GODDARD, Dr Jonathan (1617/1618-75), of Merton College, Oxford.

Apart from a brief spell as an undergraduate at puritan-dominated Magdalen Hall in the early 1630s, Goddard had no other known connection with Oxford before he became warden of Merton College in December 1651, and otherwise had no obvious link to the county he represented in Parliament 18 months later. Nor was there an immediate family tradition of involvement in politics. However, by 1653 Goddard had plausible credentials as a promoter of godliness and was in high standing with the regime. He was, in addition, a versatile, gifted, and essentially collegiate man, who was no stranger to public service.

Goddard’s father, perhaps a cousin of the Wiltshire gentry or London merchants of the same name, became in 1626 a master shipbuilder to the crown, having acquired the reversion six years earlier.17Coventry Docquets, 173; The Autobiography of Phineas Pett ed. W.G. Perrin (Navy Rec. Soc. 1918), pp. xxvi-xxvii; CSP Dom. 1629-31, p. 144. In January 1633 he completed the Henrietta Maria at Deptford.18Autobiog. of Phineas Pett, 149; CSP Dom. 1631-3, p. 422. Noted as an irascible character, Henry Goddard had a complex relationship with members of the Pett family, who ruled the roost at Chatham docks, but he was nonetheless respected for his skill.19CSP Dom. 1629-31, pp. 221, 345; 1631-3, pp. 187, 408-9, 414-5, 508, 511, 559; Autobiog. of Phineas Pett, 144, 149, 150. Despite his complaint of accumulated arrears of pay, he worked on the overhaul of the navy until at least mid-1637, spending a prolonged period at Portsmouth.20CSP Dom. 1633-4, pp. 41, 64, 390, 417; 1634-5, pp. 155, 437, 498, 520, 521, 585; 1635, p. 576; 1635-6, pp. 374, 421; 1636-7, pp. 390, 485; 1637-8, pp. 223, 261. Like the Petts, he adhered to Parliament when civil war broke out. In May 1644 he and Joseph Pett were deputed by the deputy lieutenants of Kent to fell delinquents’ timber.21CSP Dom. 1644, pp. 554, 556; 1645-7, p. 293. Eleven months later the commissioners of the navy endorsed a recommendation from Phineas Pett and William Batten that he be awarded £40 a year for his effort in rebuilding a dock at Chatham.22CSP Dom. 1644-5, p. 638; 1645-7, p. 286. By his pious will of 30 August 1647 he left his daughter Abigail Richards £100 over and above her marriage portion of £300, additional expenses and the £100 owed him by her husband Solomon. The (?elder) son and partner mentioned in a petition of August 1632 being apparently dead, Henry bequeathed his instruments to Joseph Pett. His (younger) son Jonathan, executor and residual legatee, proved the will promptly on 4 September.23PROB11/201/558; CSP Dom. 1631-3, p. 408.

By this time the younger Goddard was well launched into an independent career as a physician, although his intellectual interests reflected in part his naval background. It is not known why he transferred as a student from Oxford to Cambridge, or whether he did indeed, as Anthony Wood and John Ward asserted, travel on the continent in the meantime.24Ath. Ox. iii. 1029; Ward, Professors of Gresham Coll. 270 No record of admission to leading foreign universities has emerged. However, the move to Cambridge gave him the opportunity to study under Francis Glisson, an adherent of Gabriel Harvey’s theories on the circulation of the blood; this was to have lasting consequences. Having graduated in medicine in 1638, he proceeded MD in 1643. Admitted to the College of Physicians in December that year, he became a fellow in November 1646, and in Gulstonian and other lectures subsequently defended new anatomical ideas.25Al. Cant.; R.G. Frank, Harvey and the Oxford Physiologists (1980), 21-2; ‘Jonathan Goddard’, Oxford DNB.

