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"The Godley Family from England to America", by Patricia Griffith
In 1637 Nathan and Richard Godle came into VA as indentured servants and settled in burned records areas. Nathan's probable son John Godley was in Chocowinity NC in the early 1700s. Immediate descendants were tracked into SC, GA, and MS.
William Godly first appeared in North Branch, Hunterdon Co. NJ in 1737 with some Quakers who had come into Philadelphia 50 years earlier. His son Edward migrated to VA and descendants went on to GA and TX. Wm. Godly's sons Wm. and Joseph stayed in NJ and descendants migrated to PA, NY state, MI and elsewhere. The two major emigrations of Godleys from England to America have not yet been connected by records.
The Godleys originated in Godleigh, Cheshire, England. It wasn't until 1662 that one migrated into Ireland, 25 years later than Nathan's arrival in VA.
The Godley family, wherever they might be today, can be traced back to their place of origin, Cheshire, England, to the little village of Godley (Godleigh), meaning "field of God", whose earliest extant records are dated ca. 1150 AD. Within the next two hundred years several branches migrated to other parts of England, and settled in Buckinghamshire, Yorkshire, Devonshire, and later in Dublin, Ireland. All Godleys are cousins. So says Lord Kilbracken of Ireland, John Godley, and modern Y chromosome DNA testing from both the Northern and the Southern lines of Godleys substantiate this statement. Most of the Godleys in America today descend from two single immigrations.
In 1637, Nathan and Richard Godly arrived at the Virginia shores. In the following decades a large Godley family grew in VA, North and South Carolina, and GA, many named Nathan. The only Richards among the earlier Godleys were in the Northern family, which may or may not have been "sired" by the Richard who landed in Virginia. There were no Nathans in the Northern family.
There are no other immigration records for Godley prior to the arrival of William Godly in New Jersey, who settled in Hunterdon Co. before 1737. He may have come from Virginia. Helen Moses, 1875-1930+, genealogist and great niece of Sidney Paul Forman, believed that William came from Virginia. She credited Aunt Emma, daughter of Augustus #38 and Elizabeth Paul Forman, as her source for this belief. Ms. Moses also said that William was in Changewater by 1730. Changewater was in northern Hunterdon Co. along the Musconetcong River. This record was found among the papers of Paul Forman Godley, a nephew of Aunt Emma and a diligent researcher of Godley family history. These records would put William's birth at c. 1712.
Some family researchers in the past have said that William came from England with a group of Quakers and settled in Burlington Co., NJ, in the 1730's, and another group said that he came from England to NY City, and on to Monmouth Co. NJ. The Quaker port of entry was Philadelphia. He was known to have been in fellowship with a group of Quakers who were in Burlington Co. There is a record of him in the Burlington Co. Quaker Meeting in 1742, but none that I have found in Monmouth Co. His wife's family, the Rockhills, came with a group of Quakers and settled in Burlington Co. Both Godley accounts are so full of obvious error that neither can be considered credible.
But there is another account of William's origin which is substantiated by three independent sources, two from the northern family, and one from the southern family. This fact, combined with Aunt Emma's collections and Ms. Moses's early and genealogically trained opinion, seem to suggest certain credibility.
The biographical sketch of William Vanderbilt Godley of Easton, Pa., found in Jordan's book on Lehigh Valley, Pa., written in 1902 while the subject was still living, states that the Godleys, an honored family from England, had first settled in Virginia, later removing to New Jersey.
Another biographical sketch, written by an historian in Wapello Co., Iowa in 1901, featured Mahlon Godley, son of Edward Godley and Hannah Mumford of Kingwood Township, NJ, and later of Fauquier Co. VA. Mahlon was a grandson of the first William of NJ. The account stated that Mahlon's ancestors, several generations earlier, had been two Godley brothers from England settling in Va. One had migrated north.
The third witness to the two brothers from England to VA story was a reported article in the Miami Herald, featuring a member of the southern Godley family who was descended from two Godley brothers, one of whom went north while the other went south. It was written sometime in the summer of 1958, when George H. Godley, architect from Cincinnati, Ohio, was vacationing in the vicinity of the newspaper's circulation. The record we have is a letter written by George to Slade Godley of the southern family, referring to the article, and stating that he, George, was descended from the brother who went north. It would seem that Slade's name may have been mentioned in the article. Slade answered that he was descended from the brother who went south.
Fred Godley of Portland Oregon said, in an 1896 letter to another member of the family, that "the Godleys had been of the Peerage, and through the treachery of someone, a vast estate had been wrongfully taken from them and given to the Crown", and that our Godly ancestor had come to America leaving two brothers in England. Based on this, it would seem that our Godley immigrant, whether it be William ca. 1737, or Richard in 1637, came to America leaving two brothers In England.
I favor the William in 1737 immigration for three reasons. First, there are just too many missing links between Richard in 1637 and William in NJ in 1737. Richard left no record, or known progeny after his arrival. There is not a shred to tie them together. Secondly, sometime in the late 1700s some additional Godleys appeared in NY, from England, with similar names, and ties with the family of our William; very possibly children or grandchildren of the two brothers left behind in England in 1737. Thirdly, the biographical reference to the earlier settling in VA could very likely have referred back only three generations, when Edward #5 left NJ in 1782 and settled in VA, followed by the return of his oldest son, William Jr #14., to NJ where he married Rebecca Anderson in 1794. This was William Vanderbilt Godley's line.
The earliest Godley "tree." was the work of Samuel Smith Godley of Cincinnati, Ohio, the grandson of John #31 and Mary McHenry Godley. It was dated 1903. It was the groundwork for several other records, by George Hodgeson Godley, Paul Forman Godley, Frederick Augustus Godley, Anne Craig Godley Wilson, William M. Pettit, Augusta Marie Starr, William W. Godley of Texas, Raymond Godley of Florida, Carol Hartwell of California, and Harold Godley of AZ, the last four being of the Edward line. We are also of the Edward line.
An account of the Nathan Godly line in North Carolina has been published by the husband of one of its' descendants, in which he says that the Godleys were Irish. However, John Godley, Lord Kilbracken of Ireland, who has a complete record of the Irish branch, says that they came from England well after Nathan left England to come to America, at which early date there were no Godleys in Ireland; Godleys are English.
Because of the massive destruction of property and records in the South during the Civil War, there is little left, and family lines may be forever lost. The Godley records in Virginia seem to fall into this category. There are possibly two generations of early Godleys in Virginia whose records are nonexistent. Whether or not the first William came from Virginia, there are many later Godley records, which seem to have gone up in smoke in the Great Fire of 1865.
My intention is not to follow every branch through to the present generation, but only to that point in history where public records are readily available and accessible to any future Godley researcher. The old records have been agonizingly hunted and pieced together, and the purpose of this record is to preserve that work and make them as readily available as are the more recent ones.
There are several published accounts of various branches of this family, containing documented error. Several of my dates and data differ from those other accounts, based on public record, rather than family tradition.
1. William Godly, born in England or Virginia by c.1712. The first record of him in NJ is in the Janeway store near North Branch in 1737 with Ed Rockhill Jr, his father-in-law to be. He bought 555 acres of timberland in Kingwood/Amwell in 1742 from Walter Clark. He was named as son-in-law in the will of Ed Rockhill in 1748, probably having married Mary ca. 1744, when Mary was twenty years old. He died in 1762 in Mansfield Woodhouse, Sussex Co., probably after a lingering illness or an injury from a logging accident, and at the home of Achsah Lambert, longtime Quaker friend of the family, and possibly sister of Mary. Her property was south of Asbury, just over the Hunterdon Co. line in Sussex Co. His will, written in August, was probated November 16, naming his eight children; Ann, Rebecca, Edward, Achsah, Mary, William, John, and Joseph. He signed his will, writing very well as if he had been educated in England, not the American South, where most people were illiterate. I was priveleged to handle and study his original will in the old documents room at the NJ Archives. William is not found in any more of the Quaker records in NJ, PA or VA that I know of.
2. Mary Rockhill Godley (Cherry), born Oct. 1724, daughter of Quaker Ed Rockhill Jr. of Burlington Co. and Hunterdon Co., NJ, and wife of William Godley #1. She was remarried to John Cherry Sr. after William Godly died in 1762, and had another child, John Cherry Jr. Mary Cherry is found in the Kingwood Meeting records as late as October, 1792, possibly later.
The Rockhill records go back to Robert Rockhill and wife Margaret, of England, parents of Robert Jr., born 1619, of Lincolnshire, married to Isabelle Johnson. They in turn were the parents of Edward Rockhill Sr. who married Mary Taylor, and after being persecuted and imprisoned for his Quaker beliefs, emmigrated to America ca. 1686. Of their eleven children, Edward Jr. was born ca. 1695-1700 and married Anne Clayton in Burlington Co., NJ, on January 4, 1724. Mary was their first child, their second, John, being born March 22, 1726.
The eight children of William Godly #1 and Mary Rockhill
3. (1) Ann, b. ca. 1745, was named Ann probably for her maternal grandmother who died in Trenton in 1767. A Quaker, she married Gershom Mott in 1774. She was called "Nancy" which at that time was a nickname for Ann. There is a Mott family record on file at the Rutgers Alexander Library in New Brunswick, NJ.
4. (2) Rebecca, b. ca. 1747, m. Jesse Waln, (not Wain) of Philadelphia in 1778. A Quaker, she was probably named for her parents' very good friend, Quaker Rebeccah King who was possibly a close relative of William, as Rebeccah's husband Joseph King was executor of the will.
5. (3) Edward, b. ca. 1749 in NJ, was named for his maternal grandfather. He m. Hannah Mumford, both of Kingswood Twp., December 17, 1770. Her name was misspelled "Mulford" by the clerk of court who recorded the marriage. However there were no Mulfords in or near Hunterdon Co., and the land adjacent to the 555 acres purchased by William Godly had been owned by one John Mumford of Rhode Island. A grandson in KY was named Mumford Godley. Mumford family research has shown that there was a David Mumford b. 1755 in NJ, and his brother James Mumford who was killed at the Battle of Brandywine. Two of the names Ed and Hannah named their sons, these were probably brothers of Hannah.
They accumulated many debts, recorded in the Court of Common Pleas in Hunterdon Co., before removing to Fauquier Co., VA between 1782-1784. They had ten children: William Jr., b. 1771; John, b. 1773; Mary, b. 1775; Nancy, b. 1777; Rockhill, b. 1780; David, b. 1782; Edward, b. 1784; James, b. 1787; Martin, b. 1789; Mahlon, b. 1791. He was a surveyor. He may have died in Virginia ca. 1807, as all of his sons left the area about 1808. The 1903 pedigree has this Edward as brother of the first William, whereas this Edward is son and not brother of the same. The fact that Edward chose Virginia as his place of relocation when he ran from NJ and his debts is possible cause to speculate that his father may have come from Virginia originally. Edward did not marry a widow as some accounts have stated, erroneously.
Ed and Hannah's move coincided with two probable contributing events. Ed had been released recently from debtors prison in NJ, and the newspapers were carrying a story of Thomas Jefferson having found a six pound rock of gold in Virginia in the area where Ed and Hannah settled. The location was named Goldvein, at the border of Stafford and Fauquier Counties in Virginia. Edward was a surveyor, an occupation he undoubtedly learned from his mother's brother, John Rockhill who was a renowned surveyor in West New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as being a physician. Edward owned a large piece of land in Va. (did he find gold?) which he sold in 1800.
