Col. Edmund Goffe

GOFFE, EDMUND, soldier and politician; b. c. 1670 at Cambridge, Mass., son of Samuel and Hannah (Bernard) Goffe; married Hannah Lynde, daughter of Samuel Lynde, in May 1696; was married, a second time, 24 June 1728, to Mrs. Mary Norden, widow of Colonel Nathaniel Norden of Marblehead, Mass.; d. 16 Oct. 1740, at Cambridge, without issue.

Biography

From Biography – GOFFE, EDMUND – Volume II (1701-1740) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography. (2017). Biographi.ca. Retrieved 13 February 2017 link

GOFFE, EDMUND, soldier and politician; b. c. 1670 at Cambridge, Mass., son of Samuel and Hannah (Bernard) Goffe; married Hannah Lynde, daughter of Samuel Lynde, in May 1696; was married, a second time, 24 June 1728, to Mrs. Mary Norden, widow of Colonel Nathaniel Norden of Marblehead, Mass.; d. 16 Oct. 1740, at Cambridge, without issue.

From the size of his fines while a student at Harvard, Goffe seems to have been “the most obstreperous undergraduate of his day” (C. K. Shipton). Upon graduation in 1692 Goffe entered public life, as befitted a member of a prominent Massachusetts family. His early career consisted of odd jobs such as constable and surveyor. In 1710 he served as a lieutenant-colonel in the expedition against Port-Royal (Annapolis Royal, N.S.) under Francis Nicholson, but scarcely distinguished himself. On his return he was taken to court charged with using his position to defraud the colony. A conviction was obtained, but later reversed. In 1711 Goffe participated in the preparations for Sir Hovenden Walker’s expedition to Canada. Four years later he was one of two commissioners appointed to negotiate with the Cape Sable Indians when they seized some 27 New England fishing vessels.

Representing Cambridge in the Massachusetts General Court in 1716, 1720, and 1721, Goffe served on a committee dealing with Indian affairs. He relinquished his seat in the General Court in 1721 to become commander of the forces to be sent against the eastern Indians. He occupied this post for about three years, until he was once again accused of fraud. Goffe’s remaining years brought him considerable financial difficulties. In 1733 Governor Jonathan Belcher referred to him as “a poor bankrupt lost wretch.” C. K. Shipton has said of his military career that “Col. Goffe’s services . . . were not so notable for fighting as for a system of graft which he and some of his fellow officers developed.”

Donald F. Chard

“Journal of Colonel Nicholson at the capture of Annapolis, 1710,” N.S. Hist. Soc. Coll., I (1878), 69. Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts (25v., Mass. Hist. Soc. pub., Boston, 1919–50), I, 48, 56, 58; III, 17. N.S. Archives, II. Sylvester, Indian wars, III, 186–87. Shipton, Sibley’s Harvard graduates, IV, 57, 58. L. R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630–1877 (Boston, 1877) 403.

From Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Volume 5 page 75

Edmund Trowbridge was the grandson of Edward Goffe, an elder brother of Col. Edmund Goffe who was Trowbridge's guardian in his minority, having been appointed as such 7 March, 1725; and, singularly, in 1740, he in turn became the guardian of Col. Goffe, who died 16 October of the same year. In public records he appears at various periods as Trowbridge. In the Records of the Superiour Court there is a suit brought, in 1726, by "Edmund Goffe, Lidia Barnard, widow, Edmund Trowbridge, Lidia Trowbridge and Mary Trowbridge, Infants, by the said Edmund Goffe their Guardian, appellants t>. William Jennison, appellee."'

---

From Lieutenant Joshua Hewes: A New England Pioneer, and Some of His ..., Volume 1 By Eben Putnam page 555 "He [Capt. Nathaniel Norden] was married to JANE LATTIMER, a daughter of Christopher Lattimer of Marblehead, prior to 1686. She died 20-2-1722, and he married again 20 Sept., 1722, MARY LEGO, then widow of Capt. Edward Brattle, and who after his death married, 24 July, 1728, Col. Edmund Goffe of Cambridge."

From The Genealogical Magazine. (2017). Google Books. Retrieved 13 February 2017, from page 366

MUSTER ROLL OF LT.-COL. EDMUND GOFFE'S CO. IN THE EXPEDITION AGAINST PORT ROYAL IN 1710. By J. Gardner Bartlett.

The following list of names is from a copy of a muster roll in the files of the Court of Sessions of Middlesex County for the March term, 1710-11, and is the only known record preserved of the names of the men of this company in that expedition, as the original roll is not to be found in the State archives.

An unsuccessful case of attempted "graft" in the public service was the cause of the preservation of this roll. At that time the laws provided that if the commanding officer of a company claimed and collected pay for service which really was not performed he should be fined £50 for each case, one half to go to the government and the other half to the informer. Probably actuated by the reward, Joshua Parker, the clerk of the company, complained to the Court of Sessions that Richard Blacklidge, servant to Col. Goffe, whose name was given on the roll and whose wages were collected by his master, never served in the expedition at all; and Col. Goffe was tried and convicted of the charge, the roll being presented as evidence. The copy of the roll is complete, giving the usual details of wages due each soldier and length of service, etc., most of the men being in service from Aug. 8 to Oct. 29, 1710.

Edmund Goffe, Lt. Col. William Webster, Centinel. ....

Edward Goffe, who arrived in Cambridge in 1635, was an ancestor of Francis Dana, through the latter's mother, Lydia Trowbridge, whose mother was Mary Goffe. Paige says that Goffe was "a large landholder and one of the most wealthy men in the town. His homestead contained thirty-two acres, bounded southerly on the old road into the Neck, easterly on land of Joseph Cooke, near the present Ellery street, northerly on the Danforth estate, near Broadway, and westerly on the parsonage. His dwelling house stood at the southwest corner of his farm very near the junction of Massachusetts avenue and Harvard street," probably the site of Beck Hall. The Harvard Union stands on what was the old garden.

The estate descended to his son, Samuel Goffe, who signed and sealed with his coat of arms the parchment deed of 1696, still in the possession of the Dana family, by which he granted it to his son, Colonel Edmund Goffe, after whose death it was bought by Richard Dana, father of Francis.

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Feb 12 2017, 17:54:42 UTC