), Sig. A2v (E.258.10). On 14 September Godolphin joined Thomas Arundell* and Richard Erisey in signing a letter from the mayor and leading inhabitants of Plymouth, reporting that another plot, to betray a parliamentarian ship in the harbour, had been foiled.24HMC Portland, i. 130.

Godolphin went to London in January 1644, when he and his friend and neighbour, Thomas Arundell, took the Covenant.25CJ iii. 383b. Godolphin remained in the capital for the next few months, and was named to a committee on a petition of the Exeter merchants on 20 April, but on 20 August he was again given leave of absence.26CJ iii. 465b. 600a. In the meantime his estates in Cornwall had been sequestered by the king, and assigned to pay for the garrison of the Scilly Isles, commanded by his cousin, Francis Godolphin I*.27Cornw. RO, B/35/36. Godolphin was in Plymouth in February 1645, when he was appointed to the committee of defence convened in response to the threat posed by Sir Richard Grenvile.28Coate, Cornw. 165. On 3 June in the same year Godolphin was one of those MPs granted an allowance of £4 per week by the Commons, to compensate for the sequestration of their estates, and the payments were made to Godolphin through to August 1646.29CJ iv. 161a; SC6/Chas.I/1662, m. 10; SC6/Chas.I/1663, m. 8; SC6/Chas.I/1664, mm. 14d, 15d. It is likely that he was in London for much of this period. He was ordered to take charge of the funeral arrangements for a Mr Carter in December 1645, and in February 1646, as Sir Thomas Fairfax’s* army marched into Devon, he was one of the MPs sent to take over the civilian government of the south west.30CJ iv. 363b, 440a.

In the summer and autumn of 1646 Godolphin became involved in securing recruiter seats for the Presbyterian interest at Westminster, working closely with Richard Erisey. John Fitzjames*, the Dorset Presbyterian, was in contact with Godolphin and Erisey in August 1646.31Alnwick, Northumberland 547, ff. 39v-40. In September Fitzjames told his father-in-law, Nathaniel Stephens*, that ‘the gentleman held to his word (being confident the county is not able to supply all those places with their own native gentry)’.32Alnwick, Northumberland 547, f. 44. By the beginning of October the plan had fallen through, with Fitzjames now in talks with Edward Herle* instead, although he admitted that this had not been the fault of either Godolphin or Erisey, whom he described as ‘two noble patriots of your country’.33Alnwick, Northumberland 547, f. 45v. Perhaps encouraged by the growing influence of the Presbyterian interest at Westminster, in February 1647 Godolphin had returned to the Commons, where he was named to a committee to appoint a rector for one of the Cornish parishes, but thereafter he played little or no part in parliamentary proceedings, and he probably retired to Cornwall soon afterwards.34CJ v. 84b. In May he certified the accounts of Lieutenant-colonel Ellis Crymes*, who had served in the Plymouth garrison during the first civil war.35SP28/267/3, f. 104. In June he was appointed to the new assessment commission for Cornwall.36A. and O. He probably travelled to London in July 1648 when he and Thomas Arundell purchased the manor of Cuttingbeake St Germans, formerly part of the Exeter diocesan estates, from the trustees for the sale of bishops’ lands, but both men had been given leave to go into the country in the same month, so presumably their visit was brief.37Bodl. Rawl. B.239, p. 15; CJ v. 642a. On 26 September, at the call of the House, Godolphin and his friends Arundell and Erisey were listed as being absent without excuse.38CJ vi. 34a.

Although Godolphin was known to be a Presbyterian in his political views, there is no evidence that he was formally secluded at Pride’s Purge on 6 December 1648, and he continued to be included in local assessment commissions in April and December 1649.39A. and O. Indeed, by early 1650 he had been added to the Cornwall commission of peace.40C193/13/3, f. 10. He was not politically active during the commonwealth, however, and he seems to have been on good terms with his royalist neighbours, including Francis Godolphin I. When the ‘water poet’, John Taylor, made his tour of the west country, he stayed at Treveneage for seven days, receiving ‘hospitality in plenty, with many other courtesies in money and other necessaries which I wanted’, and was then encouraged by his host to visit ‘Francis Godolphin of Godolphin House’ and John Seyntaubyn at Clowance.41J. Taylor, John Taylor’s Wandering to see the Wonders of the West (1649), 14 (E.573.12). Godolphin died in the early spring of 1652 and was buried at Crowan on 4 February. As his only son had died young, he was succeeded by his (only?) surviving daughter, Catherine, the wife of John Seyntaubyn*.42Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 184.