hic iacet Edivardus, Goodmānus nomine-dictus, Obýt•zz - may › Au°§ 156μ? $ Lrmly Har FROMA BRASS IN RUTHIN CHURCH, DENBIEGHSHIRE. E-, Fre Now this effort of the recording Muse is meant to convey more than at first strikes the ear. It means to record, that the Edward who lies buried beneath, was from his charitable deeds called the Goodman of the place, like the Good man of Ross in after times. There is an evident play between the words "bona multa" and Goodmannus. His virtue and honesty procured him the good things which he liberally bestowed on others. Therefore his name became celebrated, i. e. he was called the Good-man. The expression "good-man of the house" always carries with it the idea of liberality as well as the possession of wealth.* Hence the beginning of a name, which though it exists not at present in the Principality as that of a distinct Family of note, is yet well known as connected with some of the greatest respectability in it, for instance, the Lord Newborough, Sir Robert Williames Vaughan, Mr. Parry, late of Llanrhaidr, Mr. Wynne, of Coed Coch, the Thelwalls, Mr. Bankes, of Soughton, Mr. Salusbury, of Galltfaenan, and others. This Edward Goodman may be supposed to have amassed considerable wealth, for those days being perhaps the only respectable Tradesman of the Town, for the description of Mercer was not confined at that time to one branch of Trade, as at present, but meant a Merchant in general. His vicinity to the Castle, which then existed in its original grandeur, was probably a mean not only of encreasing his reputation as a Merchant among its numerous Retainers, but of adding to his wealth and consequence. We might be inclined indeed to derive the name of this Family from the circumstance recorded by Leland in his Itinerary of a House or Celle of Bonhommes, a species of Monks of the mendicant order, (who were first introduced into England in 1283), having once existed at Ruthin, which was "in time translated into the Parish Church," and conjecture that a Member of this fraternity might have originally given the name of his order to his Family. Though this idea, consistent with what has been observed, must now be relinquished, yet we may indulge the suspicion that a coincidence of names may have had some influence in suggesting to the Dean the foundation of his Establishment at Ruthin. In redeeming the Tithes of the Parish and those of Llanrhydd from the Lay hands into which they had passed on the dissolution of the former Church here, and settling them as at present, he may have been pleased with the thought that the Bonhommes * The Word Lady, we are told is derived from the Saxon Words Leff-day, i. e. the Loaf or Bread-giver. or Goodman Pensioners would again form a part of the Church Establishment at his native place. The Family or Surname of Goodman is to be found in various parts of the Kingdom, and may have originated in the same happy cause. That a Family of the same name was resident in Chester some years previous to the assumption of it by the Family of Ruthin, we learn from the account of Christopher Goodman, a leader among the Puritans, and as eminent in their annals as the subject of this Memoir was in the Established Church. Christopher Goodman was one of the Translators of the Geneva Bible, and a particular friend and associate of the Scotch Reformer, John Knox, whom he joined in writing the Book against the Lawfulness of the Government of Women, which brought him on his return home before the High Commission Court. An account of this man is given at large in Brooks's History of the Puritans. He died in 1602, at a very advanced age, and was buried in the Cathedral Church of his native City, Chester, having been visited on his death bed by the learned Mr. Usher, afterwards the Archbishop of Armagh, who Brooks tells us used often to repeat the wise and grave speeches he had heard from him on that occasion. With the Family of this man and that of Dean Goodman, there was not the slightest connexion, though situated so near each other. The name was beyond doubt first assumed at Ruthin, by Edward Goodman before mentioned, as appears by the Pedigree referred to and the other particulars advanced. And of this we have a still further confirmation if it were necessary, in a pious habit of our Dean, who ever accompanied the signature of his name with the sentence, "Gratiâ Dei sum quod sum," using the words of the Apostle Paul, By the Grace of God I am what I am, which Motto is also inscribed on his Picture, referring to the recently assumed name of his Family, which his modesty some what scrupled to use. The Latin words "Sit nomen omen" are to be seen on an old Picture of one of the first Goodmans, in a Mansion House near Ruthin, which again corroborates this notion. The Dean, however, well deserved the inheritance as his public spirit, munificence to his native place, and other particulars we shall have to record amply demonstrate. Like his worthy Father, he continued the dispenser of the goods which his virtues procured him. The learned Camden whom Dean Goodman so liberally patronized and who acknowledges his obligation, may be supposed to have his friend's Family in mind in that Chapter of his "Remains concerning Britain" which treats of Surnames, where he observes that Goodman was derived in respect to the qualities of him who was so called. To put an end to this somewhat too prolix discussion of a name so venerated by the Inhabitants of Ruthin, it may be observed that the Poet Virgil calls his kind Host, Evander or the Good man, and like his Hero at the conclusion of his voyage, the Writer must declare at the commencement of his, "Evandrum petimus." He seeks to discover whatever remains recorded of his Evander, and though the voyage promises but little to the generality, it might prove under the pen of a better recorder, not uninteresting to the Inhabitants of his native town, and in particular to those among them who have derived the advantage of a learned Education within the Walls of his Foundation. Nothing can be discovered relating to the earliest years of the subject of our Memoir. That he was initiated in Grammar learning previous to his admission at St. John's College, Cambridge, there can be no doubt. We must infer this, not only from the respectability of his Parents, but also from the general practice of even the poorer Inhabitants of the Principality at this period which it is so much to their honour to repeat. Our learned Countryman, Humphrey Llwyd, of Denbigh, in his Commentary on Wales, written to his friend Ortelius, a Physician at Antwerp, but a short time after this period, has these words, Hâc tamen in re eos (scil. Anglos) vincentes, quòd nullus sit adeò pauper quin liberos suos aliquo tempore scholæ ad literas discendas tradit, et qui studio proficiunt in Academias mittentes. Juri civili pro meliore parte operam dare compellunt. Unde evenit, quod major pars eorum qui in hoc regno jus civile aut pontificum profitentur, Cambri natione sunt. "In this particular, surpassing the English, inasmuch as no one is so poor but that for some time he puts his Children to school, sending those who make a proficiency to the Universities. They force them, for the most part, to apply to the Civil Law. From whence it has come to pass, that the majority of those who profess the Civil and Canon Law in this Kingdom, are Welshmen." As few public seminaries existed at that time even in England, and none that we know of in Wales, it is probable that our present subject was instructed at home, |