6. (4) Achsah, b. ca. 1751, m. Joseph Field 1778, both Quaker. They moved to Falls, Pennsylvania, then to Burlington Co., NJ, then eastward. She was named for her mother's sister, Achsah Rockhill who may have married a Lambert.
7. (5) Mary, a Quaker, was active in the Kingwood Meeting in Quakertown, NJ, which had been established in part by her grandfather, Ed Rockhill, Jr. She is found single, in their minutes for several decades, without further record, until her burial in Quakertown, Pennsylvania in 1812.
8. (6) William Godley, Quaker, b. March 1, 1756, m. Abigail Grandin #9 in 1783. This is not William Godley Jr. of Hunterdon Co. records as stated in the 1903 pedigree. William Godley Jr. married Rebecca Anderson in 1794. This William was only six years old when his father passed away, and throughout his lifetime he was the senior William Godley. He bought land in Alexandria Twp. in Hunterdon Co NJ, and built Spring Mills in 1793. He remarried, to Eleanor Grandin (Couwenhoven) #10, widow, in 1800. He may have turned Methodist because a William Godley was an elder in Cokesbury Methodist Church, 1817. I don't know if it was William Jr or this William. He had ten children. Abigail and Eleanor were daughters of Philip Grandin and Eleanor Forman. This is the only branch of the Godley family descended from the Throckmortons and the Formans, and that on the maternal side.
William died September 25, 1836, will probated October 26, 1836. A letter from his son Grandin to his mother at this time, postmarked Tuscumbia, Alabama where Grandin had settled, said that he was sure that even though his beloved father, had lost his speech and could no longer praise the Lord out loud, that he had been doing so silently until the end, and that he was finally where he wanted to be.
His children were Mary, b. 12-4-1784; Eleanor, b. 7-23- 1787; William, b. 8-10-1789; Phillip, b. 7-11-1792; John, b. 10-2-1794; Jesse, b. 10-19-1796; Richard, b. 3-2-1802; Augustus, b. 4-3-1804; Abigail, b. 8-7-1806; and Grandin, b. 8-10-1810. Children Richard and Abigail died in infancy.
11. (7) John, b. ca. 1758. He is named seventh in his father's will dated 1762. There is no further mention of him anywhere. Named for his mother’s brother, he probably died young, as his mother named another son John in 1768 after her marriage to John Cherry. If he did survive, he may have settled in New York, as there were numerous Godleys there with ties to the known family that so far, have not been identified. More on the unidentified Godleys will follow in the appendix.
12. (8) Joseph, b. ca. 1761, m. Newell Bonnell in 1786. They had one son, Mahlon, in Kingwood Twp., and two daughters, before she died in 1793. Joseph was last child of William and Mary Rockhill Godley. His age in the 1830 NJ census is given as 60-70, proving the 1757-1829 dates in the 1903 pedigree to be wrong. It is interesting to note that not one of his brothers or nephews named their sons after Joseph, although every one of them had a John. What did Joseph do to cause such indifference to him among his family? There was a woman of his age with him in the 1830 census. If he had more children, they did not live long enough to be mentioned in Joseph's 1830 will. Joseph had a reputation in his home area for giving shelter to young men in need.
There are three possibilities for Joseph's namesake. His mother may have named him for her father's brother Joseph, or he may have been named for his parent's very good friend, Joseph King, executor of his father's will and husband of Rebeccah King for whom his sister seemed to have been named. Last and least, there was an immigration in 1754 of a Joseph Godley, convict; a relative? Something to do with the "treachery which cost the vast estate"? Or an imprisonment for religious beliefs? It is possible that religious dissention was the cause of the Crown having confiscated the Godley lands.
13. Newel Bonnell, born April 25, 1770, was the daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth (Newel) Bonnell, and wife of Joseph, who was her administrator, appointed Feb. 7, 1793. She was only twenty-three years old when she died. She had a sister Mary, and brothers John, Jeremiah, Clement, Alexander, Charles, and Abraham.
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The ten children of Edward Godley #5 and Hannah Mumford:
14. (1) William Jr. son of Edward and Hannah, b. in NJ August 25, 1771, was grandson of William #1. He moved back to NJ from Virginia, followed later by his two younger brothers, David and Edward. He married Rebecca Anderson in 1794 in Zion Lutheran Church; He had sons William, James A., Edward, Thomas B., Sidney T., Colvin, and Philip and daughters Mary, Hannah, Rebecca, and Lydia.
He was a potter, and possibly farmed the land she inherited from her father, James Anderson. These records were found in the original papers in the Hunterdon Co Hall of Records in Flemington. Their farm, located on Cherryville-Sidney Rd., was sold in a sheriff's sale in 1824, and they moved to Brutus, Seneca Co., NY, where her sister, Jane, wife of Henry Polhemus, and seemingly all of their older sons had already settled. Rebecca must have been in poor health, because she is not found with William in the 1830 NY census. He was living with his two young daughters at that time. A newspaper obituary gave her death as October 15, 1828 in Ovid, NY. During the course of five years or less, she saw the passing of her father James, her brothers Thomas and Ezekiel, her sister Grace, and her son William. She may have died of a broken heart.
Rebecca was the daughter of James Anderson and Mary Colvin , and the granddaughter of William and Jannetie______Anderson, and Phillip and Grace Holcombe Colvin, who was the daughter of Judge John Holcombe and his wife Elizabeth, also Quakers. Rebecca had sisters Mary, Jane and Grace, and brothers James, Thomas, Ezekiel, Phillip, and William.
William Godley and sons Thomas B. and Sidney moved from upstate NY sometime before the 1840 census at which time they were found settled in SE Michigan. William was there through the 1850 census. Son Thomas B. was the only son who did not precede his father in death.
15. (2) John, b. March 9, 1773 to Edward and Hannah, in NJ, moved with his parents to VA when he was about nine. He married Elizabeth Starke (not Sparks), daughter of Jeremiah Starke, in Fauquier Co., VA in 1796. They migrated to Kentucky in 1808 where their family was found in Kentucky censuses - Warren, and Allen counties, 1810 to 1840. John died ca. 1825. The Kentucky censuses of 1810-1820 show that John and Elizabeth had four sons, b. ca. 1796, 1800, 1805, and 1810, the latter two being Jesse and Mumford. The first two disappeared completely, and Mumford, named in an 1825 deed as one of the heirs of John Godley, deceased, was gone and no longer named in 1828. A William, born ca. 1802, living in Washington Co., KY - in 1830, a Jesse Starke Godley, Allen Co., KY, 1830 -1850, in 1830, Mumford Godley born ca. 1810, John Starke Godley, b. 1815, and a son born ca. 1796 seem to be the only heirs. Jesse was the only son to survive and leave records. Jesse's only son, John Starke Godley, sired only two girls, and the Kentucky branch would seem to have ended here but for one fact. It seems that Jesse Starke Godley was fond of one of his slave girls. A grandson of John and Elizabeth, Henry, became the father of 22.
Children: 20 boys and 2 girls. So says Henry's granddaughter, Hazel Godley Jones of Kansas, presently of Michigan, who was 84 years old (1991).
Hazel says that they are "mixed" race, which is partly explained by the 1870 and 1880 census records, which name Henry, white, and wife Dianah, white, with seven year old Virgil, black, in 1870. In 1880 Henry is found with wife Amanda (Gibbs), black, Virgil 17, black, and numerous other black children. Later censuses list them as "mixed". Henry must have loved one of his slaves, and decided to marry her later. Whatever happened to Dianah is a mystery.
17. (3) Mary, b. April 25, 1775, m. in Fauquir Co., VA in 1791, to Joseph Simonsen, possibly settling near Baltimore, Maryland.
18. (4) Ann (Nancy), b. Nov. 20, 1777, m. 1797 in VA, Gustaveus Keys, probably stayed in Virginia.
19. (5) Rockhill, b. Oct. 17, 1780, settled in southern VA, Pittsylvania Co. by 1810, where he was found through 1830. His wife was Sarah Jane Fountain from a very renowned French Huguenot family in Virginia, descended from Reverend Jacques de la Fontaine who fled for his life from Vatican Persecution in France in the 17th century.
Rockhill had ten children. The eldest son Hiram was surety for the marriage of his sister Jane to Thomas Hampton, in a Baptist church in 1830. Rockhill and sons Hiram and Fountain are found in Missouri in 1840 and 1850 and later censuses. The ten children were Jane, Ann, Hiram, Wady, Mary, Eliza, Rachel, Fountain, John, and James. Sons John and James must have died young. Descendants still live in MO today. Martin Godley, great grandson of Fountain and Eliza, lives in Kansas City, and Wayne V. Godley, great grandson of Hiram, lived in the area of St. Louis until recently. He presently lives in Richland. His nephew Lee lives in the southern "boot" of Missouri.
20. (6) David, b. Dec. 21, 1782, was found in the Hunterdon Co., NJ Militia (delinquent) in 1808 and 1809, the last record of him. He may have married Margaret______________Godley, found in Luzerne Co., PA, with two young children, in the 1820 census. (Killed in the War of 1812?) Probably he was the father of William G. Godley, born in NJ in 1810, and found in the upstate NY area 1831-1889. This is the first David in the Godley family, the second being the third son of Sally and William G. Godley of the Ithaca, NY area. The name David was from the Mumford family.
21. (7) Edward, b. Sept. 23, 1784, in VA, was in trouble in Hunterdon Co. with James* #22 and found "guilty" Nov.2, 1816. William defended them. He seems to be the Edward who was in the NY census in 1820 with a James, either brother or nephew. If so, he returned to NJ. Debts and bankruptcy followed for the next 12 years in NJ. An Edward of Milford m. Mary Emory in 1818. She was probably his reason for returning to NJ.
Virginia military records say that Edward was born in Virginia and enlisted ca. 1809 in either Tunkhannock, PA or Wilkes Barre, PA. Both were close to Plymouth where Margaret and the two children were in 1820. The military record said he was a cobbler. This area of Pennsylvania was claimed by Connecticut in the late 1700s.
In 1816, he was discharged in Sacketts Harbor, NY. He may have moved to NY State by 1820. He had died by c 1830 because he was not found in the 1830 census, and his wife was remarried to Evins Dahlrymple in 1834. They had had a son, Godfrey Emory Godley, who went into journalism and lived in Somerville, NJ, and New York City. He was apprenticed to the trade by Steven L.B. Baldwin of Somerville between 1831-1845. He fell into disfavor with the editor who called him "Badly; Godley no more". They also had sons William N. and John L., and daughters Lucy and Jane. These sons migrated to Kansas.
This Edward was the brother of William Jr. (#14), but there is the possibility that these preceding remarks do not all pertain to the same Edward, and identify not one, but two Edwards, the brother and the son of William #14.
22. (8) James M., b. January 25, 1787, presents the same problem as the preceding Edward. There were James M. and James A., brother and son to the William who married Rebecca. James M. settled in Georgia c. 1809, and was found in Georgia census 1820 - 1840. Georgia was giving out tracts of land to settlers in 1819, called the land lottery. James' wife, Kitturah Malone Godley was a winner in 1827. This was James M. (for Mumford?), brother of William Jr.
