Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/41

  Letters to Prance and the Anti-Protestant, or Miles against Prance, 1682, contain the chief contemporary criticism of his testimony. England's Grand Memorial, 1679 (with Godfrey's character); The Solemn Mock Procession of Pope, Cardinals, &c., 1679 and 1680; London Drollery, 1680; The Popish Damnable Plot, 1680; the Dreadful Apparition—the Pope Haunted, 1680; A True Narrative of the … Plot, 1680, give broadside illustrations of the murder and recapitulate Prance's story. For other ballads see Bagford Ballads, ed. Ebsworth, ii. 662–85, and Roxburghe Ballads, ed. Ebsworth, iv.] 

GODFREY, MICHAEL (d. 1695), financier, was the eldest son of Michael Godfrey (1624–1689), merchant, of London, and Woodford, Essex, eleventh son of Thomas Godfrey of Hodiford, Kent, by his wife, Anne Mary Chambrelan. His father was brother of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey [q. v.], and foreman of the grand jury who found a true bill against Edward Fitzharris [q. v.] for high treason. The younger Godfrey and his brother Peter were merchants, and their father predicted that their speculations would speedily ‘bring into hotchpott’ the whole of their ample fortunes. Godfrey supported William Paterson in the establishment of the Bank of England in 1694. He was rewarded by being elected the first deputy-governor of the bank. Soon afterwards he published an able pamphlet entitled, ‘A Short Account of the Bank of England,’ which was reissued after his death, and has also been included in both editions of the ‘Somers Tracts.’ On 15 Aug. 1694 Godfrey was chosen one of fifteen persons to prepare bylaws for the new bank (, Historical Relation of State Affairs, 1857, iii. 357). At a general court held on 16 May 1695, at which Peter Godfrey was elected a director, the bank resolved to establish a branch at Antwerp, in order to coin money to pay the troops in Flanders. Deputy-governors Sir James Houblon, Sir William Scawen, and Michael Godfrey were therefore appointed to go thither ‘to methodise the same, his majesty and the elector of Bavaria having agreed theretoo’ (ib. iii. 473). On their arrival at Namur, then besieged by William, the king invited them to dinner in his tent. They went out of curiosity into the trenches, where a cannon-ball from the works of the besieged killed Godfrey as he stood near the king, 17 July 1695. ‘Being an eminent merchant,’ writes Luttrell, ‘he is much lamented; this news has abated the actions of the bank 2l. per cent.’ (iii. 503). He was buried near his father in the church of St. Swithin, Walbrook, where his mother erected a tablet to his memory (, Survey, ed. Strype, bk. ii. p. 193). He was a bachelor. A Michael Godfrey was surveyor-accountant of St. Paul's school in 1682–3 (Admission Registers, ed. Gardiner, p. 394).

[Wills of the elder and younger Michael Godfrey registered in P. C. C. 175, Ent, and 130, Irby; Luttrell's Historical Relation of State Affairs, 1857; Francis's Hist. of Bank of England, 3rd ed.; Macaulay's Hist. of England, chaps. xx. xxi.; Will of Peter Godfrey, November 1724, P. C. C. 245, Bolton.]  GODFREY, RICHARD BERNARD (b. 1728), engraver, born in London in 1728, is principally known as an engraver of views and antiquities. Many of these were done from his own drawings, and, if of little artistic value, have considerable archæological interest. Most of them were executed for Grose's ‘Antiquarian Repertory’ in 1775, a work which Godfrey appears to have had some share in editing. Others appeared in Grose's ‘Antiquities of England and Wales.’ Godfrey also engraved some portraits, including J. G. Holman, the actor, after De Wilde; Samuel Foote, the actor, after Colson; and the Rev. William Gostling, author of a ‘Walk about Canterbury’ in 1777. Godfrey exhibited some sea pieces, after Brooking, and other engravings at the Society of Artists from 1765 to 1770. He also engraved plates for Bell's ‘British Theatre.’

[Dodd's MS. Hist. of English Engravers (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 33410); Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Catalogues of the Society of Artists.]  GODFREY, THOMAS (1736–1763), poet and dramatist, born in Philadelphia on 4 Dec. 1736, was the son of Thomas Godfrey (1704–1749), glazier and mathematician, who constructed an improved quadrant at about the same time as John Hadley [q. v.] He received an ordinary education, and was apprenticed to a watchmaker, though he wished, it is said, to become a painter. In 1758 he obtained a lieutenant's commission in the provincial forces raised for an expedition against Fort Duquesne. On the disbanding of the troops in the spring of 1759 he went to North Carolina, and found employment as a factor. Here he composed a tragedy called ‘The Prince of Parthia,’ which was offered to a company performing in Philadelphia in 1759. This piece, which was printed in 1765, is considered to be the first play written in America. After remaining in North Carolina for three years Godfrey was obliged by the death of his employer to return to Philadelphia. He subsequently went as supercargo to New Providence. In his homeward journey through North Carolina he caught a fever, from which