Sir William Godolphin MP (ca. 1486 – ca. 1570) was a 16th-century English knight, politician, and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Life

He was the son of Sir John Godolphin, who was

High Sheriff of Cornwall Sheriffs and high sheriffs of Cornwall: a chronological list: The right to choose high sheriffs each year is vested in the Duchy of Cornwall. The Privy Council, chaired by the sovereign, chooses the sheriffs of all other English counties, ot ...

in 1505, and his wife Margaret, daughter of John Trenouth. He sat as Member for

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

during the reign of

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

and possibly also of Edward VI, and also served as

and

Warden of the Stannaries The Lord Warden of the Stannaries (from la, stannum for Tin, Sn) used to exercise judicial and military functions in Cornwall, England, and is still the official who, upon the commission of the monarch or Duke of Cornwall for the time being, h ...

. Godolphin wrote to

Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cromwell (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false charge ...

sending him a present of Cornish tin which could be made into pewter vessels. The ingots were marked with a bow and broad arrow and a horseshoe. He offered to send Cornish wrestlers to accompany

if the king visited Calais. He sent two wrestlers to Cromwell whose command of the English language was not good, presumably they were Cornish speakers. He seems to have been confused with his eldest son, also Sir William (1515–1570), not least in Burke's ''Extinct Peerage'' which conflates the two, so that is not clear which offices were held by the elder and which by the younger. Sir William lived to an advanced age, dying at around the same time as his son, which may have been the original cause of the confusion.

Family

He married Margaret Glynn, and they had four children: * Sir William Godolphin (1515–1570), who had three daughters but no sons * Thomas Godolphin (born 1520), married Katherine Bonithon,The Visitations of Cornwall http://ukga.org/england/Cornwall/visitations/index.html Captain (governor) of the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of the ...

, through whom the male line of the family was continued. Their great-grandson would be George Lamberton, Captain of the "Fellowship", disappeared at sea in 1646 and subject of Longfellow's poem "The Phantom Ship". * Elizabeth Godolphin (born 1522), married John Langdon * Honor Godolphin (born ca. 1524), married William Melton

Life

Family

Ancestry

References

Further reading