Author: Goodwin, George
Biography:
GOODWIN, George (1778-1821: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 5 Dec. 1778 and baptised on 10 May 1779 at St. Nicholas, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, the eldest son of Harvey Goodwin, attorney and conveyancer, and Martha Ayre, who had married on 2 Feb. 1778. He probably went to school locally and was apprenticed to his father before being admitted to the Inner Temple on 30 Aug. 1804 and called to the Bar on 24 Nov. 1820. He practised at 5 New Square, Lincoln’s Inn, London. Rising Castle (1798), dedicated to Richard Howard of Ashstead Hall, Surrey, contained the lead topographical poem on the Norman castle at Castle Rising, about five miles north-east of King’s Lynn, and a range of romantic topics: “Funereal Hymn of the Madagascar Negroes,” “Ode to a Shower of Rain,” “Irregular Hymn of the Persian Magi to Orosmasdes,” and a long poem on the well-worn topic of “The Maniac.” He also published a couple of poems in the European Magazine in 1798. He married Martha Jackson (1778-1808) on 13 Sept. 1801 at St. Olave, Jewry, City of London. They went on to have at least four children, with their eldest son, George Harvey Goodwin (1802-38), educated at Queen’s College Oxford before ordination in the established church. She died in 1808 in Islington. He married Maria Brackenbury (1784-1816) on 4 Oct. 1810 at Trinity Church, Ely, Cambridge, with no further issue. She died at Camberwell in 1816. He then married Mary Anne Sheppard (1788-1823) on 21 Mar. 1818 at St. Giles, Camberwell, south London, with no further issue. They seem to have moved to Reading, Berkshire, where he died, aged 43, on 9 Oct. 1821, leaving his books, pictures, and piano forte and an estate of several thousand pounds to his wife, children, brothers, and brother-in-law. His wife, Mary Anne, died at Reading in 1823, leaving most of her estate to her brother, Thomas Sheppard, of Barbados. (ancestry.co.uk 24 Sept. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 24 Sept. 2024; Oracle 6 Jan. 1808; London Chronicle 10 Oct. 1810, 10 Apr. 1816; Morning Post 24 Mar. 1818, 11 Oct. 1821; MH 10 Apr 1823; NA, Prob. 11/1648/406) AA