linge, Kent, was eighth son of Thomas Godfrey, esq., by his second wife Sarah, daughter of Thomas Isles, esq., of Hammersmith. The father, born 3 Jan. 1585–6, belonged to an old Kentish family, and lived at different times at Winchelsea, Haling, and Selling, all in Kent, and at St. Giles's, Cripplegate, London. He had twenty children by his two wives. He was M.P. for Winchelsea in 1614, and sat for New Romney in Charles I's third parliament (1628–9), and in the Short parliament of 1640. He died 10 Oct. 1664, and was buried beneath an elaborate monument in Sellinge Church. His domestic diary (1608–55), preserved in Brit. Mus. Lansd. MS. 235, was printed by Mr. J. G. Nichols in the ‘Topographer and Genealogist,’ ii. 450–67. Peter, the eldest son by his second wife, inherited the estate of Hodiford, Kent (Berry, Kentish Genealogies). Edward, another son, died in June 1640, aged 12, just after his election to a king's scholarship at Westminster School, and was buried in the east cloister of Westminster Abbey. The ninth son, Michael, a London merchant (1624–1691), was foreman of the jury at the trial of Fitzharris in 1681, and had two sons, (1) Michael [q. v.], first deputy governor of the Bank of England, and (2) Peter, M.P. for London from 1715 till his death in November 1724.
Edmund was ‘christened the 13° January [1621–2].’ ‘His godfathers,’ writes his father in his diary, ‘were my cousin, John Berrie, esq., captain of the foot company of … Lidd … his other godfather was … Edmund Harrison, the king's embroiderer … They named my son Edmund Berrie, the one's name and the other's Christian name.’ Macaulay, J. R. Green, and others, have fallen into the error of giving Godfrey's Christian name as ‘Edmundsbury’ or ‘Edmundbury.’ Edmund was educated at Westminster School, but was not on the foundation. He matriculated at Oxford as a commoner of Christ Church 23 Nov. 1638, travelled abroad, entered Gray's Inn 3 Dec. 1640, and retired to the country in consequence of ‘a defect in his hearing’ (Extract from Christ Church Reg.; Foster, Gray's Inn Reg.; Tuke, Memoires). His father's family was too large for him to give Edmund, one of his youngest sons, a competency. Edmund accordingly returned to London to take up the trade of a wood-monger. Together with a friend and partner named Harrison he acquired a wharf at Dowgate. The business prospered, and before 1658 he set up a wharf on his own account at ‘Hartshorn Lane, near Charing Cross,’ now Northumberland Street, Strand. He resided in an adjoining house described at the time as in ‘Green's Lane in the Strand, near to Hungerford Market.’ His prosperity and public spirit led to his appointment as justice of the peace for Westminster, and he took an active part in the affairs of his own parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. He remained in London throughout the plague of 1665, and his strenuous efforts to maintain order and relieve distress were rewarded by knighthood (September 1666). The king at the same time presented him with a silver tankard. Godfrey showed much belief in and many attentions to Valentine Greatrakes, the Irish ‘stroker’ [q. v.], on his visit to London in 1666 (Greatrakes, Account, ed. 1723, pp. 36, 45). In 1669 he came into collision with the court. A customer, Sir Alexander Fraizer [q. v.], the king's physician, was arrested at his suit for 30l. due for firewood. The bailiffs were soundly whipped by the king's order; Godfrey, who was committed to the porter's lodge at Whitehall, narrowly escaped the like indignity, ‘to such an unusual degree,’ writes his friend Pepys, ‘was the king moved therein.’ Godfrey asserted that the law was on his side, and that he ‘would suffer in the cause of the people’ (Pepys). For a time he refused nutriment. He was released after six days' imprisonment (Tuke).
Godfrey moved in good society. He knew Danby, who became lord treasurer in 1673. His friends Burnet and William Lloyd, vicar of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, both affirm that ‘he was esteemed the best justice of the peace in England.’ His civility and courtesy were always conspicuous. He spent much in private charity. Some thought him ‘vain and apt to take too much upon him,’ but Burnet disputes this view. He was a zealous protestant, but ‘had kind thoughts of the nonconformists, and consequently did not strictly enforce the penal laws against either them or the Roman catholics.’ ‘Few men,’ says Burnet, ‘lived on better terms with the papists than he did.’ In 1678 ‘he was entering upon a great design of taking up all beggars and putting them to work,’ but gave at the same time 100l. for the relief of the necessitous poor of the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields (True and Perfect Narrative).
Godfrey went to Montpellier for his health early in 1678, and returned, after much travel in France, greatly benefited. Soon after his return Titus Oates brought his narrative of his ‘Popish plot’ to Godfrey (6 Sept. 1678), and made his first depositions on oath in support of his charges. Three weeks later he signed further depositions in Godfrey's presence, and on 28 Sept. laid his informations before the privy council. Oates swore that Godfrey complained to him on 30 Sept. of
