Thomas Goffe (abt. 1600)

Born about 1600 in London, England [uncertain]

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Biography

Thomas was a brother of Joanna Goffe who married William Longley. He was a "merchant and ship-owner of London and a member of the company which "floated" the Pilgrims. He was probably the owner of the " Mayflower " on her memorable voyage of 1620 as well as on her later voyages to America of 1629 and '30. He was also the first Deputy-Governor of the Massachusetts company. He died when on a voyage to America to look after his commercial interests in New England. He lost heavily by his "adventures" with the Pilgrims".^[1]

"The government of Massachusetts granted, April 16, 1734, 1000 acres of land to Robert Rand, whose father married a daughter of William and Joanna (Goffe) Longley, on account of the services to the colony of his granduncle Thomas Goffe. That Thomas poffe must have rendered great services to the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies, in their early days, is evident from this remarkable expression of gratitude, in the shape of a large grant of land, more than a century after the first settlements, to so remote a connection as a grandson of his sister."^[1]

Research Note

Father?: England Select Marriages 1538-1973 has a Thomas Goffe marrying a Marie Persons in Sussex on May 15, 1608, This has been picked up by a number of Ancestry Family Trees as applying to this Thomas Goffe.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Gilbert O. Bent. Who Begot Thee? Some Genealogical and Historical Notes Made in an Effort to Trace the American Progenitors of One Individual Living in America in 1903. Boston: Press of D. Clapp & Son, 1903, pp. 29-31. Archive.org.

• England Extraction of Parish and Court Records; Extracted from Obituaries Prior to 1800, compiled by Sir William Musgrave, parts 3 & 4
• Oxford University Alumni, 1500 to 1886; Volume II - 1500 to 1714; "G"; buried at Glandon July 29, 1629