The Strange Death of Edmund Godfrey

by Alan Marshall

  There is little doubt that Godfrey did return home for some time that day. His servant Judith Pamphlin was later to relate what happened there. She claimed that on the Thursday Godfrey had been so distraught he had torn his band from his throat and flung it into the middle of the room. Nor was the Friday evening much better, as Pamphlin claimed that Godfrey had ‘tumbled over all of his writings, and burnt as many papers, as her apron would hold’. She was very concerned about this, as she thought that in his distraction he might also have burnt the deeds for a cottage that she had mortgaged to him. The maidservant Elizabeth Curtis was to claim that a man also brought a note to Godfrey that same evening, but the magistrate ‘didn’t know what to make of it’.45 Whatever the truth of the matter, it is certain that Henry Thynn was later to tell Sir Robert Southwell that he had seen Godfrey looking very glum indeed that evening at the house of the magistrate’s great friend Lady Margaret Pratt.46 The Pratts were old friends of the magistrate. Sir George Pratt of Coleshill in Berkshire had died a few years previously, but his wife Lady Margaret still held court in her house in Charing Cross and Godfrey frequently visited her there. Significantly, despite being a vital witness she appears never to have been interviewed by the authorities as to Godfrey’s mood that evening.47

  SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER: THE DAY OF DISAPPEARANCE

  About this, the day of Godfrey’s disappearance, there are a variety of eyewitness accounts. Some of them are plainly contradictory, while others seem to hold elements of the truth. At 6 or 7 o’clock that morning Richard Adams was to claim that he went to Godfrey’s house and was told the magistrate had already gone out. However, the maid Elizabeth Curtis was to claim that before Godfrey went out a man named Lawrence Hill had called and talked to Godfrey in both English and French. As we shall shortly see, this was to prove another nail in Hill’s coffin at his trial. Curtis claimed that she had seen Hill in the parlour that morning when she brought in Godfrey’s breakfast. Nevertheless, Curtis had not recognised Hill when she was taken to Newgate to identify him before the trial. Godfrey’s clerk Henry Moor said that his master had some judicial business prior to 9 o’clock, then the ‘company’ left. This was as far as he would venture. It is clear that whatever the order of the earlier events, at around 9 or 10 o’clock that morning Henry Moor was with Godfrey in the parlour of his house. It was there that Moor helped his master on with his new coat. Then Godfrey changed his mind and replaced it with his old one and his sword. Godfrey left the house, crossed the yard and briefly paused at the gate, before leaving and turning out of Moor’s sight.48

  Richard Adams was to claim that he had returned to Godfrey’s house at around 11 o’clock and found the servants there in great consternation: they appeared to fear for their master’s life. Yet this is very unlikely. Although we know that Godfrey’s manner had struck them sufficiently over the last month to worry them, he had only left the house an hour before and why he should cause such worry so soon is unknown.49 It may well be that Adams actually got his days mixed up, for at around 9 o’clock that morning in St Martin’s Lane, Mr Parsons, a coachmaker and churchwarden, claimed that Godfrey had stopped to ask for directions to Primrose Hill. Parsons, eager to pass the time of day, had cheekily asked the magistrate whether he was going to buy the place and Godfrey had sharply replied, ‘What is that to you? I have business there or else I should not ask’d you or to [that] effect.’50 But in another version of the meeting with Parsons, Judith Pamphlin claimed that what Parsons had really said was that Godfrey was looking for the ‘woods’.51 His business being that of a woodmonger, this does not seem so unnatural. Importantly, however, Sir Joseph Williamson, a trustworthy witness, confirmed in his notes upon the case that this meeting did actually take place.52