As early as 1645 ‘learned persons’ interested in experimental philosophy began meeting regularly either at Goddard’s lodgings in Wood Street, London, or at the nearby Mitre tavern. The group, which included Glisson, John Wilkins (a contemporary of Goddard at Magdalen Hall, at this date chaplain to the elector palatine), John Wallis (another student of Glisson) and German immigrant Theodore Haak (instigator of the gatherings according to Wallis), had wide interests. However, it may have been Goddard’s ownership of apparatus for grinding telescopes and microscopes which made his home particularly suitable.26Wood, Hist Univ. Oxford (1786), ii. pt. ii. 633; Ward, Professors of Gresham Coll. 270; J. Wallis, A Defence of the Royal Society (1678), 7-9; ‘John Wilkins’, ‘John Wallis’, ‘Theodore Haak’, Oxford DNB. In correspondence with the Danzig astronomer Johannes Hevelius in April 1647, Wallis also praised Goddard as a wonderful physician.27The Corresp. of John Wallis eds. P. Beeley and C.J. Scriba (Oxford, 2003-), i. 10. Following the appointments of Wilkins as warden of Wadham College, Oxford, in 1648 and Wallis to the professorship of geometry in the university in 1649, the society temporarily dissolved.

At some point Goddard became a physician to the army, and in that capacity evidently gained a reputation also as a godly man of wise counsel. With fellow doctors Nathan Paget (a member of St Stephen, Coleman Street) and Thomas Coxe (an associate of Samuel Hartlib), on 16 December 1648 he was added to those called to the house of Colonel Robert Tichborne* to discuss the clause in the Agreement of the People relating to the removal of restraints to freedom of worship.28Clarke Pprs. ii. 134; ‘Nathan Paget’ and ‘Thomas Coxe’, Oxford DNB. Appointed first physician to the army, in 1649 he accompanied Oliver Cromwell* to Ireland, according to Wood as ‘a great confidante’.29Ath. Ox. iii. 1029; Munck’s Roll, i. 240. On 1 October he approved a consignment of drugs for the service and on 8 March 1650 he was named a commissioner under the act for the advancement of the Gospel and learning in Ireland.30CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 589; A. and O. He then went with Cromwell to Scotland, tending the general during his serious illness at Edinburgh in February/March 1651.31Ath. Ox. iii. 1029; Munck’s Roll, i. 240; Mercurius Politicus no. 40 (6-13 Mar. 1651), 654 (E.626.5); no. 42 (20-27 Mar. 1651), 675 (E.626.13). Awarding him £100 for his care on 13 June, the council of state resolved additionally that he should be recommended to the committee for the reformation of universities as a potential college head.32CSP Dom. 1651, p. 251.

An opening occurred when Sir Nathanael Brent, who had once dominated the university visitors in Oxford, declined to take the Engagement and resigned on 27 November from his post as warden of Merton College.33‘Sir Nathanael Brent’, Oxford DNB. Accepting his letter, the same day the universities committee ordered that he be replaced by Goddard, ‘having received satisfactory testimony of [his] piety and true worth’; he was duly admitted on 9 December in the presence of Wilkins and others, and welcomed by an enthusiastic oration from Nathaniel Sterry.34Reg. Annalium Collegii Mertoniensis, 329. For at least the next 18 months he was prominent in the university’s convocation, acting as a delegate on such matters as typography; he signed the record of the election of John Owen* as vice-chancellor on 26 September 1652 and the next month was among those nominated by the chancellor, Cromwell, to rule the university in his absence.35Bodl. Oxford Univ. archives, NEP/supra/Reg. T. pp. 154, 160, 167, 171, 173, 178, 191, 197, 203-4, 206-7. In depicting post-1646 Oxford as riven by conflict, Wood identified Goddard as a leader of the Independents: insofar as this was accurate it signified that, somewhat in the mould of Owen at this juncture, he was a supporter of denominational pluralism in good standing with the government rather than that he was a religious radical.36Wood, Life and Times, i. 148. Resuming his close association with Wilkins and Wallis, Goddard was a key member of the group of natural philosophers meeting at Wadham College and William Petty’s lodgings adjacent to All Souls. Including as it did not only Peter Pett* but also Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, Thomas Willis, Thomas Sprat, Ralph Bathurst and various members of the Wren family, this was hardly an exclusive club of the well-affected godly, although reform in other senses was firmly on the agenda. Goddard, for instance, promoted with Wilkins the advanced study of astronomy in the university.37Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxford, ii. pt. ii. 633; E. Dickinson, Delphi Phoenicizantes (Oxford, 1655), dedication; M. Feingold, ‘Mathematical Sciences and New Philosophies’, Hist. Univ. Oxford, iv. 380; Frank, Harvey and the Oxford Physiologists, 54, 56, 71, 163.

