Notes on
the Godbey Family
By A. H. Godbey
(Circa 1930)
The name Godbey is well known from early times in England.
Originally it was Godsdbye, Godebye, Godesbye, the name of
an ancient Danish Settlement in Leicestershire, (Barber,
English Family names, p. 152) and meaning the town,
village, or community of the Goed or Gode (Danish Gud,
Guth) family. The first syllable is a very common element
in the Danish names, (e.g. Gudrun, Gythorm, Godbrey,
Godair, Godbold, Godsal, Godloe, Godleight, Goddard,
Godwin, Godbard, Godall, Goodali, Godkin, Godbed, etc.) The
name "Goad" is commonly written "Goode" in modern times.
The modernized form Godbey, Goodby, Godbye, Godsby, is
found in the earliest parish records which begin in the
reign of Henry VIII; yet the older form "Goadby" is still
found occasionally, even in modern New York; Godsby is also
still in use.
There has been no figure of permanent national note in
executive, legislative or administrative work, except Co.
Christopher Godbey, for many years an officer in the Bengal
Army. Some of the family attained genteel rank very early
and have been in minor official positions and the Godby
coat of arms and crest are well known in English Heraldry.
(Fairbairn, Vol. 1, p. 206; II, p. 118, fig. 44) (Book of
Family Crests, Vol. II p. 202; I, plate re, fig. 3) The
crest is a chevalier in full armor, proper, with visor
down. The "Edward Godby" or Godsby is found repeatedly as
that of one of genteel rank. Perhaps an Edward Godbey was
first to bear arms.
The Godbey family has been in London for more than 400
years, as shown by the various parish registers. Thomas and
John are the prevalent baptismal masculine names. Peter,
Robert, Mark, George are known. James Godbey of London
attained national distinction as a stipple engraver,
1790-1815; but the Dictionare of National Biography knows
nothing of his antecedents. London directories show that
the Godbeys are still there; some in courtly circles.
The first Godbey in America was "Thomas Godby of Blunt's
Point". The Virginia census of 1624 tells us that he was
then 38 years old (hence born in 1587) and that he came
over in the ship Deliverance in 1605. The other members of
the household are Joane Godby, aged 42, who came over in
the Flying Berte in 1621, and John Curtis and Christopher
Smith, aged 22 and 24 years. It is not possible to tell
from this record if Joan was wife or sister of Thomas
Godby; if married to him after she came to America, of if
she had married in England waiting for her husband to make
his fortune. He had stood by the side of Captain Smith, and
had seen all of Jamestown's hardest days; had been a
shareholder in the Virginia Company, and received his first
dividend of land from Sir Thomas Wyall Dec. 1, 1624. This
100 acres was at Blunt's point, a little below Kecoughtan
or Elizabeth City. Hence he is spoken of as "Godby of
Blunt's Point" or Kiccaoughtan. In the census of Elizabeth
City 1623, the names are given as "Thomas Godby" and Joan
Godby.
He probably made two or three trips to England, as the laws
of the time allowed a colonist 50 acres of land for each
time that he crossed the Atlantic. Hence we consider that
the Thomas Godbye who is shown by records as landing in
1637 in the Isle of Wight County, just across the Bay from
Blunt's Point, is the same man, while the extant records of
Lower Norfolk shows another Thomas Godby who landed in that
county more than once a little later and had connections of
a business sort in Isle of Wight County.
The will of "Thomas Godbye, Planter" of Elizabeth River in
Lower Norfolk was drawn April 18, 1652, proved Feb. 15,
1653, "Anne, my Deere and loving Wife" is the sole
executrix. Codicil five days before death, made legacy to
wife's sister Elizabeth Beane, (George Bain was witness of
the will of "Allexander Rose" proved the same that Thomas
Godbye' was. But nothing further has been published
relative to the Bain family in Norfolk. The tendency of
neighbors to move in groups is illustrated by the Bain
family appearing alongside the Godbey family in oth er
counties, for a hundred years) signed by Thomas R. Godbey,
and sealed, indicating a coat or crest. It is doubtful if
the "Ann" of this will is "Joane" of the Elizabeth city
census.
