Life
The nephew of Sir William Godolphin (1515–1570), who left no male issue, he succeeded to his uncle's estates early in 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 Star Castle. He was also an innovative manager of Cornwall's 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 representedFamily
Godolphin married Margaret Killigrew, daughter of Sir John Killigrew of Arwennack and the notorious pirate 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. As a widower he married Alice Skerret (1545–1632) ofIn 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 forNotes
Ancestry
References
* ''Burke's Extinct Peerage'' (London: Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1831