  By 10 o’clock, Thomas Mason of Marylebone, who claimed he knew Godfrey by sight, saw the magistrate going towards the fields between Marylebone Pound and Marylebone Street. He also said that he passed the time of day with Godfrey. It was also alleged that Godfrey was seen again at around 10 o’clock in the fields walking towards Marylebone, and that he was met there by a brewer of St Giles who talked with him. One witness claimed that at around 11 o’clock Godfrey was seen passing by the Lady Cook’s lodgings near the Cock-Pit, after which he was seen in St Martin’s Lane once more. He went by the church and down by Church Lane into the Strand. Richard Cooper, Mrs Leeson (his sister) and James Lowen all later alleged that they met Godfrey at this time in St Martin’s Lane and said good morning to him. They also claimed that he looked melancholy. But Cooper was to admit that he could not remember the day this happened and that it might not have been the Saturday at all. For what it was worth, Henry Moor confirmed something of this tale. Yet another witness, a Mr Collins, claimed to have seen Godfrey at around 10 o’clock near his barn, hard by Marylebone Church.53

  Thomas Snell, who lived in Holborn Turnstile, said he saw Godfrey pass by on his way to Red Lyon Fields at around noon that day, although he admitted that it was someone who actually knew the magistrate who told him it must have been Godfrey. In his pamphlet on the affair Nathaniel Thompson noted that his informant told him that Godfrey was undertaking some business at a churchwarden’s place around midday. In the meanwhile, Thomas Wynnel, who was due to meet Godfrey at noon for his business meeting concerning some houses owned by himself in Brewer’s Yard, was making his way to George Weldon’s public house in York Buildings. As we have seen, Weldon’s public house appears to have been a regular haunt of Godfrey, and other members of the vestry usually retired there after their meetings. Wynnel turned up early, but there was no sign of Edmund Godfrey. By noon he had sent Colonel Weldon’s servant to Godfrey’s house to seek his luncheon guest. This man soon returned and said the magistrate was not at home. Wynnel stayed on a while, then he himself wandered down to Hartshorne Lane. At Godfrey’s house he saw Judith Pamphlin (or Curtis the maid) and Henry Moor looking both sad and surprised. They said Godfrey had gone out two hours before, which would place his departure between 10 or 11 o’clock. Wynnel naturally asked whether Godfrey would be dining with him that day, but Moor could not say. Wynnel then told Moor to tell his master that he was returning to Weldon’s establishment. Wynnel later claimed the two servants appeared to be in great disorder. He, in the meantime, returned to Weldon’s public house. Moor remembered the visit, but little else.54

  Wynnel talked to Weldon that afternoon and he later claimed that Weldon believed he would see Edmund Godfrey no more. A puzzled Wynnel asked why, knowing it was common enough for Godfrey to go out early after he had finished his judicial business and not to return until quite late. To which Weldon replied that the magistrate’s brothers, Michael and Benjamin Godfrey, had just been with him and said the papists had been watching their brother and were confident they had got him. This seems unlikely and it may be that Wynnel, whose statements are rather dubious at times, but who clearly was an important witness, confused Saturday with Sunday.55 Whatever the case, Joseph Radcliffe, a vestryman and seller of oil in the Strand, alleged that he had met Edmund Godfrey near his door at 1 o’clock that afternoon. He also claimed the magistrate had looked melancholic. Radcliffe was to give his evidence at the inquest into Edmund’s death so he may be taken as a rather more reliable witness than most, although he was also to complain that his evidence there had not only been interrupted but tampered with at a later date. It was also alleged that Moor had attempted to silence Radcliffe later that week for unexplained reasons of his own. Whatever the truth of this, Sir Joseph Williamson was to note that Godfrey had allegedly been seen around ‘Arron Cookes [and the] L[ord] Tr[easurer’s] daughter after one about near two’.56 It was also alleged that two gentlemen had seen Godfrey in the back court of Lincoln’s Inn. They had observed him making a sudden turn there and going out by the back door, by which they also left, and they had then seen him turn the corner wall between there and the Turnstile. A barrister at law met him there. Although Williamson noted that Godfrey was ‘said to be near Turnstile near 3, but on inquiring
of his brother there was nothing found in it’, in fact Michael Godfrey was to state that the last real trace of his brother Edmund came at around this time, 2 to 3 o’clock.57