Goddard was obviously earmarked by the government as a useful agent. On 5 March 1653 he was placed on the Oxfordshire commission of the peace and on 17 May the council of state added him with William Packer* to its hospitals committee, while four days later it drew on his naval expertise in referring to him the petition of a mariner.38C231/6, p. 252; CSP Dom. 1652-3, pp. 332, 344. It seems unsurprising in this context that he was among those nominated on 6 June by Cromwell to the forthcoming Parliament, although his representation of Oxfordshire might reasonably have grated with some observers.39CJ vii. 281a; Wood, Fasti, 192. In the interval before the session opened on 4 July Goddard was named to the reconstituted body of visitors of the university (15 June) and attended its first sitting (20 June).40Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxford, ii. pt. ii. 651, 654; Reg. Visitors Univ. Oxford, 356. In dedicating to his university colleague on 1 July a treatise on comets, Seth Ward extravagantly hailed a senator erudite in physics, chemistry, languages, medicine and mathematics, and ‘in rebus civilibus summa prudentiae atque integritatis gloria clarissimus’ [in political matters the height of prudence and distinguished by the greatest integrity].41S. Ward, De cometis ubi de cometarum natura differitur (1653).

Reality, as for the Parliament as a whole, was more modest. In an assembly where lack of direct experience was perhaps regarded as less of a handicap than usual, Goddard was delegated to organise the business of the House by committees (14 July) and placed on that to receive petitions (20 July).42CJ vii. 285a, 287a. Appropriately, he was included on the committee for the advancement of learning (21 July).43CJ vii. 287b. These were his only nominations, although they were not negligible and there is some evidence that he took his role seriously. In a letter to the sub-warden of Merton on 28 July he admitted that he could not, as he had intended, return there imminently to transact college business: having discovered the necessity to ask for formal leave from Parliament, he could ‘not [be] convinced that coming is so urgent, as not to be dispensed withall, and therefore can less expect others should think it so’.44Reg. Annalium Collegii Mertoniensis, 351. For nearly three months he was then absent from the Journal, but this does not necessarily betoken a lack of activity in the Commons. He apparently had views on legal reform, acting with Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper on 17 October as a teller against a vote on a temporary halt to the hearing of cases in chancery.45CJ vii. 335b. The fact that 39 voices (only one fewer than those received by Henry Cromwell*) supported his candidature for entry to the council of state on 1 November argues for a reasonably high profile in the House.46CJ vii. 344a. Duly elected, he took the oath on the 3rd.47CJ vii. 344b; CSP Dom. 1653-4, p. 230. By 21 November he had been placed on four conciliar subcommittees – two in relatively familiar areas (shipping and lunatics); two less so (the mint and treating with the French ambassador) – but he was in Parliament at least on the 22nd, when he was a teller in a division on a private petition.48CSP Dom. 1653-4, pp. 233, 237, 262; CJ vii. 355a. This was his last visible contribution.