There was also James A. (for Anderson?) who was a son of William Jr. One of these two was in trouble in Hunterdon Co. in Oct. 1816, and was in the Court of Common Pleas on Nov. 2, 1816, and found guilty. James A. was probably the one in trouble, although James M. was absent from Georgia at that time, and was said to have gone home to the North to visit, at least twice. James A. was in Cayuga Co. NY in 1820 or earlier.
The family tradition says that James M. kept some slaves, and had returned to NYC to visit some relatives, who gave him such a hard time about his slaves that he told them if they did not cease their harassment he would leave and never return. However, the account of this branch has so confused the comings and goings of William (I), Edward (II), and James (III), that I am inclined to believe that this incident took place in the life of Edward and not James, as Edward, not James came from the North, and had Quaker family. Whereas James was born and lived his entire life in the South, and could not "return" home to the North.
James M. Godley and his wife Kitturah Malone had three sons, John Martin, b. ca. 1813, James Lawrence, b. ca. 1815, and George Meriwether, b. ca. 1818. This family moved from Georgia to Arkansas and later to Texas. S.S. Godley, who authored the 1903 chart communicated with descendants of this family to obtain this data. Present day descendants of James and Kitturah have updated it. One large branch of the TX family moved to Charlotte, NC in 1926. Descendants William Godley of Texas, and Carol Hartwell of California, have kept the records of this branch of Godleys. (James Lawrence Godley had 5 daughters and 2 sons, one of which was Robley Bartlett Godley, the founder of Godley, Texas).
23. (9) Martin, b. July 25, 1789 in VA, was probably in Ohio in 1823 since his son John was born there then. Martin settled in Mason Co., (West) Virgina by 1830. He married Jane Roseberry, of Pennsylvania, ca. 1821. Three of their four children died of black measles in 1834-1835. The eldest son John who survived, had moved to Columbus Ohio by 1890. John raised six sons by his third wife, Eleanor Meeks.
When Eleanor died in 1912, there was a large family gathering in Ohio, where much comparing and exchanging of family records and remembrances took place. The six sons were: John Edward, b. 1-29-1861; William Henry, b. 1-24-1862; Mahlon Rogers, b. 9-9-1864; Edgar Sylvester, b. 3-18-1868; Robert Walter, b.1-4-1871; Charles Emery, b. 10-4-1875.
Raymond Godley, son of Robert Walter, and his wife Mary, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., were very active in collecting and preserving the Godley records. They have supplied all of the West Virginia records, and all of the history of this line of the family through its migration to Ohio.
When Raymond's uncle, Mahlon Rogers married Minerva Abernathy of questionable moral character, his mother Eleanor stated that she would have preferred attending his funeral than his wedding to Minerva. Mahlon and Minerva had one very spoiled son, Lewis, who was later divorced by his wife. Family members thought so poorly of him, they would not discuss him at all.
24. (10) Mahlon, last of ten children of Edward and Hannah, b. in Virginia Sept. 23, 1791, settled in Mason Co., (West) Virginia by 1820, where he remained until 1850. His wife was Nancy Newman of PA. He was in the (West) Virginia census from 1820 - 1840. In 1830 he had two sons born between 1815 - 1820, one 1825-1830, and one 1835-1840 according to the 1840 census. Their children were Edward H., b. 1816, Walter M. b. 1818, Elizabeth, Martha, Milton Lewis b. 1827, Mary E., Virginia, and Leonidas Mahlon b. 1836.
One of his sons, Edward, married Barbara Yeager, and fathered Leonidas and Susan; his will was probated 1850, his executor being his brother Walter. Barbara had died previously. He died of Tuberculosis.
Financial difficulties plagued the family in VA. Mahlon was in debtors' prison before selling his property in 1834 to obtain his release. They removed to Iowa in 1849.
Leonidas, who had moved to Iowa to live with Yeager cousins, fought for the Union and lost a leg in the Civil war. He was considered a hero by the local townspeople who had him included in the biographical sketches of leading citizens.
The rest of the family must have left the area also, as there is no further record of any of them in (West) Virginia, but a probable solution to their disappearance follows them to Kentucky briefly, then on to Missouri where the census records show a Walter b. 1816, and L.M. born in VA 1836, and I.A., born in Kentucky 1845. Walter died in Kansas in Jan. 1880, after having deserted his wife Margaret. W. A. Godley, born 1844, was in Missouri in the 1880 census.
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The ten children of William Godley #8 and the Grandin sisters, include daughters Mary, b. 1784 and Eleanor, b. 1787 and the following other children;
27. (3) William, 1st son of William #8 and Abigail Grandin Godley of Spring Mills, Alexandria Twp., Hunterdon Co NJ, b. 1789, m. Lucinda Porter ca. 1818 and migrated to Indiana. Their only son John Porter Godley drowned in the Ohio River, in 1828, at age eight years. He had been told not to go near the river, but had been playing with other children along the edge of the river during a family picnic, when he slipped in and disappeared.
This was the William in Dearborn Co., Indiana in 1820, along the Ohio River in Logan Twp. William #27 was not named in his father's will dated 1832. His brother John's grandson said he died in 1821. I have the letter that was written by Grandfather William Godley in NJ after receiving the sad news.
29. (4) Phillip Grandin Godley, b. July 11, 1792, died the same year that his father's will was written (1832), according to H. C. H. S. (1903) pedigree. He was married to a Mrs. Budd. They died one week apart in Tuscumbia AL.
31. (5) John, b. Oct. 2, 1794, settled with wife Mary McHenry in 1820, in Dearborn Co., Indiana. Records there have him holding office there in 1827. It was his grandson, Samuel Smith Godley of Cincinnati, Ohio, who, in 1929, provided much of this data from his Godley chart which he compiled in 1903, from data collected by his cousins, Mary Emma, and Eleanora Godley, spinster daughters of Augustus #38, and Ms. Helen Moses, Forman cousin as well as family genealogist.
John only received 20 dollars in his father's will, whereas his brothers received several thousand. Either his father did not like his moving to Indiana, or else, like the Prodigal Son, he took his portion in advance to help him make the move. I favor the latter. John and Mary lived in Ohio and Minnesota, as well as Indiana, where they left many descendants. He was a Steam Boat Captain on the Ohio River.
33. (6) Jesse, b. Oct. 19, 1796, last surviving child of William #8 and first wife Abigail Grandin settled in Philadelphia; he was called a "prominent merchant", Quaker. His Quaker upbringing yielded to an Episcopal church affiliation. Mother Abigail Grandin died in 1798. Jesse had three wives and lost many children. Each wife had an infant Charles, all of whom died, in years 1834, 1843, and 1845. They are buried in an Episcopal churchyard in Burlington Co., NJ. His wives were Susan Polhemus, 1807- 1838, m. 1827; 2nd, Frances Throckmorton, 1811-1843, m. 1841; and 3rd, Hetty Harker, 1815 ------ m. 1844.
37. (7) Richard, first son of William #8 and his 2nd wife, Eleanor Grandin, born March 2, 1802, died Nov. 15, 1803.
38. (8) Augustus, first surviving child of William #8 and second wife Eleanor Grandin, b. Apr. 3, 1804 and buried Feb. 10, 1890) in United Church of Christ, Milford NJ cemetery. His gravestone gives 1803 as his birth year. His descendants populated Sussex and Warren Co. and one became pastor of Vienna United Church of Christ. Augustus's daughter Elenora was the source of much of this data.
Augustus married Mary Disbrough, 1813-1841, in 1829. His second wife was Elizabeth Paul Forman, 1810-1891, m. 1842. His father's mill at Spring Mills NJ and 40 acres were willed to him. His family had many of the same first names as our William Vanderbilt Godley named his many children; Charles, Albert, George, Ellen, Emma, Elizabeth, and Margaret, none of which were found among our William Vanderbilt Godley’s known predecessors. But these were the closest relatives WVG knew while growing up, and was probably living at Spring Mills.
Augustus' grandson, Paul Forman Godley, did a lengthy family study based on and building upon the work of his cousin, S.S. and the 1903 pedigree. PFG's daughter, Glenna Godley Nolle was preparing to publish his work. (Glenna passed away Jan. 2004, unexpectedly.)
39. (9) A baby girl, Abigail, was born to William and Eleanor on Aug. 7, 1806, who died March 15, 1811.
40. (10) Grandin Godley, found in History of Burlington Co. mentions that he and his wife Sarah buried a baby there September 1, 1835. Grandin was born Aug. 10, 1810, and died 1853, of Yellow Fever. His wife was Sarah Polhemus. They settled in Tuscumbia, Ala. ca. 1835. His poignant letter to his mother one year later upon the death of his father reveals a little of the high quality of character of this family.
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The only son of Joseph and Newel Bonnell Godley
42. (1) Mahlon, b. 1788, only son of Joseph #12, m. Mary Taylor at First Reformed Church, Easton, PA, January 29, 1811. They settled in Pike Co., PA, ca. 1818, having lived first in NJ. They had sons Joseph, b. 1812, Samuel, b. 1815, and Charles Bonnell Godley, b. 1818. Both of the latter were found in the upstate NY census in 1850 and 1860.
Mahlon bought property in Pike Co. where he was found in the 1820-1850 census records. The 1830 census shows Mahlon with two sons born between 1810 - 1815, and one between 1816 - 1820.
This Pennsylvania branch has some interesting color to its history. Charles Bonnell Godley, son of Mahlon, who was the only son of Joseph and Newell (Bonnell) Godley of NJ, was born near Milford, PA soon after Mahlon purchased a huge tract of timberland up there. Most of the family were lumberjacks, with a little surveying on the side. In 1841, Mahlon sold his land to Horace Greeley of newspaper fame in New York City, ("Go west, young man, go west!") for the Sylvania Society, an experimental project of communal farming. I guess all the timber had been cleared by that time. Anyway, Mahlon and two sons remained for the project while son Samuel went to NY State. The project failed in 1845, due to a devastating killer frost on July 4th, and everyone left except Mahlon and his eldest son Joseph. Joseph, married Sarah Rosencrantz and one of their grandchildren was baptized there in 1883.
Mahlon and Mary joined the family in New York State soon after 1850. Sometime after that Mary died and Mahlon removed to Clinton County, Iowa, where he lived with daughters Sarah and Matilda until after the 1870 census.
Horace Greeley had had a strong influence on the Godley young men, because so many of them did go West.
Charles Bonnell Godley and family joined brother Samuel and many cousins in upstate NY soon after the frost. Two of Charles’ sons, Andrew B., and Samuel moved west to Saginaw, Michigan in the 1870's. His other son, Lorenzo stayed in NY State on the farm near Waterloo NY. The descendants of all three are involved in researching the Godley family history.
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44. Rebecca Anderson Godley was a daughter of James Anderson who died in 1817. Her siblings were Thomas, Mary, wife of Cornelius Cornell, William, Philip, Jane, wife of Henry Polhemus, a sister Grace Jones, deceased by 1820, James and Ezekiel.
She and William #14 were the parents of James, Thomas, Sidney, William, Edward, Colvin, and Philip, found in the NY census 1820-1830. Our ancestors were known to have visited relatives in upstate NY in the 1800s and into the 1900’s.
