GOODMAN, GABRIEL (1528 - 1601), dean of Westminster and founder of Christ's Hospital, Ruthin

Born 1528, second son of Edward Goodman (died 1560) of Ruthin. He was educated at Cambridge (B.A. 1550, M.A. 1553, D.D. 1564); was Fellow of Christ's College, 1552-4, and of Jesus College, c. 1554-5. About 1555 he entered the service of William Cecil, later lord Burghley, as chaplain. A sympathizer with the religious settlement of Edward VI, he compromised under Mary and fully accepted the Elizabethan church settlement, disliking equally Catholics and Puritans. He was rector of South Luffenham, Rutland, 1558; rector of Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, 1559-82; prebendary of S. Pauls, 1559; prebendary of Westminster, 1560; dean of Westminster, 1561-1601. He served frequently as member of the court of high commission. In 1575 he assisted in the condemnation of Peters and Turnwort, Dutch anabaptists who were burnt at Smithfield that year. He never reached the episcopal bench, though he was considered for London (1570), Norwich (1575), Rochester (1581), Worcester, Rochester and Chichester (1584), and Chester (1596). His failure was probably due to his opposition to Leicester, his prominence on the court of high commission, and his reputation as 'a grave, solid man, yet … peradventure too severe' (Strype, Parker, ii, 6, 1570). He was one of the commissioners appointed to reform abuses in the hospital of the Savoy, 1589, a member of the royal commission for the settlement of Jesus College, Oxford, 1589, and was concerned in the foundation of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, 1598. He was one of the executors of Burghley's will.

His influence with the Cecils made him an important link between Wales and the Court. He assisted in the production of bishop William Morgan's Bible (1588) and he was responsible for the translation of 1 Corinthians in the Bishops' Bible of 1568. In 1590 he founded Christ's Hospital, Ruthin (president, warden, and twelve poor inmates) and endowed it with the tithes of Ruthin and Llan-rhydd which he purchased from the lay impropriators into whose hands they had fallen after the dissolution of the collegiate church of S. Peter. In 1595 he added a grammar-school to the foundation. In 1600 he brought to the notice of Sir Robert Cecil a petition from the inhabitants of Ruthin complaining of their burden of taxation; and he was active a few months before his death in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a new charter for the borough. He died 17 June 1601 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Author

• Professor Glyn Roberts, (1904 - 1962)

Sources

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• J. Strype, Annals and Lives of the Primates of Elizabeth's Reign
• Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses
• Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Salisbury MSS., vi, 345, x, 99, xi, 5
• Acts of the Privy Council of England, 1599-1600, 256
• R. Newcome, A memoir of Gabriel Goodman Dean of Westminster during forty years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the restorer of the wardenship of Ruthin with some account of Ruthin school, and the names of its most eminent scholars, etc (1825)
• H. B. Thomas, A History of the Diocese of St. Asaph (1874)
• The Church Quarterly Review, cxliv, 125-45 and cxlv, 12-30

Further Reading

• Wikipedia Article: Gabriel Goodman

Images

• George Perfect Harding, Gabl. Goodman, D.D Dean of Westminster & Founder of Ruthin Free School, 1590
• Gabriel Goodman
• Edward Goodman
• Robert Grave, George Perfect Harding, Brass of Edward Goodman in Ruthin Church, Denbighshire

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q5515655

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/