GODWIN, FRANCIS (1562-1633), bishop and antiquary;
b. at Hannington, Northants., 1562. He was appointed bishop of Llandaff, 1601, as a reward for his Catalogue of Bishops of England (1st ed. 1601, new ed. 1615, Latin ed. 1616). He had previously held a number of ecclesiastical appointments in the West country where his father, Thomas Godwin, was bishop of Bath and Wells (1584-90). Promoted bishop of Hereford in 1617, he was accused of simony in both dioceses. Little is recorded of his episcopate at Llandaff, where he appears to have occupied himself with the revision of his Catalogue and to have ignored almost completely the growing recusancy in his diocese. He d. in April 1633.
Bibliography:
- D.N.B.;
- Foster, Alumni Oxon.;
- E. J. Newell, Dioc. Hist. Llandaff;
- Hist. MSS. Comm., Wells MSS., ii, 346-7.
Author:
Professor Glyn Roberts, M.A., (1904-1962), Bangor
