He was appointed, 28 Nov. 1678, envoy extraordinary to the court of Madrid. His instructions are printed in Goodricke's ‘History of the Goodricke Family,’ p. 25. In June 1682 he made, on behalf of Charles II, an offer of mediation in the war between France and Spain. He was, however, soon afterwards expelled from Madrid, in consequence of the anger of the Spanish court at the policy of Charles II, and lodged in a neighbouring convent of Hieronymites. He returned to England in the following February. He was actively concerned in securing York for the Prince of Orange (19–22 Nov. 1688; Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, p. 412), and was rewarded (26 April 1689) by the post of lieutenant-general of the ordnance, which he held until 29 June 1702. On 13 Feb. 1689–90 he was sworn of the privy council. On 11 July 1690 he was placed on a commission appointed to investigate the behaviour of the fleet, and particularly of Lord Torrington, who was accused of supineness in a recent engagement with the French off Beachy Head. He represented Boroughbridge in parliament from 1688–9 until his death. His speeches in the House of Commons were not very frequent, but were usually brief, pithy, and to the purpose. He died on 8 March 1704–5, and was buried in the family vault at Ribston, Yorkshire. Goodricke married, in 1668, Mary, daughter of Colonel William Legg, and sister to George, lord Dartmouth, by whom he had no issue.
[Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 260; Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. App. 289 a, 6th Rep App. 321 b, 7th Rep. App. 277, 282, 283 a, 361 b, 382 a, 391 a, 420 b, 495 a, 9th Rep. App. 378, 11th Rep. App. (pt. ii.) 80; Luttrell's Relation of State Affairs, i. 530, ii. 15, 74, v. 528; Beatson's Polit. Index; Parl. Hist. vols. iv. v.; C. A. Goodricke's Hist. of the Goodricke Family, 1885; Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, ed. Cartwright.]
GOODRICKE, JOHN (1764–1786), astronomer, born at Groningen on 17 Sept. 1764, was the eldest child of Henry Goodricke of York, by his wife, Levina Benjamina, daughter of Peter Sessler of Namur; and on his father's death, 9 July 1784, became heir to his grandfather, Sir John Goodricke of Ribston Hall in Yorkshire, who, however, survived him. Goodricke earned lasting distinction by his investigations of variable stars. At the age of eighteen he discovered the period and law of Algol's changes. He first saw the star lose light on 12 Nov. 1782, and observed it at York every fine night from 28 Dec. to 12 May. The results were communicated to the Royal Society in a paper entitled ‘A Series of Observations on and a Discovery of the Period of the Variations of the Light of the Bright Star in the Head of Medusa, called Algol’ (Phil. Trans. lxxiii. 484); and in a supplement, ‘On the Periods of the Changes of Light in the Star Algol’ (ib. lxxiv. 287). His suggested explanation of the phenomenon by the interposition of a large dark satellite still finds favour. The merit of the research was recognised by the bestowal of the Copley medal in 1783.
His discoveries of the variability respectively of β Lyræ and of δ Cephei dated from 10 Sept. and 19 Oct. 1784 (ib. lxxv. 153, lxxvi. 48). He perceived the double periodicity of the former star in 12d 19h, a determination regarded by him as merely provisional (Schönfeld's period is nearly three hours longer), and accounted for the observed changes by the rotation on an axis considerably inclined to the earth's orbit of a bright body mottled with several large dark spots. For δ Cephei he gave a period of 5d 8h 37½m (10m too short), remarking that such inquiries ‘may probably lead to some better knowledge of the fixed stars, especially of their constitution and the cause of their remarkable changes.’ Goodricke died at York, in his twenty-second year, on 20 April 1786, and was buried in a new family vault at Hunsingore, Yorkshire. A portrait of him exists at Gilling Castle in the same county. He was unmarried, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society fourteen days before his death.
[C. A. Goodricke's History of the Goodricke Family, p. 38; Gent. Mag. vol. lvi. pt. i. p. 353; Poggendorff's Biog. Lit. Handwörterbuch; Lalande's Bibl. Astr. p. 587; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
GOODSIR, JOHN (1814–1867), F.R.S. and professor of anatomy in the university of Edinburgh, was born at Anstruther, Fifeshire, on 20 March 1814. His father was Dr. John Goodsir of that town, and his grandfather Dr. John Goodsir of Largo, a man of marked individuality, who carried on a large country practice, and during the last twenty years of his life officiated as preacher to the Largo baptists (for his biography and portrait see the Evangelical Mag. and Theol. Rev., June 1821). The family had been settled on the east coast of Fife for several generations, and were said to have come from Germany; the name was locally pronounced Gutcher. Goodsir's mother was Elizabeth Taylor, great-granddaughter of Grizzel Forbes, the sister of Duncan Forbes, president of the court of session. From the Anstruther schools he was sent at the age of twelve to college at St. Andrews. He went through the four years' course of arts, but did not take a degree; ‘at this early period of
