Francis Godolphin (1540–1608)
Sir Francis Godolphin | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1540 |
| Died | 1608 |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation(s) | Politician and Knight |
| Title | Sir |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 3 (including Sir William Godolphin (1567–1613) and Sir Francis Godolphin (died 1640)) |
| Parent(s) | Thomas Godolphin Katherine Bonithon |
| Relatives | Sir William Godolphin (grandfather) Sir William Godolphin (1515–1570) (uncle) |
Sir Francis Godolphin (1540–1608) was an English politician, knight, and Member of Parliament.
Life
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2023) |
The nephew of
Queen Elizabeth's reign. He was one of the leading citizens of Cornwall, described by that county's 17th-century historian, Richard Carew
, as one "whose zeal in religion, uprightness in justice, providence in government, and plentiful housekeeping, have won him a very great and reverent reputation in his country". (The Survey of Cornwall, 1602, quoted in Burke's Extinct Peerage).
His father, Thomas, had been
Governor of the Scilly Isles and they were leased to Francis who became governor in his turn (see Governors of Scilly
). On royal instructions, he improved the defences of the islands which were, in Carew's words "reduced to a more defensible plight by him, who with his invention and purse, bettered his plot and allowance, and therein so tempered strength and delight, and both with use, as it serveth for a sure hold, and a commodious dwelling".
Chief among this work of fortification was the building of
tin mines
, his inventions greatly increasing their productivity by extracting metal from material; that would previously have been discarded as refuse, so materially improving both the prosperity of Cornwall and the revenue that the Crown derived from it.
Sir Francis represented
Stannaries
from 1584 to 1603.
Family
Godolphin married Margaret Killigrew, daughter of
Mary Wolverston; and two of his sons, Sir William Godolphin (1567–1613) (his heir) and Sir Francis Godolphin (died 1640), followed him in becoming members of parliament. His daughter Thomasine married George Carew.[1]
As a widower he married Alice Skerret (1545–1632) of
Tavistock, Devon widow of Sir John Glanville
(1542–1600)
In fiction
In the historical novel The Grove of Eagles, by Winston Graham, Godolphin is shown as a sympathetic figure. The main characters are the family of his first wife, the Killigrews: both out of family feeling and his concern for law and order, Godolphin warns them that their reputation for piracy and their general lawlessness will lead them into ruin.
Notes
- ^ . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
Ancestry
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References
- Burke's Extinct Peerage (London: Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1831) [1]
- 'The Scilly Islands', Magna Britannia: volume 3: Cornwall (1814), pp. 330–337. [2]
- D. Brunton & D. H. Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
- Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. p. 1.