GODDARD, John (1682-1736), of Pall Mall, London, and Falmouth, Cornw.

Goddard, a Portugal merchant, was returned for Tregony as a Whig in 1727, voting with the Administration on the arrears of the civil list in 1729 and on the Hessians in 1730. During the second reading, 24 Feb. 1730, of a government bill to prevent loans to foreign powers without a licence, he supported Walpole’s statement that ‘there was a loan from hence for [the Emperor] going on of £400,000’, saying that

he had enquired from the Jews and that there was £40,000 subscribed, and averred it to be true, that the Emperor on this occasion had but 2 shops to go to, the Dutch and us ... if the powers were too great to the Crown, make the Act yourselves without power of proclamation and make it temporary ... there were many precedents of it as in the South Sea directors’ case.Knatchbull Diary.

He left England for Seville on a government mission in June 1731, receiving an allowance of £1,825 p.a. during his negotiations with the Spanish commissioners.Cal. Treas. Bks. and Pprs. 1731-4, p. 214 et passim. In November 1732 he applied for leave to come home to support his interest at Tregony, which Lord Falmouth had been undermining during his absence.John Goddard to Sir Chas. Wager, 28 Nov. 1732, Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss. Returning to England, he voted with the Administration in March 1734 against the repeal of the Septennial Act. Re-elected unopposed, with his son-in-law, Henry Penton, he died 5 July 1736, leaving £20,000 to his wife.PCC 152 Derby.