Rebecca's mother was Mary Colvin, 174?-1804, daughter of Philip Colvin and Grace Holcombe, the dau of Judge John Holcombe. Her paternal grandparents were William and Jannetje _______ Anderson.
46. William Godley, b. ca. 1796 in NJ, (son of William Jr and Rebecca Anderson Godly) and Anna Vanderbilt, daughter of Jacob Vanderbilt, were the parents of William Vanderbilt Godley, b in Mt. Pleasant, NJ July 25, 1817. William #46 was thrown from a horse and killed before the birth of his son, so the family story goes. But is it only a story, fabricated to cover the embarrassment of a family over a daughter's illegitimate pregnancy and her abandonment by the father of the baby? Else why is this same William found in upstate New York in 1820 with his brothers and later his father too? This is the Wm who, with brothers Edward and James was found "guilty" in court on Nov. 2, 1816 in Flemington NJ, of an incident committed in Oct 1816. The nonexistence of any record of marriage is compelling.
Anna Vanderbilt was b. 1795, daughter of Jacob and Phebe Vanderbilt of Mt. Pleasant, NJ. Jacob was a son of John and Agnes. The Biographical Index of Lehigh Valley by Jordan, written while William Vanderbilt Godley was still living, states that Anna was the daughter of Jacob Vanderbilt of Alexandria Twp. There was only one, Jacob and Phebe. Anna named a daughter Phebe. Their farm was very near to where William Vanderbilt Godley was born.
47. Edward, The question remains, which Edward settled in New Jersey and married Mary Emory, the one born in Virginia in 1784, or his nephew, born c. 1797 in N J? Both were in upstate NY 1817-1820. The nephew was in the 1820 census with a wife and a son of the right age to be William N., their first son, named correctly for a grandson of William and Rebecca. But William. N. became a cobbler, an occupation which matched the elder Edward. And son Godfrey Emory Godley gave his father's birthplace as Virginia in the 1880 census. (see # 21)
48. James A., born c. 1796 in New Jersey, son of William and Rebecca and grandson of James Anderson, was in upstate NY by 1818. He and his wife, whose name is not known, had died between 1830-1840. They were the parents of Anderson Godley born 1830, and William M., born c. 1832, and two daughters b. c. 1824-1829. It appears from the census records that Sidney Sr. raised the children after their parents died. Anderson stayed in NY while William M. followed Sidney and family to Michigan. He was still a child.
49. Sidney, born ca. 1799, age 30-40 in the NY 1830 census, was found in Livingston Co., Michigan, 1850, age 50, living with Mary Jubb and family, probably his sister. His petition for military pension states that he had served in 1847 in the Mexican War where he had acquired Mexican Diarrhea, which had totally debilitated him, and from which he expected soon to die.
He further stated that his wife was dead and that he had five children living who would need some provision after he was gone. His eldest son, Sidney Jr. was married and had not left New York State. Other children are Israel, John C., and William. A George living in the same area at the same time was probably his youngest son. If there were any girls I have no record of them.
Sidney Jr. was born in NY in 1821. John C., born in NY in 1825, who was a Major stationed in Kansas during the Civil War, had enlisted in Michigan, and married a Michigan girl. John C. was divorced by his wife Adelaide while he was serving in Kansas and apparently living with his second wife to be, Victoria Reno of Lansing, Michigan. John C. and family continued living in Kansas after his discharge.
Israel, b. NY 1828 was in Michigan in the same area in the 1850 census. The only eligible father was Sidney. He also moved to Kansas and lived next door to John C. and brother William. George remained in Michigan. He was still a child when his father died.
Daniel M. enlisted in Colorado about the time that John C. was stationed in Kansas. He also was stationed in Kansas. There had been a D.W.(or M.) Godley in the Kansas census of 1860, born in NY ca. 1834. This was probably Daniel M., before he enlisted. He was a clerk. However, he returned to NY State by the late 1880’s or earlier. Daniel M. was the same person who was listed in the 1850 NY census in the household of Wm G Godley, probable son of David #20, as David M (for Mumford?) For some unknown reason, David as an adult, had changed his name to Daniel, the name of his maternal aunt's husband.
A cousin, Charles, son of Sidney's brother Thomas B., born in Michigan in 1836, was found in Kansas in 1880. This branch liked Kansas. Sidney Sr. was in the NY 1830 census with one son born between 1820-1825, and two sons, born between 1825-1830). He was not in the 1840 census.
50. and 51. Phillip and Thomas B., born ca. 1800 and 1805, were in the NY State census. Phillip was there in 1840, and may have died and left the widow Lucy Sheldon there in 1850 with many children, the youngest born 1840. Their sons William and George disappeared after the 1860 census. Eldest son Sheldon married Sophia Mason and left son Lester M. Godley, and grandsons Lester Jr. and Harry S., who continued to live in upstate New York.
Thomas B. was in the NY 1830 census with a wife and no children. In Michigan in 1840 he had three boys, two between 1830-1835, and one between 1835-1840. His descendants in Michigan today, who identified sons Edward B. and Charles, say that he had three wives and children by each. This is the ancestor of Harold Godley of AZ.
52. Colvin Godley, born in NJ in 1812, is in the NY State census as Colvin, his grandmother's maiden name. In 1850 it was misspelled Calvin. In 1860 it was Colvin again. He signed his name Colvin Godley.
In 1853, Colvin and family left NY State, and took the Oregon Trail. They settled in Linn County, Oregon in October 1853. Several years ago, National Geographic did a story on the Oregon Trail. In it they printed an excerpt from the diary of a young lady schoolteacher traveling that difficult Journey. She wrote one day, "This morning our leader, Mr. Gray, was in foul humor because he cannot get along with his in-laws, the Godleys." Mr. Gray was married to a sister of Mrs. Godley.
Colvin and wife, Martha Washington Dix, sister to the ex governor of New York, had three sons, Henry Dix Godley, John, and George Washington Godley, and daughter, "Anner". John didn't leave a trace, but may have been the husband of Cynthia found in Sacramento in 1880, where George had also settled. George served in the Union Army from Oregon. Henry had one son, Fred, who was in Portland in 1896. Colvin died in 1892, in Oregon. Donald, Harold, and Rex, sons of Fred, lived and died in Ocosta Washington.
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53. William Vanderbilt Godley, our ancestor, and the grandson of William #14, and Rebecca, raised 14 children, John, the oldest, killed in the Civil War before the birth of Margaret, the youngest, our grandmother. They lived in Cedarville, Southside Easton, PA, where he died March 7, 1904. His obituary stated that he had been a lifelong member of the Reformed Church. He married Anna Bowes of Easton area.
His mother Anna had later married Joshua Souders, and in 1830 they had left NJ and moved to Saucon Twp., Pa. The 1853 map of the area in Alexandria Twp. shows a Souders living on the land that used to be the farm of Jacob and Phebe Vanderbilt. Fannie Vanderbilt, who inherited that farm, had deeded part of it to her sister Anna, indicating further that Anna Godley was the daughter of Jacob and Phebe. The fact that Fannie referred to her sister as Anna Vanderbilt in that 1824 transaction is not a problem, as I see it. The Dutch retained a wife's maiden name, and since Anna was a widow by 1824, it would not be unusual for her to be called by her maiden name. Or it might never have been Godley, but merely a fabricated story.
It seems to me that William Vanderbilt Godley was very close to cousin Augustus, since many of WVG's children had the same names as did Augustus’ family. Possibly Eleanor and William #8 had taken WVG and his mother in and he was raised like a younger brother to Augustus. There were an extra boy and woman of the right age in that household in the 1830 census. If not, certainly the Godley relatives of WVG had a helping hand in supporting the young boy without a father. Whatever the connection, it seems to have been close.
The tie to the upstate New York Godleys also remained close. Grandma (Maggie) and her family continued to visit relatives up there in the Ithaca area, and on up into Canada, as late as the 1940s. Grandma died in 1958 at the age of 92.
55. 1-14 I have only followed through two of the fourteen children besides our line, sons Charles, and William Henry, #2, and #6. Because they still reside in the area of their ancestors, and because they responded to my inquiries and provided valuable data to contribute to this research, they appear with us on the chart. The eldest son, John Bowes Godley, b. 1842, was mortally wounded in the Battle of Petersburg (VA) in 1864. He was able to return to his home in PA where he died a short time later. He had defied his parents wishes in going off to war. The other sons of William Vanderbilt Godley remain unresearched.
55.14 Margaret Godley, the youngest of the fourteen children of William Vanderbilt Godley and Anna Bowes, was born in 1866 in the house in Cedarville. It is said that her mother was working in the potato patch when she left her work, went into the house and delivered the baby, and returned to work in her garden. Maggie May as she was known, married James Henry Griffiths in 1888, and dropped the s from the name because she thought it was too much of a tongue twister. They had daughter Mildred in 1889, who marrried George Hagemann, and son Robert Leslie Griffith on May 24, 1893, my father in law.
55.2 Charles married Mary Jane Brotzman and lived in the Easton area where he is found in the Pennsylvania census records. His descendants tell of his having fought in the Battle of Gettysburg, where he met President Lincoln. He has a grandson John, 81, wife Ruth, living in East Orange, NJ, (1991) and two great grandsons, sons of John's brother William. They are Charles and William of Walnutport, Pa.
55.6 William Henry Harrison Godley married first Susan Zink. They lived in Easton, where she died in childbirth having their fourth child, Susan. William Vanderbilt Godley and Anna took the children. The second child, Floyd, returned to the Flemington, NJ area, and fathered William Vanderbilt Godley II, who presently lives in Ringoes, and whose son, William Vanderbilt Godley III moved to NC to the Charlotte area. William Henry later married Ella Flynn and had four more children. His descendants live in the Flemington, NJ area, and Ringoes NJ, just a few miles from where the original William settled, and began the family in the home of his father in-law two hundred and fifty years ago.
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Appendix
There was a sizeable Godley family in the Albany, NY area between 1792 and 1860, or later. They appear to be one family, William, John, and Richard, all there in the 1790s. And they all are found with Crammonds living nearby. John remained in Albany, where his son Richard is found with an Elizabeth Crammond in the household in the 1850 census. William moved to Saratoga, and the elder Richard disappeared. I would think that these were surely children of our missing John # 11 were it not for an older William, found in Manhattan in 1800, age over 45. He and his wife have only one daughter, 15-20, left at home, making his age credible. And they have Crammonds living nearby. They have seemed to have had contacts with our New York State Godleys. My conclusions must be that these are probably sons or grandsons of the two brothers left in England. Elizabeth Crammond was born in England.
Also found in New York City in the early 1800’s are two John Godleys, new immigrants, several families in 1850 born in Ireland, and a Joseph in NJ, born in 1806 in England.
The Joseph Godley, "convict", who immigrated in 1754, could have been a brother or nephew of our William. He could also have been the father of the William in Manhattan in 1800.
Other late immigrations were Charles, b. England 1806, in Pennsylvania in 1860; W.H., b. 1849 in England, in Kansas in 1900; Joseph, b. Scotland 1820, in Ohio 1850, James, b. Scotland 1857, in NY 1900; and James, b. 1785, in England, in Ga. in 1850. These all are unidentified.
