Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Goodrich, Richard
GOODRICH, RICHARD (d. 1562), ecclesiastical commissioner, a native of Yorkshire, was nephew of Thomas Goodrich, bishop of Ely. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, but does not appear to have graduated. On leaving the university he became a member of Gray's Inn in 1532, and was admitted ancient 5 July 1542 (Harl. MS. 1912). As early as 1535 he was attorney of the court of augmentations. In 1545 he had a grant from the crown of lands which had belonged to the monasteries of Newnham, Bedfordshire, and Butley, Suffolk. He was appointed attorney of the second court of augmentation on its formation, 2 Jan. 1546–7. He also held the office of attorney of the court of wards and liveries. He represented Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire, in the parliament which began 8 Nov. 1547. Throughout the reign of Edward VI he was almost constantly employed in the service of the crown. He was one of the ecclesiastical commissioners, and was also in the several commissions for the codification of the ecclesiastical laws, the suppression of heresy, the sale of chantry lands, and the deprivation of bishops Gardiner, Day, Heath, and Tunstal. In 1551 the king granted him an annuity of 100l. At Elizabeth's accession he was in a commission, 23 Dec. 1558, to arrange matters for the consideration of the ensuing parliament, and also in the ecclesiastical commission, and in that issued to administer the oaths to the clergy. He died at Whitefriars, London, in May 1562, and was buried on the 25th at St. Andrew's, Holborn. His funeral was attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Parker), the lord keeper (Sir N. Bacon), the lord chief justice of the queen's bench (Sir R. Catlyn), the bishop of London (Grindal), the bishop of Ely (Cox), many worshipful men, and two hundred gentlemen of the Inns of Court. The sermon was preached by Alexander Nowell, dean of St. Paul's. When Goodrich was a young man, Leland complimented him for his promising virtues and abilities (Lelandi Encomia, p. 108). He was one of the executors of Sir Thomas Pope, the founder of Trinity College, Oxford. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, in a letter written at Paris, in allusion to the death of Goodrich, terms him a rare man, both for his gifts and honesty. His will, dated 14 Nov. 1556, was proved on 8 June 1562 (P. C. C. 15, Streat). By his wife, Dorothy, widow of Sir George Blage, he had a son Richard, and a daughter Elizabeth.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 214–15, 553; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547–80, For. 1562.]