In 1654 Goddard was regularly engaged on Oxfordshire matters. He transacted Merton business, attended congregation and was named as a public delegate, was confirmed as a visitor (2 Sept.), and was nominated to the commission of triers and ejectors for the county (28 Aug.).49CCC 2798; Bodl. Oxford Univ. archives, NEP/supra/Reg. T. pp. 236, 241, 254, 256; Reg. Visitors Univ. Oxford, 385; Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxford, ii. pt. ii. 662; A. and O. However, he seems to have been increasingly distracted by responsibilities in London. In October he recommended physicians for a projected voyage, while letters of March 1655 suggest he had continuing involvement with the navy and compassion for deserving sailors, as well as opinions on the need for thrift in disbursing the public revenue.50CSP Dom. 1654, p. 565; 1655, p. 440. By early 1655 he was again close to Cromwell. His absence from Oxford was, according to Wood, a considerable disadvantage to those of the university visitors (college heads and others) who wished to challenge the council’s pre-publication modifications to the new visitation ordinance. Particulars of discussions in January and February viewed by the visitors as unsatisfactory were sent by them ‘to London to Dr Peter French and Jon. Goddard (who had they been at Oxford, things might have been otherwise carried) to the end that they might relieve and help them, the most speedy and effectual way they could’; hopes were pinned on the fact that French had married the protector’s sister and Goddard was ‘now his physician’. Goddard duly replied to ‘one of the sub-delegacy’ on 15 February. As reported, it was a disappointingly stern assertion that, whereas Cromwell and his council had resolved not to make ordinances before the sitting of Parliament, and thus that no alteration to the ordinance for visitation could be expected, the visitors had power to gloss their ordinances and to issue additional explicatory orders which were no less binding.51Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxford, ii. pt. ii. 665-6.

What seem now to have been occasional sojourns in Oxford continued after Goddard’s appointment on 7 November 1655 as professor of physic at Gresham College.52Ward, Professors of Gresham Coll. 270. Although his activity there was necessarily spasmodic – and subject to interruptions for medical emergencies, as when he sat up for several nights with Cromwell’s daughter Elizabeth that December – he still signed dispensations and attended convocation, and participated in Merton internal elections in 1655, 1656 and 1657.53Henry Cromwell Corresp. 85, 128, 309; Bodl. Oxford Univ. archives, NEP/supra/Reg. T. pp. 262, 266, 271, 283, 286, 291-3, 303; Reg. Annalium Collegii Mertoniensis, p. xxxix. When in March 1656 Anthony Wood published an edition of his brother’s sermons dedicated to the warden of his old college, across the street from his home, he had to sent the complimentary copy ‘by carrier to London’ to be presented by a friend ‘to the said warden living in Gresham College’, but it is noteworthy that he considered the effort worthwhile.54Wood, Life and Times, i. 200-1. Despite his statement in 1655, Goddard was still perceived in some quarters at least as an advocate within the regime of the long-term interests of the university and a brake on ill-considered reform. When in April 1656 Owen caused consternation at Oxford by proposing an abolition of academic dress and a simplification of ceremonial, divisions between the visitors on the spot were referred to the committee for the universities in London. John Wallis wrote briefing Goddard and French, confident that they would ‘use your best endeavours for the good of this place, and particularly that you will improve your interest with the vice chancellor to be very well advised before he engage too far this way’.55Bodl. Oxford Univ. archives, SP/E/4, f. 93v. ‘And so they did’, noted Wood, who had seen the letter, ‘for by theirs and the endeavours of others, he desisted, and the matter came at length to naught.56Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxford, ii. pt. ii. 675.