DNA Test Results Chart at Bottom of This Page
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"The Godley Family from England to America", by Patricia Griffith
In 1637 Nathan and Richard Godle came into VA as indentured servants and settled in burned records areas. Nathan's probable son John Godley was in Chocowinity NC in the early 1700s. Immediate descendants were tracked into SC, GA, and MS.
William Godly first appeared in North Branch, Hunterdon Co. NJ in 1737 with some Quakers who had come into Philadelphia 50 years earlier. His son Edward migrated to VA and descendants went on to GA and TX. Wm. Godly's sons Wm. and Joseph stayed in NJ and descendants migrated to PA, NY state, MI and elsewhere. The two major emigrations of Godleys from England to America have not yet been connected by records.
The Godleys originated in Godleigh, Cheshire, England. It wasn't until 1662 that one migrated into Ireland, 25 years later than Nathan's arrival in VA.
The Godley family, wherever they might be today, can be traced back to their place of origin, Cheshire, England, to the little village of Godley (Godleigh), meaning "field of God", whose earliest extant records are dated ca. 1150 AD. Within the next two hundred years several branches migrated to other parts of England, and settled in Buckinghamshire, Yorkshire, Devonshire, and later in Dublin, Ireland. All Godleys are cousins. So says Lord Kilbracken of Ireland, John Godley, and modern Y chromosome DNA testing from both the Northern and the Southern lines of Godleys substantiate this statement. Most of the Godleys in America today descend from two single immigrations.
In 1637, Nathan and Richard Godly arrived at the Virginia shores. In the following decades a large Godley family grew in VA, North and South Carolina, and GA, many named Nathan. The only Richards among the earlier Godleys were in the Northern family, which may or may not have been "sired" by the Richard who landed in Virginia. There were no Nathans in the Northern family.
There are no other immigration records for Godley prior to the arrival of William Godly in New Jersey, who settled in Hunterdon Co. before 1737. He may have come from Virginia. Helen Moses, 1875-1930+, genealogist and great niece of Sidney Paul Forman, believed that William came from Virginia. She credited Aunt Emma, daughter of Augustus #38 and Elizabeth Paul Forman, as her source for this belief. Ms. Moses also said that William was in Changewater by 1730. Changewater was in northern Hunterdon Co. along the Musconetcong River. This record was found among the papers of Paul Forman Godley, a nephew of Aunt Emma and a diligent researcher of Godley family history. These records would put William's birth at c. 1712.
Some family researchers in the past have said that William came from England with a group of Quakers and settled in Burlington Co., NJ, in the 1730's, and another group said that he came from England to NY City, and on to Monmouth Co. NJ. The Quaker port of entry was Philadelphia. He was known to have been in fellowship with a group of Quakers who were in Burlington Co. There is a record of him in the Burlington Co. Quaker Meeting in 1742, but none that I have found in Monmouth Co. His wife's family, the Rockhills, came with a group of Quakers and settled in Burlington Co. Both Godley accounts are so full of obvious error that neither can be considered credible.
But there is another account of William's origin which is substantiated by three independent sources, two from the northern family, and one from the southern family. This fact, combined with Aunt Emma's collections and Ms. Moses's early and genealogically trained opinion, seem to suggest certain credibility.
The biographical sketch of William Vanderbilt Godley of Easton, Pa., found in Jordan's book on Lehigh Valley, Pa., written in 1902 while the subject was still living, states that the Godleys, an honored family from England, had first settled in Virginia, later removing to New Jersey.
Another biographical sketch, written by an historian in Wapello Co., Iowa in 1901, featured Mahlon Godley, son of Edward Godley and Hannah Mumford of Kingwood Township, NJ, and later of Fauquier Co. VA. Mahlon was a grandson of the first William of NJ. The account stated that Mahlon's ancestors, several generations earlier, had been two Godley brothers from England settling in Va. One had migrated north.
The third witness to the two brothers from England to VA story was a reported article in the Miami Herald, featuring a member of the southern Godley family who was descended from two Godley brothers, one of whom went north while the other went south. It was written sometime in the summer of 1958, when George H. Godley, architect from Cincinnati, Ohio, was vacationing in the vicinity of the newspaper's circulation. The record we have is a letter written by George to Slade Godley of the southern family, referring to the article, and stating that he, George, was descended from the brother who went north. It would seem that Slade's name may have been mentioned in the article. Slade answered that he was descended from the brother who went south.
Fred Godley of Portland Oregon said, in an 1896 letter to another member of the family, that "the Godleys had been of the Peerage, and through the treachery of someone, a vast estate had been wrongfully taken from them and given to the Crown", and that our Godly ancestor had come to America leaving two brothers in England. Based on this, it would seem that our Godley immigrant, whether it be William ca. 1737, or Richard in 1637, came to America leaving two brothers In England.
I favor the William in 1737 immigration for three reasons. First, there are just too many missing links between Richard in 1637 and William in NJ in 1737. Richard left no record, or known progeny after his arrival. There is not a shred to tie them together. Secondly, sometime in the late 1700s some additional Godleys appeared in NY, from England, with similar names, and ties with the family of our William; very possibly children or grandchildren of the two brothers left behind in England in 1737. Thirdly, the biographical reference to the earlier settling in VA could very likely have referred back only three generations, when Edward #5 left NJ in 1782 and settled in VA, followed by the return of his oldest son, William Jr #14., to NJ where he married Rebecca Anderson in 1794. This was William Vanderbilt Godley's line.
The earliest Godley "tree." was the work of Samuel Smith Godley of Cincinnati, Ohio, the grandson of John #31 and Mary McHenry Godley. It was dated 1903. It was the groundwork for several other records, by George Hodgeson Godley, Paul Forman Godley, Frederick Augustus Godley, Anne Craig Godley Wilson, William M. Pettit, Augusta Marie Starr, William W. Godley of Texas, Raymond Godley of Florida, Carol Hartwell of California, and Harold Godley of AZ, the last four being of the Edward line. We are also of the Edward line.
An account of the Nathan Godly line in North Carolina has been published by the husband of one of its' descendants, in which he says that the Godleys were Irish. However, John Godley, Lord Kilbracken of Ireland, who has a complete record of the Irish branch, says that they came from England well after Nathan left England to come to America, at which early date there were no Godleys in Ireland; Godleys are English.
Because of the massive destruction of property and records in the South during the Civil War, there is little left, and family lines may be forever lost. The Godley records in Virginia seem to fall into this category. There are possibly two generations of early Godleys in Virginia whose records are nonexistent. Whether or not the first William came from Virginia, there are many later Godley records, which seem to have gone up in smoke in the Great Fire of 1865.
My intention is not to follow every branch through to the present generation, but only to that point in history where public records are readily available and accessible to any future Godley researcher. The old records have been agonizingly hunted and pieced together, and the purpose of this record is to preserve that work and make them as readily available as are the more recent ones.
There are several published accounts of various branches of this family, containing documented error. Several of my dates and data differ from those other accounts, based on public record, rather than family tradition.
1. William Godly, born in England or Virginia by c.1712. The first record of him in NJ is in the Janeway store near North Branch in 1737 with Ed Rockhill Jr, his father-in-law to be. He bought 555 acres of timberland in Kingwood/Amwell in 1742 from Walter Clark. He was named as son-in-law in the will of Ed Rockhill in 1748, probably having married Mary ca. 1744, when Mary was twenty years old. He died in 1762 in Mansfield Woodhouse, Sussex Co., probably after a lingering illness or an injury from a logging accident, and at the home of Achsah Lambert, longtime Quaker friend of the family, and possibly sister of Mary. Her property was south of Asbury, just over the Hunterdon Co. line in Sussex Co. His will, written in August, was probated November 16, naming his eight children; Ann, Rebecca, Edward, Achsah, Mary, William, John, and Joseph. He signed his will, writing very well as if he had been educated in England, not the American South, where most people were illiterate. I was priveleged to handle and study his original will in the old documents room at the NJ Archives. William is not found in any more of the Quaker records in NJ, PA or VA that I know of.
2. Mary Rockhill Godley (Cherry), born Oct. 1724, daughter of Quaker Ed Rockhill Jr. of Burlington Co. and Hunterdon Co., NJ, and wife of William Godley #1. She was remarried to John Cherry Sr. after William Godly died in 1762, and had another child, John Cherry Jr. Mary Cherry is found in the Kingwood Meeting records as late as October, 1792, possibly later.
The Rockhill records go back to Robert Rockhill and wife Margaret, of England, parents of Robert Jr., born 1619, of Lincolnshire, married to Isabelle Johnson. They in turn were the parents of Edward Rockhill Sr. who married Mary Taylor, and after being persecuted and imprisoned for his Quaker beliefs, emmigrated to America ca. 1686. Of their eleven children, Edward Jr. was born ca. 1695-1700 and married Anne Clayton in Burlington Co., NJ, on January 4, 1724. Mary was their first child, their second, John, being born March 22, 1726.
The eight children of William Godly #1 and Mary Rockhill
3. (1) Ann, b. ca. 1745, was named Ann probably for her maternal grandmother who died in Trenton in 1767. A Quaker, she married Gershom Mott in 1774. She was called "Nancy" which at that time was a nickname for Ann. There is a Mott family record on file at the Rutgers Alexander Library in New Brunswick, NJ.
4. (2) Rebecca, b. ca. 1747, m. Jesse Waln, (not Wain) of Philadelphia in 1778. A Quaker, she was probably named for her parents' very good friend, Quaker Rebeccah King who was possibly a close relative of William, as Rebeccah's husband Joseph King was executor of the will.
5. (3) Edward, b. ca. 1749 in NJ, was named for his maternal grandfather. He m. Hannah Mumford, both of Kingswood Twp., December 17, 1770. Her name was misspelled "Mulford" by the clerk of court who recorded the marriage. However there were no Mulfords in or near Hunterdon Co., and the land adjacent to the 555 acres purchased by William Godly had been owned by one John Mumford of Rhode Island. A grandson in KY was named Mumford Godley. Mumford family research has shown that there was a David Mumford b. 1755 in NJ, and his brother James Mumford who was killed at the Battle of Brandywine. Two of the names Ed and Hannah named their sons, these were probably brothers of Hannah.
They accumulated many debts, recorded in the Court of Common Pleas in Hunterdon Co., before removing to Fauquier Co., VA between 1782-1784. They had ten children: William Jr., b. 1771; John, b. 1773; Mary, b. 1775; Nancy, b. 1777; Rockhill, b. 1780; David, b. 1782; Edward, b. 1784; James, b. 1787; Martin, b. 1789; Mahlon, b. 1791. He was a surveyor. He may have died in Virginia ca. 1807, as all of his sons left the area about 1808. The 1903 pedigree has this Edward as brother of the first William, whereas this Edward is son and not brother of the same. The fact that Edward chose Virginia as his place of relocation when he ran from NJ and his debts is possible cause to speculate that his father may have come from Virginia originally. Edward did not marry a widow as some accounts have stated, erroneously.
Ed and Hannah's move coincided with two probable contributing events. Ed had been released recently from debtors prison in NJ, and the newspapers were carrying a story of Thomas Jefferson having found a six pound rock of gold in Virginia in the area where Ed and Hannah settled. The location was named Goldvein, at the border of Stafford and Fauquier Counties in Virginia. Edward was a surveyor, an occupation he undoubtedly learned from his mother's brother, John Rockhill who was a renowned surveyor in West New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as being a physician. Edward owned a large piece of land in Va. (did he find gold?) which he sold in 1800.
