Family and Education

bap. 14 Jan. 1658, 2nd s. of Deane Goodwin (d.1661) of Bletchingley by Thomasine, da. of Sir Samuel Owfield^†, Fishmonger, of Covent Garden, Westminster, and Upper Gatton. educ. M. Temple 1674; travelled abroad (France) 1680. unm. suc. gdfa. John Goodwin 1674.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Surr. 1679-80.

Biography

Goodwin became his grandfather’s heir on the death of his elder brother in 1670, and inherited a moiety of the manor of Reigate, on the strength of which he represented the borough in the three Exclusion Parliaments, being first elected within a couple of months of attaining his majority. Shaftesbury marked him ‘honest’, and he voted for exclusion. He acted as teller on 13 May 1679 for the motion to allow all Members to attend and vote at the committee for the repeal of the Irish Cattle Act, but he was given leave to go into the country eight days later, and throughout his parliamentary career he made no speeches and was appointed to no committees. He was defeated at the second election of 1679, and on 21 May 1680 he drew up his will ‘intending shortly to travel and go into France and other countries beyond the seas’. Presumably he returned when the second Exclusion Parliament met and on his petition declared him duly elected. He was apparently returned unopposed in 1681, but five years later he sold his Reigate property to the crown for £4,400. He died on 13 May 1692, and was buried at Bletchingley, the last of the family to sit in Parliament.2

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: J. S. Crossette

Notes

• 1. Bletchingley par. reg.; Vis. Surr. (Harl. Soc. lx) 51; PCC 104 Fane.
• 2. Manning and Bray, Surr. i. 281; CJ, ix. 637, 673; Cal. Treas. Bks. viii. 979; Add. 5698, f. 166v.