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Thanks for that. I hadn't looked there for some time.
However, I think I can be more specific in regard to the population centred on SW Yorkshire.
The H. L. Bradfer-Lawrence Collection of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society (accessible through www.a2a.org.uk) contains many mentions of early Godards in Cowick, Snaith parish, WRY. These references are either as principals or witnesses in land transfers.
The earliest are a couple of late C13th references to Thomas son of Godard. In this context it's clear that Godard is a Christian name. There are then references to a John Godard in the mid-1290s and one to John son of Thomas Godard. This last is not firmly dated and is assigned to the early C14th. There are then many references to John Godard, some with exact dates in the C14th, some with just C14th dates.
In fact I suspect that the "John son of Thomas" is the first mention of a John Godard who subsequently needed no such introduction. In that case it either pre-dates the mid-1290s references or else those refer to a different John, maybe a brother of Thomas.
Eventually we find that John has died as in Oct 1328 his holdings which had passed to his widow Eva are being disposed of. In the next decade, however, we have a John son of John Godard and there is also another Thomas Godard who is the last reference in this set documents in 1351 IIRC. We thus have at least 4 male individuals of at least 3 generations of Godard as a surname. In particular we see the name passing from a Christian name to hereditary surname.
The next Godard reference comes from Rotherham some miles to the south of Cowick where a William Godard witnesses two documents in the 1360s. (These are also in A2A)
In the 1379 West Riding poll-tax (http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/Misc/SubsidyRolls/YKS/SubsidyRolls1379Index.html) there is only one male Godard, also a William, also near Rotherham. As he appears to have no wife or children it seems likely that he was the son of the previous William. Note that the subsidy roll doesn't name those too poor to be taxed so there may have been other Godards and there may also have been some siblings of William who were too young.
In 1410 A2A has a mention of a John Godard in Sheffield and another (the same or a son) 20 years later. This location is only about 10 miles from the second William. The early parish registers of Sheffield include a number of Goddards and the name has been continuously associated with the city and surrounding areas since that time. They are part of my Yorkshire cluster.
In 1425 A2A includes a Christopher Godard in a list of holders of land in Emley and Skelmanthorpe (Emley parish). Emley was held by the Fitzwilliams as tenants of the manor of Wakefield. The Fitzwilliams, however, were tenants in chief of a number of manors further east - including those in which we found the Williams. It seems very likely that this manorial influence had resulted in at least one Godard being brought to Emley. I have no further C15th records. However the Wakefield court records have a few mentions of Goddards in the C16th in Emley and in Holme. Holme in this context is a group of townships adjacent to Emley and occupying parts of Kirkburton parish (adjacent to Emley) and Almondbury parish (adjacent to K'burton). By the time we get to the early parish registers A'bury & K'burton are the remainder of my late C16th Yorkshire cluster.
Emley would also have been in that cluster but its records only go back to the early C17th. It's also worth noting that as more parish registers become available in the early C17th we can see other Goddards scattered across the south of the county including Greasborough, another Fitzwilliam manor.
Ian
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