6. (4) Achsah, b. ca. 1751, m. Joseph Field 1778, both Quaker. They moved to Falls, Pennsylvania, then to Burlington Co., NJ, then eastward. She was named for her mother's sister, Achsah Rockhill who may have married a Lambert.
7. (5) Mary, a Quaker, was active in the Kingwood Meeting in Quakertown, NJ, which had been established in part by her grandfather, Ed Rockhill, Jr. She is found single, in their minutes for several decades, without further record, until her burial in Quakertown, Pennsylvania in 1812.
8. (6) William Godley, Quaker, b. March 1, 1756, m. Abigail Grandin #9 in 1783. This is not William Godley Jr. of Hunterdon Co. records as stated in the 1903 pedigree. William Godley Jr. married Rebecca Anderson in 1794. This William was only six years old when his father passed away, and throughout his lifetime he was the senior William Godley. He bought land in Alexandria Twp. in Hunterdon Co NJ, and built Spring Mills in 1793. He remarried, to Eleanor Grandin (Couwenhoven) #10, widow, in 1800. He may have turned Methodist because a William Godley was an elder in Cokesbury Methodist Church, 1817. I don't know if it was William Jr or this William. He had ten children. Abigail and Eleanor were daughters of Philip Grandin and Eleanor Forman. This is the only branch of the Godley family descended from the Throckmortons and the Formans, and that on the maternal side.
William died September 25, 1836, will probated October 26, 1836. A letter from his son Grandin to his mother at this time, postmarked Tuscumbia, Alabama where Grandin had settled, said that he was sure that even though his beloved father, had lost his speech and could no longer praise the Lord out loud, that he had been doing so silently until the end, and that he was finally where he wanted to be.
His children were Mary, b. 12-4-1784; Eleanor, b. 7-23- 1787; William, b. 8-10-1789; Phillip, b. 7-11-1792; John, b. 10-2-1794; Jesse, b. 10-19-1796; Richard, b. 3-2-1802; Augustus, b. 4-3-1804; Abigail, b. 8-7-1806; and Grandin, b. 8-10-1810. Children Richard and Abigail died in infancy.
11. (7) John, b. ca. 1758. He is named seventh in his father's will dated 1762. There is no further mention of him anywhere. Named for his mother’s brother, he probably died young, as his mother named another son John in 1768 after her marriage to John Cherry. If he did survive, he may have settled in New York, as there were numerous Godleys there with ties to the known family that so far, have not been identified. More on the unidentified Godleys will follow in the appendix.
12. (8) Joseph, b. ca. 1761, m. Newell Bonnell in 1786. They had one son, Mahlon, in Kingwood Twp., and two daughters, before she died in 1793. Joseph was last child of William and Mary Rockhill Godley. His age in the 1830 NJ census is given as 60-70, proving the 1757-1829 dates in the 1903 pedigree to be wrong. It is interesting to note that not one of his brothers or nephews named their sons after Joseph, although every one of them had a John. What did Joseph do to cause such indifference to him among his family? There was a woman of his age with him in the 1830 census. If he had more children, they did not live long enough to be mentioned in Joseph's 1830 will. Joseph had a reputation in his home area for giving shelter to young men in need.
There are three possibilities for Joseph's namesake. His mother may have named him for her father's brother Joseph, or he may have been named for his parent's very good friend, Joseph King, executor of his father's will and husband of Rebeccah King for whom his sister seemed to have been named. Last and least, there was an immigration in 1754 of a Joseph Godley, convict; a relative? Something to do with the "treachery which cost the vast estate"? Or an imprisonment for religious beliefs? It is possible that religious dissention was the cause of the Crown having confiscated the Godley lands.
13. Newel Bonnell, born April 25, 1770, was the daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth (Newel) Bonnell, and wife of Joseph, who was her administrator, appointed Feb. 7, 1793. She was only twenty-three years old when she died. She had a sister Mary, and brothers John, Jeremiah, Clement, Alexander, Charles, and Abraham.
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The ten children of Edward Godley #5 and Hannah Mumford:
14. (1) William Jr. son of Edward and Hannah, b. in NJ August 25, 1771, was grandson of William #1. He moved back to NJ from Virginia, followed later by his two younger brothers, David and Edward. He married Rebecca Anderson in 1794 in Zion Lutheran Church; He had sons William, James A., Edward, Thomas B., Sidney T., Colvin, and Philip and daughters Mary, Hannah, Rebecca, and Lydia.
He was a potter, and possibly farmed the land she inherited from her father, James Anderson. These records were found in the original papers in the Hunterdon Co Hall of Records in Flemington. Their farm, located on Cherryville-Sidney Rd., was sold in a sheriff's sale in 1824, and they moved to Brutus, Seneca Co., NY, where her sister, Jane, wife of Henry Polhemus, and seemingly all of their older sons had already settled. Rebecca must have been in poor health, because she is not found with William in the 1830 NY census. He was living with his two young daughters at that time. A newspaper obituary gave her death as October 15, 1828 in Ovid, NY. During the course of five years or less, she saw the passing of her father James, her brothers Thomas and Ezekiel, her sister Grace, and her son William. She may have died of a broken heart.
Rebecca was the daughter of James Anderson and Mary Colvin , and the granddaughter of William and Jannetie______Anderson, and Phillip and Grace Holcombe Colvin, who was the daughter of Judge John Holcombe and his wife Elizabeth, also Quakers. Rebecca had sisters Mary, Jane and Grace, and brothers James, Thomas, Ezekiel, Phillip, and William.
William Godley and sons Thomas B. and Sidney moved from upstate NY sometime before the 1840 census at which time they were found settled in SE Michigan. William was there through the 1850 census. Son Thomas B. was the only son who did not precede his father in death.
15. (2) John, b. March 9, 1773 to Edward and Hannah, in NJ, moved with his parents to VA when he was about nine. He married Elizabeth Starke (not Sparks), daughter of Jeremiah Starke, in Fauquier Co., VA in 1796. They migrated to Kentucky in 1808 where their family was found in Kentucky censuses - Warren, and Allen counties, 1810 to 1840. John died ca. 1825. The Kentucky censuses of 1810-1820 show that John and Elizabeth had four sons, b. ca. 1796, 1800, 1805, and 1810, the latter two being Jesse and Mumford. The first two disappeared completely, and Mumford, named in an 1825 deed as one of the heirs of John Godley, deceased, was gone and no longer named in 1828. A William, born ca. 1802, living in Washington Co., KY - in 1830, a Jesse Starke Godley, Allen Co., KY, 1830 -1850, in 1830, Mumford Godley born ca. 1810, John Starke Godley, b. 1815, and a son born ca. 1796 seem to be the only heirs. Jesse was the only son to survive and leave records. Jesse's only son, John Starke Godley, sired only two girls, and the Kentucky branch would seem to have ended here but for one fact. It seems that Jesse Starke Godley was fond of one of his slave girls. A grandson of John and Elizabeth, Henry, became the father of 22.
Children: 20 boys and 2 girls. So says Henry's granddaughter, Hazel Godley Jones of Kansas, presently of Michigan, who was 84 years old (1991).
Hazel says that they are "mixed" race, which is partly explained by the 1870 and 1880 census records, which name Henry, white, and wife Dianah, white, with seven year old Virgil, black, in 1870. In 1880 Henry is found with wife Amanda (Gibbs), black, Virgil 17, black, and numerous other black children. Later censuses list them as "mixed". Henry must have loved one of his slaves, and decided to marry her later. Whatever happened to Dianah is a mystery.
17. (3) Mary, b. April 25, 1775, m. in Fauquir Co., VA in 1791, to Joseph Simonsen, possibly settling near Baltimore, Maryland.
18. (4) Ann (Nancy), b. Nov. 20, 1777, m. 1797 in VA, Gustaveus Keys, probably stayed in Virginia.
19. (5) Rockhill, b. Oct. 17, 1780, settled in southern VA, Pittsylvania Co. by 1810, where he was found through 1830. His wife was Sarah Jane Fountain from a very renowned French Huguenot family in Virginia, descended from Reverend Jacques de la Fontaine who fled for his life from Vatican Persecution in France in the 17th century.
Rockhill had ten children. The eldest son Hiram was surety for the marriage of his sister Jane to Thomas Hampton, in a Baptist church in 1830. Rockhill and sons Hiram and Fountain are found in Missouri in 1840 and 1850 and later censuses. The ten children were Jane, Ann, Hiram, Wady, Mary, Eliza, Rachel, Fountain, John, and James. Sons John and James must have died young. Descendants still live in MO today. Martin Godley, great grandson of Fountain and Eliza, lives in Kansas City, and Wayne V. Godley, great grandson of Hiram, lived in the area of St. Louis until recently. He presently lives in Richland. His nephew Lee lives in the southern "boot" of Missouri.
20. (6) David, b. Dec. 21, 1782, was found in the Hunterdon Co., NJ Militia (delinquent) in 1808 and 1809, the last record of him. He may have married Margaret______________Godley, found in Luzerne Co., PA, with two young children, in the 1820 census. (Killed in the War of 1812?) Probably he was the father of William G. Godley, born in NJ in 1810, and found in the upstate NY area 1831-1889. This is the first David in the Godley family, the second being the third son of Sally and William G. Godley of the Ithaca, NY area. The name David was from the Mumford family.
21. (7) Edward, b. Sept. 23, 1784, in VA, was in trouble in Hunterdon Co. with James* #22 and found "guilty" Nov.2, 1816. William defended them. He seems to be the Edward who was in the NY census in 1820 with a James, either brother or nephew. If so, he returned to NJ. Debts and bankruptcy followed for the next 12 years in NJ. An Edward of Milford m. Mary Emory in 1818. She was probably his reason for returning to NJ.
Virginia military records say that Edward was born in Virginia and enlisted ca. 1809 in either Tunkhannock, PA or Wilkes Barre, PA. Both were close to Plymouth where Margaret and the two children were in 1820. The military record said he was a cobbler. This area of Pennsylvania was claimed by Connecticut in the late 1700s.
In 1816, he was discharged in Sacketts Harbor, NY. He may have moved to NY State by 1820. He had died by c 1830 because he was not found in the 1830 census, and his wife was remarried to Evins Dahlrymple in 1834. They had had a son, Godfrey Emory Godley, who went into journalism and lived in Somerville, NJ, and New York City. He was apprenticed to the trade by Steven L.B. Baldwin of Somerville between 1831-1845. He fell into disfavor with the editor who called him "Badly; Godley no more". They also had sons William N. and John L., and daughters Lucy and Jane. These sons migrated to Kansas.
This Edward was the brother of William Jr. (#14), but there is the possibility that these preceding remarks do not all pertain to the same Edward, and identify not one, but two Edwards, the brother and the son of William #14.
22. (8) James M., b. January 25, 1787, presents the same problem as the preceding Edward. There were James M. and James A., brother and son to the William who married Rebecca. James M. settled in Georgia c. 1809, and was found in Georgia census 1820 - 1840. Georgia was giving out tracts of land to settlers in 1819, called the land lottery. James' wife, Kitturah Malone Godley was a winner in 1827. This was James M. (for Mumford?), brother of William Jr.