  Thomas Grundy and James Huysman claimed that between 2 and 3 o’clock they had seen a person much like Godfrey close to the White House near Primrose Hill and that they had followed the man for about twenty yards. He looked very melancholic but they were only to connect him with Godfrey later on. A person living near Primrose Hill, on the other hand, was said to have declared before many people that he had seen Godfrey at about 3 o’clock that day and that the magistrate was walking in the fields there; indeed, he claimed Godfrey often walked there. Thomas Burdet later claimed to have met with a flustered Mr Wynnel not far from Green Lane between 2 and 3 o’clock. Burdet was startled when Wynnel said ‘what have your people [the Roman Catholics] done with Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, the town says you have murdered him.’ Wynnel then told him the reports of the magistrate’s disappearance, but once again this witness was not sure that it was on the Saturday that the meeting actually took place. Even so, rumours of the magistrate being missing seem to have begun very early. Judith Pamphlin later said she heard Moor’s wife claim Godfrey had killed himself some days before the dead body was even found. Captain Thomas Paulden, a regular at the Duke’s Coffee House, later stated that rumour had reached the establishment at around 3 or 4 o’clock on the Saturday that Godfrey had been killed by thieves or by his own hand. Whatever the rumours, it is clear that by 3 o’clock Edmund Godfrey had disappeared.58

  SUNDAY 13 OCTOBER

  Early on Sunday morning a worried Henry Moor set off from Hartshorne Lane for the house of Michael Godfrey. Once there he told Michael that Edmund had been out all night. Michael Godfrey told Moor to keep quiet about the matter at least until the afternoon when they would talk again. Moor was back at Godfrey’s house by 9 o’clock in the morning. The nosy Judith Pamphlin, who disliked Moor and was still worried about her mortgage deed, which she believed Godfrey had burnt in haste on the Friday, saw him come in. Naturally she asked him where Godfrey was. Moor replied ‘you silly foole he hath bin gon[e] out these two houres’. Later that same day both Michael and Benjamin Godfrey turned up at the house in Hartshorne Lane. They agreed with Moor that inquiries about Edmund should be made and they sent Judith to the Gibbon’s home. Moor went with the Godfrey brothers to see Edmund’s friend Lady Pratt at Charing Cross and to several other houses. As they did not find Edmund anywhere, they once more asked Moor to stay quiet about the matter at least until Monday. This seems dubious now and at the time it also struck some as suspicious. In fact, the whole affair was beginning to look odd, as Roger North was later to note: ‘What a matter was it, that a justice of the peace did not dine at home, to raise such a Hubbub as this? A thing that must, sometimes, happen to everyone, as Business or Friendship may engage them abroad.’59

  In the meantime, Judith Pamphlin had turned up at the Gibbons’ home and asked whether they knew where Godfrey was. Mary Gibbon senior said she had not seen him and Judith replied that he must have been with her as she had heard him say that he needed to see Mrs Gibbon. Gibbon senior was later to claim that she herself had gone to Godfrey’s house on the following Tuesday and questioned Moor. He claimed that Edmund was ‘upon his fayth . . . as well as she’. When later challenged on this obvious lie, Moor said that Michael and Benjamin had told him to lie to save the estate. But Michael and Benjamin themselves came to the Gibbon’s home on the Monday to ask whether Edmund was there. Gibbon said she had not seen him. They asked what sort of humour he had been in; she told them about Godfrey’s actions and that he was much disordered. At this Michael Godfrey, she said, had ‘lifted up his eyes and hands and s[ai]d L[or]d we are undone, what shall we doe’. But they refused to say why, only that they believed their brother to be at church on the Sunday and so they thought he would have come on afterwards to Mrs Gibbon’s house. They left saying that she should hear more soon.60

  MONDAY 14 OCTOBER

  On the Monday morning the two Godfrey brothers went several times to see the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Nottingham. Sir Robert Southwell was later to state that it was on this Monday morning that Nottingham came into a Privy Council committee and told the members that the Godfrey brothers had consulted him about Edmund’s absence. He joked that the pair ‘would needs believe that their brother was murthered by Papists; but his L[o]rd[shi]p told it in such a sort (seeing the man had been not missing by 2 nights) that little notice was taken of it and noe order’ was made on the matter.61 Rumours of the magistrate’s absence had, however, leaked out. North was to claim that rumours ‘always used to run as wildfire in a train, and spread all over the Town . . . And so went the report that Godfrey was missing. It was in everyone’s Mouth, Where is Godfrey? . . . they say he is murdered by the Papists.’62 Robert Whitehall, sitting in George’s Coffee House in Freeman’s Yard, had heard the rumours that the magistrate had been murdered on Sunday or Monday. Around Primrose Hill, however, all was quiet. A servant of the owner of the fields near the hill turned up in the meadows alongside a butcher and two boys and proceeded to search for a missing calf there. They had little luck and saw nothing at that time. They searched for the calf again the next day (Tuesday) but again found nothing.63

