Thomas Goodenow (1555 - bef. 1618)

Born 1555 in Semley, Donhead, Wiltshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Ursula (Unknown) Goodenow — married 1593 in St Andrew, Wiltshire, England

Descendants

Died before 6 Feb 1618 before age 63 in Dunhead, St Andrews, Wiltshire, England

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Biography

Five members of family, with some of their children, came from the south of England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They were the three brothers, John, Thomas and Edmund, and their sister Ursula, in 1638 aboard the good ship Confidence;^[1] and Dorothy a bit later. They had lived near each other in England in the neighboring shires of Dorset and Wilts; John in Semley, Thomas in Shaftsbury, and Edmund in Dunhead. Shortly after their arrival they joined with others to settle Sudbury, the nineteenth town in Massachusetts. The name Goodenow is well known there today.

Thomas Goodenow died before 6 Feb. 1617/8 at Donhead, St. Andrew Wiltshire England.^[2] Banvard, in the "Goodenough Genealogy." give the parents of Thomas as John and a Margaret, but he states that further research is necessary.

http://www.goodenowfamily.org/d1.htm Will dated 20Dec1617, inventoried 6Feb1617/18, probabed 19Mar1618 in St. Andrews, Wiltshire, [1] Information from Douglas Richardson, English Origins of the Goodenow Family; Transcript of Thomas Goodynow's nuncupative Will: That upon the twentieth day of December in the years of our lord god 1617 according to the computacon of the Church of England Thomas Goodynow of Donhed St. Andrew in the County of Wilts, and Diocese of Sarum being sick in body but of sound and perfect memory did by word of mouth declare his last will noncupative as followeth, vizt. Imprimis he did give and bequeath unto his three youngest children to witt Dorothy Edmund and Ursula to each of them x Lb a peece to bee paid unto them at the age of twenty years. Item he gave and bequeathed unto his sonne Simon two sheep. Item hee gave unto his sonnes Nathaniell and Thomas to each of them one heifer bullock a peece to bee delivered unto them. Item he gave and bequeathed unto his sons Ralph and John to each of them one heifer bullock and two sheep a peece to bee delivered unto them at the purification of our blessed lady the Virgin Mary next come two yeares. The residue of his goods not given nor bequeathed hee gave unto Ursula his wife whom hee made his whole and sole executrix and appointed Joseph Bower and Robert Button his overseers to see this his will perfourmed. Witnesses to the ... John Button minister Ralph Goodynow. Proved the 19th day of March 1617/18. Born November 1555 in Donhead St Andrew, Wiltshire, England.

Notes

• The name is from the French Godenot or Godeno, a jack in the box, a little ugly man. It may also be a local name from Gudenow, a town of thelower Rhine in Germany. Also spelled Goodnow and Goodenough. (Source S6)
• It is speculated but not proven that his parents were John and Margaret Goodinowe, who are known to have lived in Wiltshire.

Sources

1. ↑ Pope, Charles Henry. The Pioneers of Massachusetts (Charles H. Pope, Boston, MA, 1900) pp 192, 193
2. ↑ Richardson, Douglas. English Origins of The Goodenow Family, The American Genealogist (The American Genealogist, Barrington, RI, 1976) Vol. 52, Page 209

• "Ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton" part 3 pp 163--168
• Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England (Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1862) vol. 2. pp 271 272
• Goodnowfamily
• Richardson, Douglas. English Origins of The Goodenow Family, The American Genealogist (The American Genealogist, Barrington, RI, 1976) Vol. 52, Page 209
• The American Genealogist, New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937. (AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009, Vol. 61 Page 67-68
• Goodenows who originated in Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638 A.D. : they came from Wilts and Dorset, England : across America they roamed and multiplied" by Banvard, Theodore James Fleming, 1917, Gateway Press for the Goodenow Family Association, Baltimore, Maryland, ca. 1994.
• Clyde Goodenough (www.goodenough.com.au, Dec. 14, 2008.).
• Theodore James Fleming Banvard, Goodenows, Who Originated in Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638 A.D. (Goodenow Family Association, Gateway Press, Inc., Baltimore (1994).), p.1 quotes Will, Trowbridge, Book 5, folio 177.
• Will, John Goodinowe, Will dated 1593, Wiltshire, England.