There was also James A. (for Anderson?) who was a son of William Jr. One of these two was in trouble in Hunterdon Co. in Oct. 1816, and was in the Court of Common Pleas on Nov. 2, 1816, and found guilty. James A. was probably the one in trouble, although James M. was absent from Georgia at that time, and was said to have gone home to the North to visit, at least twice. James A. was in Cayuga Co. NY in 1820 or earlier.
The family tradition says that James M. kept some slaves, and had returned to NYC to visit some relatives, who gave him such a hard time about his slaves that he told them if they did not cease their harassment he would leave and never return. However, the account of this branch has so confused the comings and goings of William (I), Edward (II), and James (III), that I am inclined to believe that this incident took place in the life of Edward and not James, as Edward, not James came from the North, and had Quaker family. Whereas James was born and lived his entire life in the South, and could not "return" home to the North.
James M. Godley and his wife Kitturah Malone had three sons, John Martin, b. ca. 1813, James Lawrence, b. ca. 1815, and George Meriwether, b. ca. 1818. This family moved from Georgia to Arkansas and later to Texas. S.S. Godley, who authored the 1903 chart communicated with descendants of this family to obtain this data. Present day descendants of James and Kitturah have updated it. One large branch of the TX family moved to Charlotte, NC in 1926. Descendants William Godley of Texas, and Carol Hartwell of California, have kept the records of this branch of Godleys. (James Lawrence Godley had 5 daughters and 2 sons, one of which was Robley Bartlett Godley, the founder of Godley, Texas).
23. (9) Martin, b. July 25, 1789 in VA, was probably in Ohio in 1823 since his son John was born there then. Martin settled in Mason Co., (West) Virgina by 1830. He married Jane Roseberry, of Pennsylvania, ca. 1821. Three of their four children died of black measles in 1834-1835. The eldest son John who survived, had moved to Columbus Ohio by 1890. John raised six sons by his third wife, Eleanor Meeks.
When Eleanor died in 1912, there was a large family gathering in Ohio, where much comparing and exchanging of family records and remembrances took place. The six sons were: John Edward, b. 1-29-1861; William Henry, b. 1-24-1862; Mahlon Rogers, b. 9-9-1864; Edgar Sylvester, b. 3-18-1868; Robert Walter, b.1-4-1871; Charles Emery, b. 10-4-1875.
Raymond Godley, son of Robert Walter, and his wife Mary, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., were very active in collecting and preserving the Godley records. They have supplied all of the West Virginia records, and all of the history of this line of the family through its migration to Ohio.
When Raymond's uncle, Mahlon Rogers married Minerva Abernathy of questionable moral character, his mother Eleanor stated that she would have preferred attending his funeral than his wedding to Minerva. Mahlon and Minerva had one very spoiled son, Lewis, who was later divorced by his wife. Family members thought so poorly of him, they would not discuss him at all.
24. (10) Mahlon, last of ten children of Edward and Hannah, b. in Virginia Sept. 23, 1791, settled in Mason Co., (West) Virginia by 1820, where he remained until 1850. His wife was Nancy Newman of PA. He was in the (West) Virginia census from 1820 - 1840. In 1830 he had two sons born between 1815 - 1820, one 1825-1830, and one 1835-1840 according to the 1840 census. Their children were Edward H., b. 1816, Walter M. b. 1818, Elizabeth, Martha, Milton Lewis b. 1827, Mary E., Virginia, and Leonidas Mahlon b. 1836.
One of his sons, Edward, married Barbara Yeager, and fathered Leonidas and Susan; his will was probated 1850, his executor being his brother Walter. Barbara had died previously. He died of Tuberculosis.
Financial difficulties plagued the family in VA. Mahlon was in debtors' prison before selling his property in 1834 to obtain his release. They removed to Iowa in 1849.
Leonidas, who had moved to Iowa to live with Yeager cousins, fought for the Union and lost a leg in the Civil war. He was considered a hero by the local townspeople who had him included in the biographical sketches of leading citizens.
The rest of the family must have left the area also, as there is no further record of any of them in (West) Virginia, but a probable solution to their disappearance follows them to Kentucky briefly, then on to Missouri where the census records show a Walter b. 1816, and L.M. born in VA 1836, and I.A., born in Kentucky 1845. Walter died in Kansas in Jan. 1880, after having deserted his wife Margaret. W. A. Godley, born 1844, was in Missouri in the 1880 census.
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The ten children of William Godley #8 and the Grandin sisters, include daughters Mary, b. 1784 and Eleanor, b. 1787 and the following other children;
27. (3) William, 1st son of William #8 and Abigail Grandin Godley of Spring Mills, Alexandria Twp., Hunterdon Co NJ, b. 1789, m. Lucinda Porter ca. 1818 and migrated to Indiana. Their only son John Porter Godley drowned in the Ohio River, in 1828, at age eight years. He had been told not to go near the river, but had been playing with other children along the edge of the river during a family picnic, when he slipped in and disappeared.
This was the William in Dearborn Co., Indiana in 1820, along the Ohio River in Logan Twp. William #27 was not named in his father's will dated 1832. His brother John's grandson said he died in 1821. I have the letter that was written by Grandfather William Godley in NJ after receiving the sad news.
29. (4) Phillip Grandin Godley, b. July 11, 1792, died the same year that his father's will was written (1832), according to H. C. H. S. (1903) pedigree. He was married to a Mrs. Budd. They died one week apart in Tuscumbia AL.
31. (5) John, b. Oct. 2, 1794, settled with wife Mary McHenry in 1820, in Dearborn Co., Indiana. Records there have him holding office there in 1827. It was his grandson, Samuel Smith Godley of Cincinnati, Ohio, who, in 1929, provided much of this data from his Godley chart which he compiled in 1903, from data collected by his cousins, Mary Emma, and Eleanora Godley, spinster daughters of Augustus #38, and Ms. Helen Moses, Forman cousin as well as family genealogist.
John only received 20 dollars in his father's will, whereas his brothers received several thousand. Either his father did not like his moving to Indiana, or else, like the Prodigal Son, he took his portion in advance to help him make the move. I favor the latter. John and Mary lived in Ohio and Minnesota, as well as Indiana, where they left many descendants. He was a Steam Boat Captain on the Ohio River.
33. (6) Jesse, b. Oct. 19, 1796, last surviving child of William #8 and first wife Abigail Grandin settled in Philadelphia; he was called a "prominent merchant", Quaker. His Quaker upbringing yielded to an Episcopal church affiliation. Mother Abigail Grandin died in 1798. Jesse had three wives and lost many children. Each wife had an infant Charles, all of whom died, in years 1834, 1843, and 1845. They are buried in an Episcopal churchyard in Burlington Co., NJ. His wives were Susan Polhemus, 1807- 1838, m. 1827; 2nd, Frances Throckmorton, 1811-1843, m. 1841; and 3rd, Hetty Harker, 1815 ------ m. 1844.
37. (7) Richard, first son of William #8 and his 2nd wife, Eleanor Grandin, born March 2, 1802, died Nov. 15, 1803.
38. (8) Augustus, first surviving child of William #8 and second wife Eleanor Grandin, b. Apr. 3, 1804 and buried Feb. 10, 1890) in United Church of Christ, Milford NJ cemetery. His gravestone gives 1803 as his birth year. His descendants populated Sussex and Warren Co. and one became pastor of Vienna United Church of Christ. Augustus's daughter Elenora was the source of much of this data.
Augustus married Mary Disbrough, 1813-1841, in 1829. His second wife was Elizabeth Paul Forman, 1810-1891, m. 1842. His father's mill at Spring Mills NJ and 40 acres were willed to him. His family had many of the same first names as our William Vanderbilt Godley named his many children; Charles, Albert, George, Ellen, Emma, Elizabeth, and Margaret, none of which were found among our William Vanderbilt Godley’s known predecessors. But these were the closest relatives WVG knew while growing up, and was probably living at Spring Mills.
Augustus' grandson, Paul Forman Godley, did a lengthy family study based on and building upon the work of his cousin, S.S. and the 1903 pedigree. PFG's daughter, Glenna Godley Nolle was preparing to publish his work. (Glenna passed away Jan. 2004, unexpectedly.)
39. (9) A baby girl, Abigail, was born to William and Eleanor on Aug. 7, 1806, who died March 15, 1811.
40. (10) Grandin Godley, found in History of Burlington Co. mentions that he and his wife Sarah buried a baby there September 1, 1835. Grandin was born Aug. 10, 1810, and died 1853, of Yellow Fever. His wife was Sarah Polhemus. They settled in Tuscumbia, Ala. ca. 1835. His poignant letter to his mother one year later upon the death of his father reveals a little of the high quality of character of this family.
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The only son of Joseph and Newel Bonnell Godley
42. (1) Mahlon, b. 1788, only son of Joseph #12, m. Mary Taylor at First Reformed Church, Easton, PA, January 29, 1811. They settled in Pike Co., PA, ca. 1818, having lived first in NJ. They had sons Joseph, b. 1812, Samuel, b. 1815, and Charles Bonnell Godley, b. 1818. Both of the latter were found in the upstate NY census in 1850 and 1860.
Mahlon bought property in Pike Co. where he was found in the 1820-1850 census records. The 1830 census shows Mahlon with two sons born between 1810 - 1815, and one between 1816 - 1820.
This Pennsylvania branch has some interesting color to its history. Charles Bonnell Godley, son of Mahlon, who was the only son of Joseph and Newell (Bonnell) Godley of NJ, was born near Milford, PA soon after Mahlon purchased a huge tract of timberland up there. Most of the family were lumberjacks, with a little surveying on the side. In 1841, Mahlon sold his land to Horace Greeley of newspaper fame in New York City, ("Go west, young man, go west!") for the Sylvania Society, an experimental project of communal farming. I guess all the timber had been cleared by that time. Anyway, Mahlon and two sons remained for the project while son Samuel went to NY State. The project failed in 1845, due to a devastating killer frost on July 4th, and everyone left except Mahlon and his eldest son Joseph. Joseph, married Sarah Rosencrantz and one of their grandchildren was baptized there in 1883.
Mahlon and Mary joined the family in New York State soon after 1850. Sometime after that Mary died and Mahlon removed to Clinton County, Iowa, where he lived with daughters Sarah and Matilda until after the 1870 census.
Horace Greeley had had a strong influence on the Godley young men, because so many of them did go West.
Charles Bonnell Godley and family joined brother Samuel and many cousins in upstate NY soon after the frost. Two of Charles’ sons, Andrew B., and Samuel moved west to Saginaw, Michigan in the 1870's. His other son, Lorenzo stayed in NY State on the farm near Waterloo NY. The descendants of all three are involved in researching the Godley family history.
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44. Rebecca Anderson Godley was a daughter of James Anderson who died in 1817. Her siblings were Thomas, Mary, wife of Cornelius Cornell, William, Philip, Jane, wife of Henry Polhemus, a sister Grace Jones, deceased by 1820, James and Ezekiel.
She and William #14 were the parents of James, Thomas, Sidney, William, Edward, Colvin, and Philip, found in the NY census 1820-1830. Our ancestors were known to have visited relatives in upstate NY in the 1800s and into the 1900’s.
