Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/68

 nine out of the fifty-one German illustrations (Notes and Queries, 6th ser. i. 493).

[Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Women, by William Godwin, 1798; A Defence of the Character and Conduct of the late Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin … in a series of letters to a lady (author unknown), 1803; William Godwin, his Friends and Contemporaries, by C. Kegan Paul, 1876, i. 163–291; Mary Wollstonecraft, with prefatory memoir by C. Kegan Paul, 1879; Knowles's Life of Fuseli, i. 159–69.] 

GODWIN, MORGAN (fl. 1685), minister in Virginia, baptised at Bicknor, Gloucestershire, on 2 Dec. 1640, was the second son of Morgan Godwin, LL.D., rector of that place and canon of Hereford (d. 1645), by his wife Elizabeth, and the grandson of Francis Godwin, D.D., bishop of Hereford [q. v.] He became a commoner of Brasenose College, Oxford, in Midsummer term 1661, but proceeded B.A. on 16 March 1664 as a student of Christ Church (, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 277). Then, taking orders, he became a minister in Virginia, under the government of Sir William Berkeley [q. v.], and continued there ‘in good liking’ for several years. On his return home he became beneficed, says Wood, ‘near London, where he finished his course’ (Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 180–1). He is author of: 1. ‘The Negro's and Indian's Advocate suing for their Admission into the Church; or a Persuasive to the instructing and baptising of the Negros and Indians in our Plantations; shewing that as the Compliance therewith can prejudice no Mans just Interest, so the wilful neglecting and opposing of it is no less than a manifest Apostacy from the Christian Faith. To which is added, A brief Account of Religion in Virginia,’ 4to, London, 1680. 2. ‘A Supplement to the Negro's and Indian's Advocate; or Some further Considerations and Proposals for the effectual and speedy carrying on of the Negro's Christianity in our Plantations … without any prejudice to their owners. By M. G., a Presbyter of the Church of England,’ 4to, London, 1681. 3. ‘Trade preferr'd before Religion, and Christ made to give place to Mammon; represented in a Sermon relating to the Plantations,’ 4to, London, 1685. It was first preached, according to Wood, at Westminster Abbey, and afterwards ‘in divers churches in London.’

[Authorities as above.] 

GODWIN, THOMAS (1517–1590), bishop of Bath and Wells, was born in 1517 at Oakingham, Berkshire, of poor parents, and sent to the free school. Dr. Layton [q. v.], archdeacon of Buckinghamshire, adopted Godwin, gave him a classical education, and about 1538 sent him at his own cost to Oxford. Godwin seems to have found other friends on his patron's death (1545), by whose help he was enabled to remain at the university. In 1544 he graduated as B.A., and was elected a probationer of Magdalen College, becoming a full fellow in 1545, and proceeding M.A. in 1547–8 (, Athenæ, ed. Bliss, ii. 827; Oxf. Univ. Reg. Oxf. Hist. Soc. i. 205). Godwin shared the principles of his early patron, a ‘zealous reformer,’ and, according to Wood, was obliged to leave Oxford and resign his fellowship between July 1549 and July 1550, on account of disputes between himself and ‘certain papists’ at his college (see Admission Register, quoted by Mr. Wodhams in Northamptonshire Notes and Queries, vol. iii. pt. xix. pp. 65, 66). He was, however, appointed head-master of Brackley school, just founded by Magdalen. He probably went thither in 1549, and was the first master (ib.) He remained at Brackley till the end of the reign of Edward VI, but under Mary was forced, on account of his religious principles, to leave the school, and, having married in the meantime Isabel, daughter of Nicholas Purefoy of Shalstone, Buckinghamshire, studied physic to support his wife and family. He was licensed to practise medicine 17 June 1555 (Oxf. Univ. Reg.) He turned to divinity after Elizabeth's accession, and was ordained (about 1560) by Nicholas Bullingham [q. v.], bishop of Lincoln. He was Bullingham's chaplain, and a member of the lower house of convocation, subscribing to the articles of 1562, and also signing the petition for discipline (, Annals, vol. i. pt. i. pp. 489, 504, 512). Godwin rapidly became a popular preacher. Elizabeth was so pleased with his ‘good parts’ and ‘goodly person,’ that in 1565 she appointed him one of her Lent preachers, a post which he held for eighteen years. In June 1565 he was made dean of Christ Church, and proceeded B.D. and D.D. on 17 Dec. at Oxford. In the same month he was installed prebendary of Milton in Lincoln Cathedral (Lansdowne MS. v. 982, f. 152), whence in 1574–5 he was transferred to the prebend of Leighton Buzzard, which he resigned in 1584 (, Cath. Survey, iii. 205, 221). When Elizabeth visited Oxford in August 1566, Godwin was one of the four divines appointed to hold theological disputations before her; lodgings were prepared for her at Christ Church, and the dean went out to Wolvercote to receive her (Elizabethan Oxford, Oxf. Hist. Soc. pp. 198–203). Among the Parker MSS. (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) is a ser-