Then the Norfolk records show us "Thomas Godbye" among 60
persons brought over by Cornelius Lloyd in 1642 and again
one in three in 1647, again by Frances Empercer in 1653.
(Fifty acres of land was allowed for each man or woman who
crossed to America, as often as he did so). In 1665 this
traveling Thomas Godby himself imports several. The will of
this Thomas Godby, drawn Sept. 23, 1671, was proved Feb.
21. 1686. And also leaves everything to the disposal of his
"wife Ann". It is impossible just now, to tell the relation
of the second Thomas Godby to the first; the will of Mr.
Bordas, a ship-captain, in 1667 leaves his book and
instruments to Ann Godbey, wife of Thomas Godbey; she is
executrix. The will of John Jacob, 1681, leaves her his
chest, and also makes her executrix. Probably she was the
only daughter of Jacob, only granddaughter of Burdas
{sic.}.
The Godbeys were closely associated with the Quakers and
with leading men of the colony. They got fined for
attending a Quaker meeting at a neighbor's. They are warmly
attached to an old Quaker school teacher Richard Russell,
who in his will in 1667 leaves a bequest for educating the
poor, and a number of books to various friends, including
Ann Godbey. Ann Godbey talked too much. She charged a
neighbor, wife of Nick Robinson, in 1659 with being a
witch. The clear headed authorities were not going to have
any Salem craze and had passed an ordinance that any one
making such a charge should be fined. It cost Tom Godbey a
tidy little bunch of tobacco, 300 lbs., and cost.
Of the next generation, we know two.
I. Cary Godbey or Godbee, as the records frequently spell
it, and Edward Godby. Cary Godby moved into Chowan Co.,
North Carolina. Records show he had children by 1700. The
Cary Godby who lived in Newbern, Carteret County, and was
one of his Majesty's Justices 1749-1758, must have been son
of the first Cary; and the Nathaniel Godby, George Godbey,
Bliss Godby, John Godby, who are active patriots in Pitt
Co., N.C. a few miles from Newbern during the Revolutionary
War, are probably sons of this second Cary Godbey; while
the John Godbey who is a soldier in the N.C. Colonial
Militia in 1754 may be brother of this second Cary. This
branch need not be traced.
II. Edward Godby or Godbee, as the old record variously
spell it, moved in time from Lower Norfolk to Mikddlesex
Co. The old Christ Church parish register reaches back to
1653. But no Godby entries are in it till 1701 when we have
"Mary, daughter of Edward Godbee and Frances his wife, born
Oct. 13, 1701, bapt. Oct 23, 1701". Rebecca, bapt. June 1,
1703; John bapt. April 1, 1705. Edward dies soon after; and
Frances Godby and Thomas Cheedle are married July 26, 1708.
There are no Cheedle births; but the family remains there,
for we find the marriage of Mary, daughter of Edward Godbee
and Frances his wife; born Oct. 13, 1701, bapt. Oct. 23,
1701". Rebecca, bapt. June 1, 1703; John bapt. April 1,
1705. Edward dies soon after; and Frances Godby and Thomas
Cheedle are married July 26, 1708. There are no Cheedle
births; but the family remains there, for we find the
marriage of Mary Godbee and Henry Tugwell, March 30, 1772,
and Rebecca Godbee married John Kidd Feb. 21, 1720. Their
descendants in the Middlesex Register are many, also George
Godbe (Godloe?) married Diana Minor Jan. 13, 1728.
Older children of Edward Godby, William? and George, must
have been born before Edward came to Middlesex. These with
John, the youngest child, probably settled in Caroline Co.,
Va. Certain groups moved together; Godby, Cunter, Bain,
Farmer, Tomson are neighbors in Middlesex, again in
Carolina, late in S.W. Va. The John Godby born in 1705 is
probably the one who patented 400 acres of land in
Coochland in 1734. Thomas Godby patented 1200 there in
1732. Probably neither resided there long. John Godby
appears in the few remnants of the Carolina records, from
1760-64. His children can not be certainly named, but he
may be the same John who was born in 1705.
