Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/350

 342

NOTES AND QUERIES. 10- s. v. APRIL 2*. im

which apparently was published shortly after the execution of Capt. Samuel Goodere and his accomplices, whicn took place on Wednes- day, 15 April, 1741, is the production of the celebrated Samuel Foote, described in the title-page of the pamphlet as " of Worcester College, Oxford, Esq.; and Nephew to the late Sir John Dinely Goodere, Bart." This pamphlet, which purports to be " the genuine memoirs of the life of Sir John Dinely Goodere," states (inter alia) that "Sir John Dinely's [that is Sir John Dinely Goodere, who long prior to the year 1740, when he was murdered by his brother, Capt. Samuel Goodere, had, probably in pursuance of a royal licence, dropped the surname of Goodere] Grand- father and Grandmother, by his mother's side, were Sir Edward Dinely of Charlton, in Worcestershire, and Frances, a sister to the Earl of Rockingham ; his Father, Sir Edward Goodere of Burghton, in Herefordshire, married Miss Dinely, their only daughter, by whom that great estate came into the Goodere family. Sir Edward Dinely had settled his fortune on his daughter's eldest son."

I gather from the narrative that Sir Edward Goodere had several sons ; that the eldest died without issue, leaving John Dinely Goodere (who afterwards dropped the sur- name) the heir to the Charlton estate. It appears, however, that during the father's lifetime he and the son, John Dinely Goodere, had made some sort of disposition of this property, which resulted (probably contrary to the expectations of the son) in John Dinely Goodere's interest in the Worcester- shire property being curtailed to a tenancy of the estate " for life, subject likewise to an impeachment of waste."

The narrative goes on to say that John Dinely (Goodere) after his father's death be- came entitled to the Goodere baronetcy, and thereupon he took possession of the Hereford- shire estate, the property of his father in his own right, but not without a claim being first made to it by his younger brother, Samuel Goodere. It should be stated that Mr. Samuel Foote's mother was a daughter of Sir Edward Goodere's, and therefore a sister to John Dinely (Goodere) and to Samuel Goodere. Sir John Dinely (Goodere) married the grand- daughter and heiress of Alderman Lawford, of Bristol, who was possessed of freehold

Eroperty in Gloucestershire, and by whom e nad one son, who appears to have been sadly neglected by his father at any rate, it is so stated in the pamphlet. It seems pretty clear that the son was entitled to a certain portion of the property either one or both of the estates, paternal and maternal subject to the interests of his parents therein. The father, Sir John Dinely (Goodere), who ap- pears to have found the son in London in a

very sad condition and deeply in debt, agreed to pay off a portion of the debts subject to the execution by the son of "a common recovery" of the property that is, [ apprehend, equivalent to a conveyance to the father. The son was removed to an attorney's house in Fetter Lane, and, ap- parently, died there within a few days of the execution of the deed. It appears that the deed purported to grant the son an annuity of 200. Capt. Samuel Goodere took proceedings to upset the deed, but was defeated in a court of law. I rather think, but I am not certain, that an inspection of the will of Sir John Dinely (Goodere) would show that one of the estates was bequeathed to his sister's son, Samuel Foote, and the other to John Foote (Samuel's brother). After the murder of Sir John Dinely (Goodere), accord- ing to Latimer's 'Annals of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century,' pp. 233, 234, the widow set up a claim to the effect that another son had been born of the marriage. This claim, however, proved to be fraudulent.

Samuel Foote states that the body of Samuel Goodere, after the execution, " was carried in a Hearse and six horses, to be buried in Hereford, amongst his ancestors." It ap- pears, however, that Foote omitted to state that the body was first taken to the Bristol Infirmary, and, after dissection, was exposed to the gaze of the populace " until the close of the day."

Is Burghope House, formerly the property of the Gooderes, which was described as " nine miles from Hereford, on the Leominster road," still in existence 1 In * The Fratricide ; or, the Murderer's Gibbet,' a reprint of a riming story of the Goodere tragedy which appeared in or about the year 1839 in the Bristol Mirror, we are told :

The house was shut up ; and the grandams say That ghost and rats at hide and seek did play, Until the building fell to sheer decay, And stone by stone has mouldered clean away Under the winds and rain as well it may.

It has been stated that Sir John Dinely, who, according to the quotation sent you by MR. G. GREEN SMITH, " became a poor knight at Windsor," issued bills in which he ad- vertised for a wife. A writer in the Penny Magazine. 11 September, 1841, states that one of the bills contained the following words :

" Pray, my young charmers, give me a fair hear- ing ; do not let your avaricious guardians unjustly fright you with a false account of a forfeiture."

This unfortunate man, who was probably the person as the son of Samuel Goodere rightly entitled to the Goodere baronetcy, was found dead under sad circumstances.