"The Holes Was Eaten By Rats ..."

Goddards from Hawley

Compiled by Russell Hudson 28 January 2006. Updated 15 September 2006.

During the 1800s, Goddard was a reasonably common name in the northeast of Hampshire, and particularly in the towns of Hawley and Yateley, close to where Hampshire adjoins the counties of Surrey (to the east) and Berkshire (to the north). The M3 motorway now passes just to the south of Hawley, and Yateley is some 5 kilometres away to the north-west.

Records of births, deaths and marriages were searched to locate members of James Goddard's family. The IGI records for Hampshire were examined for the period around his birth date (looking for records of his birth or christening, or for a marriage record of his parents), and also for the period prior to his conviction on 30 June 1845 (looking for his marriage record and records of the birth and/or christening of his children). A number of records were located for Goddard events at Hawley, Yateley and Kingsclere, including those for the marriage of a James Goddard to Jane Coffee in 1821.

The IGI records were searched for birth or baptism records for the children of James Goddard and Jane Coffee, but as no records were located for any of their children a definite link with James Goddard (1822-1860) could not be established.

On 28 May 2001, through my membership of the Goddard Association of Europe, I received an email from Ernest Goddard in England suggesting the possibility that my James Goddard, believed to have been born 09/10/1822, could be James Goddard, the son of James Goddard and Jane Coffee, who was christened on 03/11/1822.

I found the information to be strongly supportive of the notion that James Goddard (1822-1860) was born in The Parish of Hawley and that his parents were James Goddard and Jane Coffee. It linked with the possibility that Hawley was incorrectly spelled “Holly” in the Pentonville Prison Register, and the fact that James Goddard's first daughter "Mary Jane" was so-named for his wife (Mary Askew) and his mother (Jane Coffee).

On 19 February 2002, Julie Goddard (Research Coordinator for the Goddard Society of Europe) provided the following information on the children of James Goddard and Jane Coffee/Goddard from Hawley, Hampshire. She states: “No one as yet has come forward and claimed these as ancestors”. Tentatively, I raised a hand.

Children of James Goddard and Jane Coffee (married at Hawley, 3 November 1821

* No baptism record found on IGI database (19 Feb 2002).

I have no information on James Goddard's marriage or of the birth of his two children, as recorded in his prison records. All that has been recorded of a previous family life for James Goddard is that at his marriage to Mary Askew in Geelong on 6 January 1853 he was listed, not as a bachelor, but as a "widower".