Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Goodman, Gabriel
GOODMAN, GABRIEL (1529?–1601), dean of Westminster, born at Ruthin, Denbighshire, about 1529, was second son of Edward Goodman (d. 1620), merchant and burgess of Ruthin, by his wife Cecily, daughter of Edward Thelwall of Plâs-y-ward. He proceeded B.A. from Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1549–50, and was fellow of Jesus College till 28 Sept. 1555, graduating M.A. in 1553, and acting for a long time as chaplain to Sir William Cecil, with whom he was always on intimate terms. He was created D.D. in 1564 as a member of St. John's College. He became rector of South Luffenham, Rutlandshire, 30 Sept. 1558; rector of the first portion of the church of Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, 1559, and of the second portion 25 Nov. 1569; canon of Westminster 21 June 1560, and was in April 1561 a prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral. On 23 Sept. 1561 he was appointed dean of Westminster, but continued to hold much other preferment. He preached at court 13 Feb. 1561–2, and was a Lent preacher at court 1565–6. He subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles in the convocation of 1562–3, and voted against suggested changes in the ceremonies and liturgy of the church. In 1563 John Feckenham, the late abbot of Westminster, was placed in his custody. In August 1564 he was at Cambridge preparing for the queen's visit to the university. In 1570 a suggestion that Goodman should succeed Grindal as bishop of London was opposed by Archbishop Parker on the ground that although ‘a sad, grave man,’ Goodman was in Parker's private judgment ‘too severe.’ Neither Parker's recommendation that Goodman should be made bishop of Norwich in 1575, nor Aylmer's request that he should be appointed to the see of Rochester in November 1581, nor Whitgift's proposal that the bishopric either of Rochester or Chichester should be conferred on him in 1584, produced any result. Goodman was repeatedly nominated a commissioner for causes ecclesiastical in the court of high commission; was a commissioner for visiting the Savoy Hospital in 1570; assisted in the condemnation of the Dutch anabaptists in 1575; aided Lord Burghley to settle a dispute respecting the validity of certain graces granted at Cambridge in 1580; was a commissioner to represent the primate at the convocation of 1586, and a royal commissioner for the settlement of Jesus College, Oxford, in 1589. Goodman acted as an executor of Lord Burghley's will in 1598. He died on 17 June 1601, and was buried in St. Benedict's Chapel, Westminster Abbey. A monument with a bust in a gown was erected in St. Peter's Church, Ruthin.
Goodman showed himself much interested in educational and charitable schemes. In 1570 he provided for the erection at Chiswick of a home for sick Westminster scholars. Two scholarships were founded in his name at St. John's College, Cambridge, by a deed dated 20 Feb. 1578–9, the endowment being the gift of Mildred, Lord Burghley's wife. As overseer of the will of Frances, countess of Sussex, he took part in the inauguration of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. In 1590 he founded Christ's Hospital at his native town of Ruthin, for a president, warden, and twelve poor inmates, and in 1595 added to the foundation a grammar school. Camden was always an intimate friend. Goodman assisted him in his ‘Britannia,’ to which he prefixed Latin verses in 1586, and bequeathed to him a gold ring with a turquoise stone. By his will, dated 2 March 1600–1, Goodman left bequests to almost all the officials of Westminster Abbey, to the town of Ruthin, to the parishes in which he had lived, and to various members of the Cecil family. His household stuff was bequeathed to his hospital at Ruthin, and many rare books and manuscripts, chiefly bibles, together with legacies to poor scholars, were left to Christ's College, Cambridge (with a portrait of Lady Margaret Beaufort, the foundress), to Sidney Sussex College (with a portrait of the foundress), to St. John's College, Cambridge, to Jesus College, Cambridge, and to Jesus College, Oxford. A Chaldean Lexicon was left to Sir Thomas Bodley for his library.
Goodman translated in 1568 the first epistle to the Corinthians for the Bishops' Bible (Parker, Correspondence, p. 336). He helped, both with literary aid and money, Dr. William Morgan in his Welsh translation of the Bible. A continuation by him of Dr. Bill's ‘Order of the Government of the Colledge of Westminster’ appears, with a letter to Lord Burghley (15 Nov. 1577), in Strype's ‘Annals.’ His statutes for the hospital at Ruthin are in ‘Charity Reports,’ xxxii. (3) 93–5, and for his grammar school in Newcome's ‘Memoir.’ Some of his letters are at Hatfield.
A portrait in the hospital at Ruthin was engraved by Robert Graves from a sketch by G. P. Harding for Newcome's ‘Memoir.’
[Richard Newcome's Memoir (Ruthin), 1825; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 317; Parker's Corresp.; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (Bliss), i. 214, 219, 294; Le Neve's Fasti; Stanley's Westminster Abbey; Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. pp. 179 et seq. (Westminster Abbey Archives) contains a few unimportant references.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.137
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 130 | i | 21 | Goodman, Gabriel: for (d. 1620) read (d. 26 May 1560) |