Carole and I really enjoyed attending the Family Association reunion in Deerfield last October – seeing friends we made in 2014 as well as meeting new family members was truly rewarding. The news that Godfrey’s origins have been found, as presented in October, was published in the last NFA newsletter. This news is making its way around and I’m deeply pleased to have been instrumental in solving that part of the mystery.

But, there’s more to do - and I continue my research. Here’s an update.

As mentioned in my last article, the remaining part of the mystery for me is: when, why and how did Godfray get to America, let alone Northampton and eventually Deerfield?

Let’s start by analysing these questions in the context of place and time: ie. the geography we now know and the times in which Godfrey lived.

The English mid-century was a dangerous place / time to be living: between the Puritan uprisings of the 1640’s, the arrest, trial and execution of King Charles I in 1649 (Godfray was 3 months old at the time), Cromwell’s Commonwealth Republic from 1649-1660, the Restoration of Monarchy in 1660, the Great Plague of 1665-6, the Great Fire of London in 1666, and on and on (and we thought we had it rough!).

In this context, the mystery takes on some interesting dimensions: Godfray doesn’t just come from some obscure, remote English or Irish country village – he comes from the centre of the known civilized world and the heart of a then-burgeoning English Empire. He is next found at the very edge of a nascent English colony in America, beyond which lie the vast, as yet un-colonized lands of the American West !

That’s an extreme move, to say the least, in a time when folks seldom changed city let alone parish. Putting that aside and accepting the inevitable emigration – why move to the very edge of the colony, as opposed to staying in a larger centre like Boston?

The age at which Godfray emigrated provides clues too: as he was born in England in 1648 and found residing in Northampton by 1667, we can safely deduce that Godfray must have emigrated sometime between those dates. There is no concurrent record of any other Nims, so I think we can assume that he was not an infant or young child when he travelled to America. Conversely, I think it highly unlikely that he travelled alone. I put the emigration timeframe in the latter part of the 1648-1667 window, say between 1658 and 1667, or even between 1660 and 1665 when he was old enough to travel alone.

So, not only is the migration “extreme” geographically, he did it at a very young age.

How does a nominal 12 year old boy leave London, ostensibly by himself, to end up in a newly founded, “wild” frontier town, in the colonies across the Atlantic?

Through Some Connection?

This key assumption has been fueling my research: Godfray came with someone, knew someone, or was sent to live with someone he or his family knew in America. There must be a personal “Westminster” connection between England and Massachusetts.

Why?

Anyone who knows a Newfoundlander (ie. a person from Newfoundland) knows why: a Newfoundlander travelling Canada, or the world for that matter, famously has a family contact at their destinations – a cousin, a brother of their best friend, their hairdresser’s son, their mother’s third cousin – someone. Just ask one.

So too Godfray. I believe Godfray knew – or had some connection with - the people he travelled with or was sent to live with in America. Following this train of thought we can start researching the inhabitants of Northampton (the first recorded location for Godfray) for a connection, to help solve the when, why and how of the emigration.

The inhabitants of Northampton in 1667 are countably finite – some 65 families (or about 300 people - don’t quote me).  Records and family histories of these people exist. Maybe the answer to the riddle lies in there somewhere. If so, the chances of finding it are roughly 1 in 65, fairly high. But then again, chances may be zero ... why?

Because maybe the connection isn’t there, or because it isn’t meant to be known?

Having researched several possible Northampton connections, I find absolutely no mention of a young Godfray anywhere. Yet, the 1667 court record speaks of him as if everyone knew him. So too the 1668 petition - he seems to be an accepted part of the environment, not some anonymous wandering soul looking for a place to live. Odd. It’s as if no-one was supposed to know why, or how he was there. 

Furthermore, his ready admission to ransacking the Bartlett house in 1667 seems to imply he had something to hide (I don’t think it was a play for clemency, as Godfray would have known he’d be whipped, regardless). And, why would he have wanted to “run away to the ffrench” anyways (he was the instigator)? Something doesn’t add up.

It was while researching the inhabitants of Northampton and nearby Hadley, that a sensational possibility presented itself, involving two of Cromwell’s Generals – with a price on their head – who found sanctuary in Hadley in 1664, a mere 4 miles from Northampton!  They were the “regicides” – king killers (like all those who had signed the Charles I’s death warrant). They were being persecuted by the newly installed King Charles II, son of the deposed king, to the ends of the earth including Massachusetts.

The story of Generals Whalley and Goffe (and Dixworth) is well known and recorded. It was a key part of the American landscape of the late 17th century and beyond. Part of their story involves the “Angel of Hadley”, an old bearded man who appeared out of nowhere to rally the inhabitants of Hadley to stave off an Indian attack in 1675.

To recount the whole story of the Generals would be too lengthy for this newsletter, but I encourage you to research it (their perilous, often hair-raising escape from England to sanctuary in Massachusetts is incredible. It reads better than fiction – “you can’t make this stuff up”. Example: one of their hide-outs was raided by bounty hunters while they were in there, holed up in a secret hiding place behind the fireplace!).

I’ve been researching their story to see whether they might have travelled with a young servant, or possibly were sent a servant in America by friends in England. Maybe they boarded at the New Inn during the trial of Charles I where they met Henry Nymm …?

The points of coincidence between their story and Godfrey’s raised my excitement & curiosity to “code red” levels!

According to Dr. Chater, servants often travelled with their masters’ households and they are almost never mentioned in the records. Dr. Chater also noted that when emigrating, the term “brothers” was often used to denote travelling companions as opposed to blood relatives. I think this theory is well worth pursuing.

Key components of the “points of coincidence” in the two stories is the recorded lore found by David Nims – that Godfray came from England as one of four brothers, and that he settled at first in Medford before moving to Deerfield. This version of the lore got the origin right. Maybe the other parts are correct too …?

I’ve created a a table of the points of coincidence currently uncovered - Posted in Finding Godfrey Chapter 9.

Additionally:

While researching the “cordwainer” angle wouldn’t you know I found a record of a cordwainer’s apprentice who boarded the Bossterne Merchant in London (February 1661) bound for Boston, with two brothers. His name was John Goffe!

Could Godfray have been the fourth “brother”?

Were John Goffe and General William Goffe related?

There are more leads to follow, more research to conduct. I remain ever hopeful that some Last Will & Testament, an obscure letter home, a family anecdote or a completely out-of-the-blue data point may yet shed some light on this, so-called “Regicide”, theory!

If true – what a story!