William Man Godschall (1720–1802) was an English dairy farmer and Fellow of the Royal Society.

Life

He was initially called William Man, taking the surname Godschall in 1752, on his marriage. With his wife Sarah's fortune came the manor of Weston, land around the village now named Albury, Surrey, but at the time still called Weston Gomshall. There the couple lived, at Weston House. Godschall was a Fellow of the Royal Society and Society of Antiquaries of London, and a member of the Society of Arts. He had a degree of LL.D. In 1777 Godschall and Samuel Horsley compiled a catalogue of the papers of Isaac Newton kept at

Hurstbourne Park Hurstbourne Park is a country house and 1200-acre estate near Whitchurch, Hampshire, England. The park and garden are Grade II listed with Historic England since May 1984, "A late C18 landscape park and pleasure ground surrounding a late C19 ho ...

, the family seat of the Earls of Portsmouth. In 1781 a collection of 220 letters of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon was given to the University of Oxford by Godschall, through John Douglas.

Works

Godschall published ''A General Plan of Parochial and Provincial Police'' in 1787. He was helped with this work by

Samuel Glasse Samuel Glasse D.D. (1735–1812) was an English cleric and fellow of the Royal Society. He was of High Church views, in the circle of William Jones of Nayland, a Hutchinsonian, and a loyalist of the unrest in the 1790s. Life The son of the Rev. ...

. The mid-1780s in England had seen a crime wave, an increase in drunkenness, and other indications of social stress. A proclamation had been issued on 1 June 1787, which was reprinted by Godschall and in a related book by Glasse. The work in particular attacked "the swarm of alehouses that infest all our towns". It proposed the importance of the instruction of the young, emphasised also at this time by Sarah Trimmer, and the removal of children from unsuitable parents, at age "certainly not later than ten".

Family

He was a son of William and Mary (Malcher) Man of Clapham and London, whose daughter Elizabeth married Benjamin Mee and was grandmother to the future prime minister Lord Palmerston. William Man married the heiress Sarah Godschall, daughter of Nicholas Godschall, and niece of Sir Robert Godschall, Lord Mayor of London. Their surviving son was the Rev. Samuel Man Godschall (1764–1821), who was a college contemporary of

Robert Malthus Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English cleric, scholar and influential economist in the fields of political economy and demography. In his 1798 book '' An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Mal ...

, and married his sister Anne Catherine Lucy Malthus. His wife sold Weston Gomshall manor and Weston House in 1822 to Henry Drummond; and died in 1823, leaving her estate to Edward Bray (died 1866), son of Edward Bray who had married Mary Ann Catherine Malthus in 1790. Another son, William John Man Godscall, was a graduate of

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

and barrister of the Inner Temple; he died unmarried before his father, on 26 December 1798.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Godschall, William Man 1720 births 1802 deaths 18th-century English farmers Fellows of the Royal Society