But my great-grandfather William Godbey was born in
Carolina County, VA., in 1781 (so sketch of Rev. Josiah
Godbey published in Cooper Co., Mo. in 1862 declares). Old
family documents show his father's name was John and
grandfather's was William and that he was a Revolutionary
soldier. The almost total destruction of Carolina records
leaves us to conjecture between John, born in Middlesex in
1705 and settling in Carolina, and William born in 1651 son
of John. Does this 76 years cover two generations only? or
three? All probablities favor the latter. The rough
pioneers married early. John, father of William, 1781, is
probably the grandson of John, born in 1705, settled in
Carolina; William born 1725-30. We do not know the names of
wife and other children, at present. But from old family
papers we know that the oldest son of this William was also
named William, that he was born in 1750, and his wife
Zannah was born 1751, (as a specimen of the early marrying
habit, notice that Wm. Godbey and Zannah were married in
1768, and their odest son, John, was born in 1769, when his
father was 19 years old, and this son John himself married
at 16, Naomi Bain). The second son of this first William
was also named John, and is our own ancestor.
These two brothers, John and William, came to Southwest
Va., probably just after the Revolution, for John, oldest
son of William, was married in Montgomery County, in 1783
(the marriage bond to Naomi Bain is still on file). Russell
and George Godbey came to Halifax County about the same
time. All four were Revolutionary soldiers from Carolina
County. Russell and George were pretty certainly brothers
of William and John, (although they may have been cousins).
We know of three George Godbeys in Revolutionary Army; two
Virginians, one N. Carolinian. There was a John Godbey in
New York before the Revolution, Probate Judge, and
secretary to Sir Henry Clinton. N.Y. records show no
descendents. (He may have been a Londoner.)
The descendents of the brothers William and John are now
very numerous. William settled near New Berne, in the
present Fulask County, then in Montgomery, purchasing land
there in 1797. He died in 1833; his will mentions his wife
Zannah; sons Benjamin, Gabriel, Francis, (Marion), George,
William; daughters of Sarah Cunter, Patsey Farmer, Lucy
Redge, Susanna Covey. (The John who married Naomi Bain died
in 1803 intestate; personal appraisement $1330.55; equal to
$5,000 these days.)
John's oldest son, William, was our Great grandfather. He
was born in 1781; records say in Carolina County; though
one paper claims his father had come to S.W. Virginia
earlier. William married Sarah Smith in Virginia and came
when quite young to Pulaski County, Ky. Their children were
John, who married Orpha Kelly; Jacob married _________,
Fannie married James Reese, Nancy married Edward Deboard,
Ibby married Eli Haynes, Matilda married __________
Cascanean; Sarah married __________ Ragan; William Henry
Harrison married __________; Josiah L. died in infancy;
Josiah and Josephine, twins; Melisea married Miles Wesley.
Three sons were Methodist Preachers. Josiah, our
grandfather, was born June 30, 1817. He married Sene Kelley
Oct. 27, 1836. He joined the Methodist Church Sept. 7,
1883, was licensed to exhort in 1840, and to preach in
1841. He travelled five years in Kentucky, superannuated
moved to Cooper County, Mo, in 1852, reentered Conference
in 1853, travelling 23 years, then superannuating; died
April 20, 1880.
The Godbey family is now numerous in West Virginia, and
Kentucky, and is found in the directories of the larger
cities of the West and South, from Florida to Portland. The
family clings to the farm, or takes to preaching and
teaching. W.H. Godbey of Evansville, Indiana, tells me that
a Rev. Alex Godbey, near him, has compiled a list of 87
Methodist preachers of the name. The names in city
directories are chiefly those of employes. The recent
election return Martin V. Godbey as elected to Congress
from West Virginia. A John Godbey was once in Kentucky
Legislature, from Nelson County. Andrew Jackson Godbey was
long clerk and sheriff of Floyd County, Va. But politics is
not a controlling interest of the clan.
[Letter Circa. 1930]