William Goffe

Major-General William Goffe, in or before 1618 to , was an English religious radical and soldier who fought for Parliament in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and served in the New Model Army. A close associate and supporter of Oliver Cromwell, he held a number of senior military and political positions under the Commonwealth, and approved the Execution of Charles I in January 1649. He lost most of his political influence when Richard Cromwell resigned as Lord Protector in 1659.

After the 1660 Stuart Restoration, Goffe was exempted from the Indemnity and Oblivion Act as a regicide, and escaped to New England with his father-in-law and fellow regicide General Edward Whalley. The rest of his life was spent in hiding and there are few details of his activities; it was once suggested he was the Angel of Hadley, a figure who allegedly helped repulse an attack on the town in 1675 by Native Americans, but this is disputed on various grounds. He is thought to have died around 1679, possibly in Hartford, Connecticut.

Personal details

William Goffe (before 1618–1679?) was the fourth of five sons born to The Reverend Stephen Goffe (1575–after 1628), and his wife Deborah (1587–1626). The precise date and location of his birth are uncertain; until 1607, his father was rector of Bramber, Sussex, but lost this position for his part in organising a Puritan petition to James I. Their eldest child, Stephen (1605–1681), was baptised in the nearby village of Stanmer, while Deborah died and was buried there in 1626, so Sussex seems most likely. William must have been born before 1618, since he became a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Grocers in 1642, the minimum age for which was 24.

The two elder sons attended Merton College, Oxford and were ordained as priests in the Church of England, like their father; Stephen acted as a Royalist agent during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and became a Catholic priest in 1654. Previously rector of Henfield, in 1643 John was removed from his living in Hackington, Kent], and briefly imprisoned for refusing to subscribe to the Solemn League and Covenant. Like William, the other two became London merchants; James (1611–1656), was a member of the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers, while Timothy (1626-after 1649), was reportedly a Ship chandler.

Sometime around 1650, Goffe married Frances Whalley (1635-1684?), daughter of General Edward Whalley, a cousin of Oliver Cromwell; they had three daughters, Anne, Elizabeth, and Frances.

Wars of the Three Kingdoms

In 1634, Goffe was apprenticed to William Vaughan, a London grocer, a zealous parliamentarian. Goffe was a man of religious feeling, nicknamed "Praying William". On the outbreak of the English Civil War he joined the army and became captain in Colonel Harley's regiment of the New Model Army in 1645.

He was a member of the deputation which on 6 July 1647 brought up the charge against the eleven Presbyterian members. In late 1647 Goffe played a prominent part in the famous debates of the army council at Putney. The contemporary record of the debates clearly reveals his religious and political radicalism. He was active in bringing King Charles I to trial and signed the death warrant. In 1649, he received an honorary M.A. at Oxford.

He distinguished himself at the Battle of Dunbar, commanding a regiment there and at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.

Major-general

He assisted in the expulsion of Barebone's Parliament in 1653 and took an active part in the suppression of Penruddock's rising in the west country of July 1655. In October 1655 during the Rule of the Major-Generals he was appointed major-general for Berkshire, Sussex and Hampshire. Meanwhile, he had been elected member for Yarmouth in Norfolk in the parliament of 1654 and for Hampshire in that of 1656. He encouraged the Hampshire justices of the peace to suppress unlicensed alehouses in their county, and attempted to curtail the evangelising activities of itinerant Quaker preachers, towards whom he was extremely hostile. He supported the proposal to bestow a royal title upon Oliver Cromwell, who greatly esteemed him, and was included in the newly constituted Upper House. He obtained Lambert's place as major-general of the Foot and was even thought of as a fit successor to Oliver Cromwell.

As a member of the committee of nine appointed in June 1658 on public affairs, he was witness to the Protector's appointment of Richard Cromwell as his successor. He supported the latter during his brief tenure of power and his fall involved his own loss of influence. In November 1659 he took part in the futile mission sent by the offices of the London cabal of the New Model Army to General George Monck, the English military governor of Scotland.

Exile and death

In 1660, during the Restoration, he escaped with his father-in-law, General Edward Whalley, to Massachusetts. They landed in Boston on 27 July 1660, and settled in Cambridge. When the news arrived in Boston, on the last day of November, that the act of indemnity passed by parliament in August excepted them from its provisions, the government of the colony began to be uneasy, and a meeting of the council was held on 22 February 1661 to consult as to their security. Daniel Fisher and his sister Lydia helped to hide Goffe and Edward Whalley after they sought asylum in America.

Four days later, the two fled for New Haven, Connecticut, arriving on 7 March 1661. There John Dixwell, also condemned as a regicide, was living under an assumed name. They were housed by Rev. John Davenport.
After a reward was offered for their arrest, they pretended to flee to New York City, but instead returned by a roundabout way to New Haven.
In May, the Royal order for their arrest reached Boston, and was sent by the Governor to William Leete, Governor of the New Haven Colony, residing at Guilford.
Leete delayed the King's messengers, allowing Goffe and Whalley to disappear. They spent much of the summer in Judges' Cave at West Rock.

Letters to Dr. Increase Mather and others give hints as to Goffe's whereabouts, but very little is clear, perhaps due to his desire not to be captured and executed. He appears to have passed the rest of his life in exile in New England, separated from his wife and children, under one or more assumed names.

Tradition has him sheltering for a decade in the home of Rev. John Russell at Hadley, Massachusetts, reappearing, according to legend, to lead the town's defence during King Philip's War, giving rise to the legend of the Angel of Hadley. After the war in July, 1676, Goffe is last seen in Hadley and went off into Hartford and was nearly arrested in 1678 by being recognized but once again escaped in time. By 1679, no record of Goffe's whereabouts are extant and he was presumed dead shortly after.

Another traditional account has him later living in Stow, Massachusetts under the alias of John Green, where his sister Mary reenStevens resided, dying in Stow, and being buried in the Stow Lower Cemetery under an unmarked granite slab. However, his dying in Stow is debunked: in fact, Mary reenStevens was the sister of Capt John Green who died in Stow in 1688. Another legend is that he died in Hartford, Connecticut under an alias about 1680. A Phillip Goffe settled in Wethersfield, Connecticut prior to 1649, where his granddaughter Mabel Goffe in 1707 married Daniel Andrews; allegedly Mabel Goffe was a descendant of William Goffe. However, this is unlikely as of William Goffe's children only two married and had issue: a daughter Frances; while Williams Goffe's surviving son Richard and his descendants were residents of Waterford, Ireland. ''Burke's Peerage'' reports that William Goffe died in New Haven, Ct in 1680.''Burke's Peerage'' p.855
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The three regicides are commemorated by three intersecting streets in New Haven (" Dixwell Avenue", " Whalley Avenue", and "Goffe Street"), Hadley, and in some neighbouring Connecticut towns as well.

Popular culture

Goffe and Whalley appear as the protagonists of British author Robert Harris’s 2022 novel ''Act of Oblivion'', which depicts their flight across New England.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Goffe, William
1600s births
1670s deaths
New Model Army generals
Regicides of Charles I
People of colonial Connecticut
Hadley, Massachusetts
English MPs 1654–1655
English MPs 1656–1658
People from Stow, Massachusetts
English emigrants