  TUESDAY 15 OCTOBER

  On Tuesday Henry Moor attended a funeral.64 He had heard on Sunday evening that the event was to take place, and with the Godfrey brothers’ permission he now sought to divulge to the crowd there that Edmund Godfrey was missing. It was at the funeral that Parsons, the churchwarden, told him that he had seen Godfrey on the Saturday morning about 9 o’clock or so in St Martin’s Lane and that the magistrate had inquired the way to Primrose Hill. Armed with this knowledge Moor went up to look at Primrose Hill, and Mary Gibbon was to claim that Moor had told Judith Pamphlin that he must have been within a few yards of the body, if it had been there. Yet despite this, Moor was later that same day denying to Mrs Gibbon that anything was wrong; the clerk’s actions appear very suspicious. About 10 o’clock, however, Thomas Mason saw a man who must have been Moor walking under a hedge near his house. Moor inquired of Mason whether he had seen his master Godfrey in the fields since Saturday.65 Mason told him that he had indeed seen Godfrey at around 10 o’clock on the Saturday morning. It is unclear, but obviously important, whether this meeting took place on Tuesday or Sunday. But what is clear is that Moor was lurking about Primrose Hill at some point after the Saturday. Now, however, the ‘alarm took, and all people ran about, strangely busy, enquiring what was become of Godfrey’. Some of the rumours flying about were that Godfrey had been married to a widow of a lawyer, who may have been Lady Pratt, that he had been discovered in bed with a whore, that he had retired into the countryside or simply that he had been murdered.

  Robert Southwell later confirmed that Nottingham came to the Privy Council again on the Tuesday morning. This time he was less jovial and said the two Godfrey brothers were still following him about and that he could give them no other answer than to attend the committee. Michael and Benjamin were thus called in and, according to Southwell, they made such a commotion that he now had an order to draw up a proclamation concerning Godfrey’s disappearance. Southwell held off printing it, however, for that afternoon Henry Thynn came in with the story of how melancholy Godfrey had looked at Lady Pratt’s on the Friday evening. The Godfrey brothers complained to him about the delay. Nevertheless, Southwell said, he had now heard of how melancholy Edmund had been and perhaps the miserable man had just stepped into the country for a few days. Even a concerned Southwell would not damage the honour of the Privy Council by issuing a false proclamation until the situation was far clearer.66

  Chaos still reigned in the house at Hartshorne Lane, however. That same Tuesday Mrs Gibbon went to Godfrey’s house again and had a talk with Judith Pamphlin, who, no doubt with a wink and a nod, hinted that they would not see Edmund Godfrey again; a worried Mrs Gibbon asked why and Judith replied that she could
not tell her. It was after this that Moor had still maintained everything was all right. A few weeks later Judith did finally come to Mrs Gibbon to ask why she (Judith) had not been examined. At the same time she hinted of things she could tell: ‘I and ye clerke can say a great deale, if we were examined upon oath, [for] the clerke knows more than you can imagine’.67 Mrs Gibbon later gave some notes about this and other matters to the Lords Committee that examined Godfrey’s death, and when she was called in to explain, the Earl of Shaftesbury roundly belaboured her for her pains. However, Captain Gibbon talked to George Weldon and learned from him that Godfrey had been very out of sorts ever since Oates’s examination. Mary Gibbon junior confirmed Judith Pamphlin’s complaint that she thought it strange she had not been examined. Judith’s explanation of the situation was that Michael and Benjamin Godfrey were not happy for her to appear. Indeed, they wanted to keep her quiet and told her that if she had to say anything then she should say that the papists had killed Godfrey, or she would lose her position.68