John Godolphin

the third son of Joh. Godolphin Esquire, of the ancient and gentile family of Godolphin in Cornwall, was born in the Island of Scilly beyond the lands end, in the said County, in the Castle there which belonged to his name, on S. Andrews Eve, an. 1617, became a Commoner of Glocester Hall in Mich. term 1632, where profiting much in Logick and Philosophy, (as afterwards in the Civil Law) under the tuition of Will. Sandbrooke, was four years after admitted to the reading of any book of the Institutions, that is, to the degree of Bach. of the said Law. In the beginning of 1643 he was actually created Doctor of his faculty, being then puritannically inclined; and going afterwards to London, he sided so much with the men there in power, that after he had taken the wicked oath called the Engagement, he was by Act of Parl. 30 Jul. 1653 constituted and appointed with Will. Clerke Doct. of the Civ. Law and Charles George Cock Esq. Judges of the Admiralty, and in the middle of Jul. 1659, (Clerke being then dead) he and Cock were constituted again, yet to hold and exercise the said office but till 10 of Dec. following. After his Majesties restauration he was made one of his Advocates, being then esteemed a learned man, and as well read in Divinity as in his own faculty, as may be seen in the books following of his writing.

The holy Limbeck; or an extraction of the Spirit from the letter of certain eminent places in the holy scripture. Lond. 1650. in tw. Other copies have this title The holy Limbeck; or a semicentury of spiritual extractions, &c.

The holy arbour, containing the whole body of Divinity: or the sum and substance of Christian Religion. Lond. 1651. in a thin fol.

A view of the Admiral jurisdiction, wherein the most material points concerning that jurisdiction are fairly and submissively discussed &c. Lond. 1661. oct.

A Catalogue of such that have been dignified with the office of Lord high Admiral in this Kingdom, &c. Printed at the end of the said View, and all or most taken from Sir Hen. Spelman’s Glossary in the word Admiralius.

The Orphans legacy: or a testamentary abridgment in three parts. 1. Of last Wills and Testaments. 2. Of Executors and Administrators. 3. Of Legacies and Devises, &c. Lond. 1674. qu. &c.

Repertorium Canonicum: or, an abridgment of the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm consistent with the temporal; wherein the most material points &c. Lond. 1678. 80, &c. qu. He also translated into English out of Garsias alias Ferrand, An extract of the antient Laws of Oleron. Lond. 1661, printed with The view of Admiral jurisdiction before mention’d: to which translation he put marginal observations. He died in, or near, Fleetstreet, on the fourth day of Apr. in sixteen hundred seventy and eight,1678. and was buried in the north isle of Clarkenwell Church near London. As for Ch. Geor. Cock before mentioned, he was of the Inner Temple and a Counsellor there, but whether he was ever of this Univ. I cannot tell. However this I know of him, that he being a great Antimonarchist, was in some manner contributary to the death of K. Ch. 1, that he was one of those 21 persons that were appointed to be of a Committee to consult of a reformation of the Law, in Jan. 1651, he being then living and residing in Norwych; that he was one of the Commissioners of the Prerogative Court, one of the High Court of Justice in Nov. 1653, and author of a canting, whimsical and enthusiastical book intit. English-Law: or, a summary survey of the houshold of God on earth, and that both before and under the Law; and that both of Moses and the Lord Jesus, &c. Lond. 1651. in a thin fol. To which is added, Essay of Christian Government, under the regiment of our Lord and King, the one immortal, invisible, &c. Prince of Peace, Emanuel. Written by the same hand.