Family and Education

b. by 1520. m. 1s.2

Offices Held

Member of the Twenty-Four, Wells by 1541, auditor 1541-4, master 1541-2, keeper, church goods 1544-5.3

Biography

Nothing is known of the family of the man returned to Parliament in 1542 as John Godwin gentleman. He was so described to distinguish him from John Godwin I, a mercer named with him among the city auditors in 1543 and 1544. He has left little trace in the city records, and he had presumably filled no office in Wells before election as master in September 1541. It may be significant that within four months of becoming master he was to be returned to a Parliament which was to pass important legislation on religion, the royal supremacy and the succession. He seems to have died early in 1547; on 22 Mar. of that year his son John was admitted to the freedom without paying a fine, being the son of a ‘late burgess’, and on 24 May the vacancy in the Twenty-Four caused by his death was filled.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: M. K. Dale

Notes

• 1. Wells act. bk. 2, p. 436.
• 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Wells act bk. 2, pp. 483, 489.
• 3. Ibid. 2, pp. 432, 446, 453, 462.
• 4. Ibid. 2, pp. 483, 489.