William Henry Goddard (6 February 1795 – 16 December 1872) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

merchant who traded in the

Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...

in the early 19th century. Goddard was born in

Nunton Nunton is a small village and former civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about southeast of Salisbury. The former parish included the small village of Bodenham, to the east. Nunton is on the River Ebble, while Bodenham is close to the juncti ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, and was a teenager when he first arrived in Gambia. He married a local woman, Ellen Casteign (or Castaign), and they had two daughters. From 1819 they lived in the town of Bathurst (now

Banjul Banjul (,"Banjul"
(US) and ), officially the City of Ba ...

), where Goddard and another British trader, Charles Grant, had a

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

export business. Goddard and Grant were among the first British settlers in the country. Goddard was a member of the Legislative Council from 1843, and in 1860 he set up the Gambia Trading Company. His nephews, William and Alfred, came to Gambia to work for him. In 1862, Goddard retired to Britain; he died, aged 77, in 1872 in Hampstead. His nephew William took over the company after his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goddard, William Henry 1795 births 1872 deaths English merchants People from Wiltshire 19th-century English businesspeople