Memoir, &c. GABRIEL GOODMAN, D.D., Dean of Westminster for nearly the whole Reign of Queen Elizabeth, second Son of Edward Goodman, Mercer, and Burgess of Ruthin, was born in Ruthin in the year 1528. His Mother was Sisely, Daughter of Edward Thelwall, of Plâs-y-Ward, near the same place, with a lineal descendant of whom the celebrated Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, passed a short time in his youth, in order to perfect himself in the Welsh Tongue, and of whose learned attainments and excellence of temper he makes such honourable mention. The subject of this Memoir was one of a Family of three Sons and five Daughters, whose names appear on the Monumental Brass Tablet in Ruthin Church, a copy of which is annexed. From the name, the Family might be supposed to be of English origin, and indeed it is enumerated by Mr. Pennant, with the Thelwalls, the Jervises, the Moyles, the Towerbridges, the Alsbels, the Wards, and Rossendales, whose Ancestors originally settled in the Vale of Clwyd, as Retainers of the Lords Grey, of Ruthin. This supposition it was natural to make as to the origin of this Family, but on reference to an authentic pedigree of the Goodmans in the possession of Mr. Goodman Roberts, of Ruthin, drawn in the year 1584, it appears to be of pure Welsh descent. The Father of Edward Goodman was Thomas ap Edward ap Jencin Goch, of Llandyrnog. The Surname of Goodman appears not in the Pedigree referred to previous to this Edward Goodman, by whom certainly it was first assumed, and consequently in Welsh Pedigree Books the word Hên, or the old or original Goodman is annexed to He became also the first Armiger of his race, as appears by the Grant of a Coat of Arms which is given in the Appendix, (B), as well as by the Document in his name. Mr. Goodman Roberts's possession. This latter is entitled "The Genealogy and Atchievement of the Worshipful Gawen Goodman, of Ruthin, Gent. (his eldest Son) first drawn and sette by one Mr. Simon Vaughan, Bard, and now newly drawn by me, Richard Tomlyns, of Denbigh, Anno Domini 1584." The Bards of Wales, as is well known, were not only the Historians and Poets, but also the Heralds and Genealogists of their Country. The above named Simon Vaughan wrote a Cywydd, a species of Welsh Poetry, being an eulogy on Doctor Gabriel Goodman, which is added in the Appendix, (C), as extracted from a folio volume entitled Barddoniaeth Beirdd Cymru, (the Poems of the Bards of Wales), in the Library of the Cymrodorion Society in London, and which was procured by the kind and polite attention of the learned Doctor William Owen Pugh, to whom Welsh Literature is so much indebted. Family or Surnames, though they had been gradually obtaining in England since the Conquest, were not adopted in the Principality previous to the period before us, in confirmation of which notion we may quote an incident recorded by Mr. Pennant, relating to the antient Family of Mostyn. "Rowland Lee, Bishop of Litchfield and President of the Marches of Wales in the Reign of Henry VIII., sat at one of the Courts on a Welsh Cause, and wearied with the quantity of Aps in the Jury, directed that the Vowel should assume their last name or that of their residence, and that Thomas ap Richard ap Howel ap levan Vychan should for the future be reduced to the poor dissyllable, Mostyn. An injunction from such high authority, must have been very generally observed, and induced all persons of condition to assume a single name, which would continue with their descendants. Affixed to one of the Columns in Ruthin Church is a Brass Plate of the Dean's Father, which is also hereto annexed, under which are inscribed the following Lines, which further prove him to have been the first of his race who assumed the name of Goodman: Hic jacet Edvardus Goodmannus nomine dictus Gratia virtutis cui bona multa dedit, Pars hominis tegitur mortalis, et altera cœlum |