Rebecca's mother was Mary Colvin, 174?-1804, daughter of Philip Colvin and Grace Holcombe, the dau of Judge John Holcombe. Her paternal grandparents were William and Jannetje _______ Anderson.
46. William Godley, b. ca. 1796 in NJ, (son of William Jr and Rebecca Anderson Godly) and Anna Vanderbilt, daughter of Jacob Vanderbilt, were the parents of William Vanderbilt Godley, b in Mt. Pleasant, NJ July 25, 1817. William #46 was thrown from a horse and killed before the birth of his son, so the family story goes. But is it only a story, fabricated to cover the embarrassment of a family over a daughter's illegitimate pregnancy and her abandonment by the father of the baby? Else why is this same William found in upstate New York in 1820 with his brothers and later his father too? This is the Wm who, with brothers Edward and James was found "guilty" in court on Nov. 2, 1816 in Flemington NJ, of an incident committed in Oct 1816. The nonexistence of any record of marriage is compelling.
Anna Vanderbilt was b. 1795, daughter of Jacob and Phebe Vanderbilt of Mt. Pleasant, NJ. Jacob was a son of John and Agnes. The Biographical Index of Lehigh Valley by Jordan, written while William Vanderbilt Godley was still living, states that Anna was the daughter of Jacob Vanderbilt of Alexandria Twp. There was only one, Jacob and Phebe. Anna named a daughter Phebe. Their farm was very near to where William Vanderbilt Godley was born.
47. Edward, The question remains, which Edward settled in New Jersey and married Mary Emory, the one born in Virginia in 1784, or his nephew, born c. 1797 in N J? Both were in upstate NY 1817-1820. The nephew was in the 1820 census with a wife and a son of the right age to be William N., their first son, named correctly for a grandson of William and Rebecca. But William. N. became a cobbler, an occupation which matched the elder Edward. And son Godfrey Emory Godley gave his father's birthplace as Virginia in the 1880 census. (see # 21)
48. James A., born c. 1796 in New Jersey, son of William and Rebecca and grandson of James Anderson, was in upstate NY by 1818. He and his wife, whose name is not known, had died between 1830-1840. They were the parents of Anderson Godley born 1830, and William M., born c. 1832, and two daughters b. c. 1824-1829. It appears from the census records that Sidney Sr. raised the children after their parents died. Anderson stayed in NY while William M. followed Sidney and family to Michigan. He was still a child.
49. Sidney, born ca. 1799, age 30-40 in the NY 1830 census, was found in Livingston Co., Michigan, 1850, age 50, living with Mary Jubb and family, probably his sister. His petition for military pension states that he had served in 1847 in the Mexican War where he had acquired Mexican Diarrhea, which had totally debilitated him, and from which he expected soon to die.
He further stated that his wife was dead and that he had five children living who would need some provision after he was gone. His eldest son, Sidney Jr. was married and had not left New York State. Other children are Israel, John C., and William. A George living in the same area at the same time was probably his youngest son. If there were any girls I have no record of them.
Sidney Jr. was born in NY in 1821. John C., born in NY in 1825, who was a Major stationed in Kansas during the Civil War, had enlisted in Michigan, and married a Michigan girl. John C. was divorced by his wife Adelaide while he was serving in Kansas and apparently living with his second wife to be, Victoria Reno of Lansing, Michigan. John C. and family continued living in Kansas after his discharge.
Israel, b. NY 1828 was in Michigan in the same area in the 1850 census. The only eligible father was Sidney. He also moved to Kansas and lived next door to John C. and brother William. George remained in Michigan. He was still a child when his father died.
Daniel M. enlisted in Colorado about the time that John C. was stationed in Kansas. He also was stationed in Kansas. There had been a D.W.(or M.) Godley in the Kansas census of 1860, born in NY ca. 1834. This was probably Daniel M., before he enlisted. He was a clerk. However, he returned to NY State by the late 1880’s or earlier. Daniel M. was the same person who was listed in the 1850 NY census in the household of Wm G Godley, probable son of David #20, as David M (for Mumford?) For some unknown reason, David as an adult, had changed his name to Daniel, the name of his maternal aunt's husband.
A cousin, Charles, son of Sidney's brother Thomas B., born in Michigan in 1836, was found in Kansas in 1880. This branch liked Kansas. Sidney Sr. was in the NY 1830 census with one son born between 1820-1825, and two sons, born between 1825-1830). He was not in the 1840 census.
50. and 51. Phillip and Thomas B., born ca. 1800 and 1805, were in the NY State census. Phillip was there in 1840, and may have died and left the widow Lucy Sheldon there in 1850 with many children, the youngest born 1840. Their sons William and George disappeared after the 1860 census. Eldest son Sheldon married Sophia Mason and left son Lester M. Godley, and grandsons Lester Jr. and Harry S., who continued to live in upstate New York.
Thomas B. was in the NY 1830 census with a wife and no children. In Michigan in 1840 he had three boys, two between 1830-1835, and one between 1835-1840. His descendants in Michigan today, who identified sons Edward B. and Charles, say that he had three wives and children by each. This is the ancestor of Harold Godley of AZ.
52. Colvin Godley, born in NJ in 1812, is in the NY State census as Colvin, his grandmother's maiden name. In 1850 it was misspelled Calvin. In 1860 it was Colvin again. He signed his name Colvin Godley.
In 1853, Colvin and family left NY State, and took the Oregon Trail. They settled in Linn County, Oregon in October 1853. Several years ago, National Geographic did a story on the Oregon Trail. In it they printed an excerpt from the diary of a young lady schoolteacher traveling that difficult Journey. She wrote one day, "This morning our leader, Mr. Gray, was in foul humor because he cannot get along with his in-laws, the Godleys." Mr. Gray was married to a sister of Mrs. Godley.
Colvin and wife, Martha Washington Dix, sister to the ex governor of New York, had three sons, Henry Dix Godley, John, and George Washington Godley, and daughter, "Anner". John didn't leave a trace, but may have been the husband of Cynthia found in Sacramento in 1880, where George had also settled. George served in the Union Army from Oregon. Henry had one son, Fred, who was in Portland in 1896. Colvin died in 1892, in Oregon. Donald, Harold, and Rex, sons of Fred, lived and died in Ocosta Washington.
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53. William Vanderbilt Godley, our ancestor, and the grandson of William #14, and Rebecca, raised 14 children, John, the oldest, killed in the Civil War before the birth of Margaret, the youngest, our grandmother. They lived in Cedarville, Southside Easton, PA, where he died March 7, 1904. His obituary stated that he had been a lifelong member of the Reformed Church. He married Anna Bowes of Easton area.
His mother Anna had later married Joshua Souders, and in 1830 they had left NJ and moved to Saucon Twp., Pa. The 1853 map of the area in Alexandria Twp. shows a Souders living on the land that used to be the farm of Jacob and Phebe Vanderbilt. Fannie Vanderbilt, who inherited that farm, had deeded part of it to her sister Anna, indicating further that Anna Godley was the daughter of Jacob and Phebe. The fact that Fannie referred to her sister as Anna Vanderbilt in that 1824 transaction is not a problem, as I see it. The Dutch retained a wife's maiden name, and since Anna was a widow by 1824, it would not be unusual for her to be called by her maiden name. Or it might never have been Godley, but merely a fabricated story.
It seems to me that William Vanderbilt Godley was very close to cousin Augustus, since many of WVG's children had the same names as did Augustus’ family. Possibly Eleanor and William #8 had taken WVG and his mother in and he was raised like a younger brother to Augustus. There were an extra boy and woman of the right age in that household in the 1830 census. If not, certainly the Godley relatives of WVG had a helping hand in supporting the young boy without a father. Whatever the connection, it seems to have been close.
The tie to the upstate New York Godleys also remained close. Grandma (Maggie) and her family continued to visit relatives up there in the Ithaca area, and on up into Canada, as late as the 1940s. Grandma died in 1958 at the age of 92.
55. 1-14 I have only followed through two of the fourteen children besides our line, sons Charles, and William Henry, #2, and #6. Because they still reside in the area of their ancestors, and because they responded to my inquiries and provided valuable data to contribute to this research, they appear with us on the chart. The eldest son, John Bowes Godley, b. 1842, was mortally wounded in the Battle of Petersburg (VA) in 1864. He was able to return to his home in PA where he died a short time later. He had defied his parents wishes in going off to war. The other sons of William Vanderbilt Godley remain unresearched.
55.14 Margaret Godley, the youngest of the fourteen children of William Vanderbilt Godley and Anna Bowes, was born in 1866 in the house in Cedarville. It is said that her mother was working in the potato patch when she left her work, went into the house and delivered the baby, and returned to work in her garden. Maggie May as she was known, married James Henry Griffiths in 1888, and dropped the s from the name because she thought it was too much of a tongue twister. They had daughter Mildred in 1889, who marrried George Hagemann, and son Robert Leslie Griffith on May 24, 1893, my father in law.
55.2 Charles married Mary Jane Brotzman and lived in the Easton area where he is found in the Pennsylvania census records. His descendants tell of his having fought in the Battle of Gettysburg, where he met President Lincoln. He has a grandson John, 81, wife Ruth, living in East Orange, NJ, (1991) and two great grandsons, sons of John's brother William. They are Charles and William of Walnutport, Pa.
55.6 William Henry Harrison Godley married first Susan Zink. They lived in Easton, where she died in childbirth having their fourth child, Susan. William Vanderbilt Godley and Anna took the children. The second child, Floyd, returned to the Flemington, NJ area, and fathered William Vanderbilt Godley II, who presently lives in Ringoes, and whose son, William Vanderbilt Godley III moved to NC to the Charlotte area. William Henry later married Ella Flynn and had four more children. His descendants live in the Flemington, NJ area, and Ringoes NJ, just a few miles from where the original William settled, and began the family in the home of his father in-law two hundred and fifty years ago.
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Appendix
There was a sizeable Godley family in the Albany, NY area between 1792 and 1860, or later. They appear to be one family, William, John, and Richard, all there in the 1790s. And they all are found with Crammonds living nearby. John remained in Albany, where his son Richard is found with an Elizabeth Crammond in the household in the 1850 census. William moved to Saratoga, and the elder Richard disappeared. I would think that these were surely children of our missing John # 11 were it not for an older William, found in Manhattan in 1800, age over 45. He and his wife have only one daughter, 15-20, left at home, making his age credible. And they have Crammonds living nearby. They have seemed to have had contacts with our New York State Godleys. My conclusions must be that these are probably sons or grandsons of the two brothers left in England. Elizabeth Crammond was born in England.
Also found in New York City in the early 1800’s are two John Godleys, new immigrants, several families in 1850 born in Ireland, and a Joseph in NJ, born in 1806 in England.
The Joseph Godley, "convict", who immigrated in 1754, could have been a brother or nephew of our William. He could also have been the father of the William in Manhattan in 1800.
Other late immigrations were Charles, b. England 1806, in Pennsylvania in 1860; W.H., b. 1849 in England, in Kansas in 1900; Joseph, b. Scotland 1820, in Ohio 1850, James, b. Scotland 1857, in NY 1900; and James, b. 1785, in England, in Ga. in 1850. These all are unidentified.