William Godolphin (diplomat)

William Godolphin by Peter Lely

Sir William Godolphin (2 February 1635 – 11 July 1696) was an English diplomat for Charles II and Member of Parliament.

Biography[]

Godolphin was third but eldest surviving son of Sir William Godolphin (1605–1663) of Spargor, Cornwall; the eldest son (by Judith Meredith) of John Godolphin (the younger brother of Sir William Godolphin (1567–1613)—and Ruth (died before 1658), daughter of Sir John Lambe of East Coulston, Wiltshire.^[1][2]

Godolphin was baptised 2 February 1634,^[3] and was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, gaining the degrees of Master of Arts in 1661 and Doctor of Civil Law in 1663. He became a follower of Lord Arlington,^[1] and in 1665 he was elected in a by-election to Parliament as member for Camelford, however as he went to Spain early the next year he probably never took up his seat.^[4]

In 1667, he took part in the negotiations under Sandwich which resulted in a commercial treaty with Spain. He was knighted in 1668, and in 1669 was sent as Envoy Extraordinary to Madrid, becoming Ambassador in 1672.^[1] However, in 1678 he came under suspicion of having been converted to Catholicism, and was recalled; but rather than return to England, he then openly declared his Catholicism, and retired to Spain for the remaining two decades of his life.^[1] Shortly before he died, he made a declaration empowering his spiritual advisers, including the procurator-general of the Jesuits, to make his will after his death; an Act of Parliament was passed in 1697^[5] to declare this and other posthumous wills invalid and to make his nephew Francis and niece Elizabeth heirs on condition that £1,520 was devoted to charity, a charitable act leading ultimately to the foundation of Godolphin and Latymer School, Hammersmith, London and Godolphin School, Salisbury.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

Samuel Pepys, who met him in 1668, called Godolphin "a very pretty and able person, a man of very fine parts".^[1]

Notes[]

References[]

• Cruickshanks, Eveline (1983). "GODOLPHIN, William (1635-96), of Spargor, St. Mabyn, Cornw.". In Henning, Basil Duke (ed.). The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690. Secker & Warburg. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
• Leslie, Stephen (1890). "Godolphin, William" . In Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney (eds.). Dictionary of National Biography. 22. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 46–47.
• Venning, Timothy (October 2008) [2004]. "Godolphin, Sir William (bap. 1635, d. 1696)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/10883. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

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