Francis Godolphin, 2nd Earl of Godolphin

Francis Godolphin, 2nd Earl of Godolphin

Francis Godolphin, 2nd Earl of Godolphin ( September 3, 1678 - January 17, 1766 ) was a British politician of the early 18th century. He was the son of Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin and Margaret Blagge, who died at birth.

family

The Godolphin family , whose wealth came from tin mining , were one of the leading families from the county of Cornwall and were able to trace their ancestry back to the time of the Norman conquest of England by William I in 1066 . Until the middle of the 18th century, the family seat was the Godolphin House , which is located near Helston in the former Kerrier District .

Life

Godolphin married Lady Henrietta Churchill on April 23, 1698 , daughter of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough . His sons William and Henry died before him, so that the family property later went to Thomas Osborne, 4th Duke of Leeds , whom his daughter Mary had married. Like his father, Godolphin was a member of the House of Commons , where he represented the constituencies of Helston , East Looe , Oxfordshire and, most recently, Tregony between 1695 and 1713 . He carried the courtesy title Viscount Rialton between 1706 and 1712 and became 2nd Earl of Godolphin with the death of his father in 1712 . In 1735 he was appointed lord seal keeper and given the hereditary title of nobility Baron Godolphin of Helston . In contrast to his other titles, the latter was provided with the special expectation that, in the absence of his own male descendants, he could also be inherited by male descendants of his deceased uncle Henry Godolphin, Dean of St Paul's.

Godolphin, like many of his ancestors, was Governor of the Isles of Scilly and as such a co-founder of a charity that was founded in 1739 and called the Foundling Hospital , which had set itself the task of alleviating the widespread abandonment of children in London by helping these children placed in orphanages.

The title Baron Godolphin of Helston was inherited by his cousin Francis Godolphin of the same name on his death in 1766 . His other nobility titles became extinct.

Godolphin was the owner and namesake of the Godolphin Arabian , a Berber stallion who is one of the three progenitors of the modern English thoroughbred .

Web links

Commons : Francis Godolphin, 2nd Earl of Godolphin  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Francis Godolphin, 2nd Earl of Godolphin on thepeerage.com

predecessor	Office	successor
Sidney Godolphin	Earl of Godolphin Baron Godolphin (of Rialton) 1712–1766	Title expired
New title created	Baron Godolphin (of Helston) 1735-1766	Francis Godolphin
John Granville	Lord Warden of the Stannaries 1705-1708	Hugh Boscawen
Montagu Venables-Bertie	Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire 1715-1739	Charles Spencer
Henry Lowther	Lord seal keeper 1735–1740	John Hervey