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In a previous posting we have seen the origins of a Godard family in Cowick where the river Don flows into the Aire but that we cannot trace it there beyond the mid C14th. We must look further up the Don to see what seems likely to be the continuation of this family. This comes from the papers of the Foljambe family of Osberton held in the Nottinghamshire archives, accessible through A2A but in less detail than those from Cowick. A William Goddard of Dalton Parva witnessed two documents on 26 May 1363 (DD/FJ/1/209/6) and 28 May 1368 (DD/FJ/7/43/2) relating to Dalton and Thrybergh. This location is a few miles to the NE of Rotherham about 30 miles up the Don from Cowick. There is no direct link back to the Cowick family but the proximity and the scarcety of God[d]ard as a surname in the West Riding at this time suggests very strongly that William was descended from the Cowick family. He was still living about 40 years after the death of John whom I interpret as being of the third generation (counting the original Godard as the first) and who seems to have had a long career. On the whole William seems most likely to have been one of the fifth generation counting the original Godard, father of Thomas as the first.
The next mention of West Riding Goddards comes in the 1379 Poll Tax: "53 indented Rolls in which the names of all persons in the Westriding being of the age of 16, and not notorious mendicants" according to http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/Misc/SubsidyRolls/YKS/SubsidyRolls1379Index.html. In fact the subsidy doesn't indicate any of those named as being too poor to be taxed so it seems possible that its omissions might be more numerous than just the young and the beggars. Nevertheless if a man of sufficient consequence to have witnessed documents in the previous decade were still alive we might expect to have been named and to have had at least some children over the age of 16 by the time of the Poll Tax. There is, however no William or other Goddard variant in Thrybergh or Dalton but there is a Willelmus Goderd, described as a waller, in Whiston a few miles to the SE of Rotherham. He is the only male Goddard variant listed in the entire document (I exclude a few names ending "ird" or "yrd" whose etymology appears to have been "Goatherd" although, of course, they may eventually have become rendered as "Goddard"). My interpretation of this is that William of Whiston was the son of William of Dalton Parva who had died in the interim; he is most likely the sixth generation. Although William of Whiston might thus be the sole Goddard in this area it's also possible that he could have had siblings under the age of 16.
In addition to William of Whiston an Alicia Goderd at Wortley near Leeds and her daughter Beatrix are listed in the rolls; there could also have been under-age children in this family but as no subsequent early Goddards are recorded in Leeds it seems that there was no lasting male line from this family. There is no information relating to Alice's husband but Wortley is a similar distance up the Aire from Cowick as Rotherham is up the Don so a relationship to the Cowick family is equally likely. There is no mention of Cowick itself let alone of any Goddards there; this is odd as Snaith parish is listed.
The remaining documents of interest from A2A are from the early C15th. Two are from the archives of the Sheffield Church Burgesses Trust held in the Sheffield Archives. On 7 Jun 1405 a document (CB/38) describes a piece of land in Owlerton in relation to a toft of John Godarde and on 29 Jun 1430 a further document (CB/47) describes the same holding in relation to the toft of John Godard. This location only about 10 miles from Whiston so it seems likely that John Godarde of the CB/38 would be either a younger brother or son of William of Whiston and thus the sixth or seventh generation. The John Godard of CB/47 could be the John Godarde of CB/38 or his son and hence of the sixth, seventh or eighth generation.
The other document is from the Wentworth Woodhouse Muniments and is described as a post-nuptial settlement of 26 Jul 1425 (WWM/D/101). It lists a Christopher Godard as being amongst those holding lands in Emley and Skelmanthorpe. Emley is about 25 miles from Whiston.
Emley and the Dalton and Thrybergh estate were both, in the decades around 1400 was part of the extensive holdings of the Fitzwilliams, lords of Emley and Sprotborough. The Fitzwilliams married into both the Wentworth and Foljambe families which explains why the documents were found in those families' collections.
Although the Fitzwilliams were lords of Emley they held this manor as tenants of the manor of Wakefield. Wakefield's other possessions included the whole of the parish of Kirkburton, adjacent to Emley and territory known as the Forest or Frith of Holne or Holme (Holmfirth in modern English) which comprised part of Kirkburton parish and part of the adjoining parish of Almondbury. Wakefield's manorial court covered Emley as well as the directly held estates such as Holmfirth. Some of the Wakefield court rolls are published. There are no mentions of Goddards in the published C14th rolls but they are mentioned in the C16th rolls in both Emley and Holme. Unfortunately no rolls from the C15th have been published.
It seems likely that a son or younger brother of William of Whiston migrated from the Rotherham area to Emley under the aegis of the Fitzwilliams and this migrant would have been either Christopher himself or his father. Christopher, like John of CB/47, would probably have been of the sixth, seventh or eighth generation. Descendants of this migrant would then have found it relatively easy to move into adjacent parts of the Wakefield estate.
All this provides an interesting perspective on the distribution of Goddards in the early years of parish registers as found on IGI. All the Yorkshire entries of the C16th are from Sheffield and its immediate surroundings, Kirkburton and Almondbury. To some extent this might be an artefact of the survival of the earliest registers (the surviving registers of Emley, for instance, only start in 1600) and their selection for indexing. In the earlier part of the C17th there are entries for Emley and for a few other locations including Sprotborough. All these early entries seem to be south of the Aire and its tributary the Calder and, indeed, the Calder's tributary the Colne.
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