Whether Goddard was in London or in Oxford seems to have made no difference to the continued pursuit of his intellectual interests and contacts, and his presence in the capital could sometimes be a convenience to his university colleagues.57The Corresp. of Henry Oldenburg eds. A.R. Hall and M.B. Hall (Madison, 1965-1986), i. 89-92; Corresp. of John Wallis, i. 263-5. In July 1657 he met Owen at Scotland Yard when a delegation came up to invest Richard Cromwell* as their new chancellor.58Bodl. Oxford Univ. archives, NEP/supra/Reg. T. p. 308. A rumour relayed by Theodore Haak in January 1658 that Goddard would resign his wardenship to take up the mastership of the Savoy came to nothing.59N. Malcolm and J. Stedall, John Pell … and his Corresp. with Sir Charles Cavendish (Oxford, 2005), 173-4. His medicine was in demand, there were meetings in Moor Fields with ‘mathematical friends’ like Wren, and in the face of superior obligations to the government, matters at Merton (of which he appears to have retained a good grasp) could always be delegated.60CSP Dom. 1658-9, p. 57; Malcolm, Stedall, John Pell, 179 ‘I did really intend and promise, to have been at the college against the solemn time of electing officers for the year ensuing’, Goddard wrote to his subwarden on 28 July 1658

but am prevented on account of his Highness service, and commands to attend here; which any, I presume will account a satisfactory excuse and sufficient dispensation for my absence, though otherwise and upon any less urgent occasion, at such a season, I account it not to be easily answered for.61Reg. Annalium Collegii Mertoniensis, 379.

With Glisson, Bathurst and other ‘doctors of physic’, Goddard took part in Oliver Cromwell’s funeral procession.62Burton’s Diary, ii. 525. His dual office at Gresham and Merton, if not his advisory role, continued through 1659. His presence at the latter was recorded on 3 August, but only his written consent on 7 February and 11 June 1660.63Reg. Annalium Collegii Mertoniensis, 365–6. Although he was silently removed from the wardenship on 3 July by a royal letter appointing Edward Reynolds to the place, and disappeared from the Oxfordshire commission of the peace, he retained his place at Gresham; a new charter confirmed this in 1663.64Reg. Annalium Collegii Mertoniensis, p. xl; Ward, Professors of Gresham Coll. 271. A founder member, with his old associates, of the Royal Society, he served on its council and was among its most active experimental scientists (according to John Aubrey, its ‘drudge’); meetings were still sometimes held in his lodgings at Gresham, from which he was ousted only temporarily by the plague and the Great Fire.65Sprat, Hist. of the Royal Society, 193-9, 230-1, 433; Hunter, Royal Society and its Fellows, 160–1; Corresp. of Henry Oldenburg, ii. 18, 44-5, 121, 173, 224, 296; Malcolm, Stedall, John Pell, 190, 224; Elias Ashmole ed. C.H. Josten (Oxford, 1966), iii. 924; Pepys’s Diary, vii. 21; CSP Dom. 1666-7, p. 112. ‘That incomparably learned person, Dr Goddard’ had a circle of eminent patients including Robert Hooke and Bulstrode Whitelocke*, and his ‘drops’ were widely celebrated even after his death.66J. Evelyn, Sylva, or, A discourse of forest-trees (1670), 159; L. Jardine, The Curious Life of Robert Hooke (2003), 222-6; Whitelocke, Diary, 737; H. Stubbe, Campanella Revived (1670), 21; Medicamenta Goddardiana (1688); W. Salmon, Pharmacopoeia Bateana … To which are added … Goddard's drops (1694). In 1670 he published a critique of the practice of apothecaries in London.67J. Goddard, A discourse setting forth the unhappy condition of the practice of physick in London (1670) Appropriately, it was reported to be on his way home from a regular meeting of a club of virtuosi at the Crown tavern in Bloomsbury that he suffered a fatal apoplectic fit on the evening of 24 March 1675.68Ath. Ox. iii. 1030; Munck’s Roll, i. 242. Aubrey claimed that the suddenness of his death thwarted his intention to leave his library and papers to the Royal Society; instead, the latter went to Sir John Banks* and the former to Goddard’s nephew John Richards.69Aubrey, Brief Lives, i. 268. John, whose father Solomon had settled at Clonmell in county Tipperary, became a physician and a fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, but no-one else in the immediate family served in Parliament.70Al. Cant.