The Godolphins traced their descent from John Knava or Rinsey, who in the late fourteenth century acquired by marriage the estate in west Cornwall from which they subsequently took their name. The Godolphin tin mines were the richest in the county, and a combination of wealth and solid support for the Reformation ensured the family’s rise to local prominence under the Tudors. Godolphin’s great-uncle twice represented Cornwall in Parliament, and in 1558 acquired a Crown lease of the Scillies which made him effectively military commander of the islands.
Godolphin was groomed to build on his father’s achievements. He affirmed his religious orthodoxy by attending the staunchly Protestant Emmanuel College, Cambridge and, according to Richard Carew†, ‘enriched himself with sufficiency for matters of policy’ during a prolonged continental tour, the licence for which was procured by a Killigrew uncle. It is just conceivable that while still a minor he sat for Helston in 1586, though the Member of this name is generally presumed to be his uncle. In 1597 the Privy Council noted Godolphin’s ‘forward disposition’ in appointing him as Sir Francis’ deputy in the Scillies, at his father’s request. When his duties permitted he also spent time in London, and seems by 1598 to have attached himself to the 2nd earl of Essex.
News of Godolphin’s exploits had gone before him, and he now claimed his rewards. In Ireland itself he probably received only a lease of some Ulster fishing rights, which was granted around 1600 and redeemed by the Crown ten years later.
Although Cecil apparently mobilized the Godolphins to support his nominees during the 1604 parliamentary elections, no member of the family is known to have sought a place at Westminster then. However, Godolphin’s personal prestige and government connections made him an obvious candidate in the following year to replace his kinsman and Cambridge contemporary Sir Jonathan Trelawny as a Cornish knight of the shire. As a trustee of Trelawny’s property, he probably followed carefully the passage of a bill during this second session which permitted the sale of the dead man’s lands, but he took no recorded part in scrutinizing this legislation.
By this time Godolphin was firmly in favour with Cecil, now earl of Salisbury, and in June 1606 he had been sent to Paris to congratulate the French king on his narrow escape from drowning in a ferry accident.
Godolphin presumably backed Salisbury’s successful request for Penryn, the borough nearest to Pendennis, to return government nominees in the two parliamentary by-elections of February 1610.
Godolphin’s administrative responsibilities in Cornwall increased significantly following his father’s death, despite his frequent absences from the county. He proved himself a vigorous collector of the 1611-12 Privy Seal loan, but the remoteness of the Scillies posed him problems as governor: while submitting an overdue report to the lord admiral in January 1612, he lamented that ‘a voyage into Spain is often made in shorter time than a passage gotten to poor Scilly’.
In the summer of 1613, at the height of his powers, Godolphin contracted his fatal illness. The tenure of his landholdings rendered his seven-year-old heir Francis* liable to wardship, and while still in London he attempted to settle his estate, but his draft arrangements fell short of legal requirements. Having rashly destroyed the draft on his return to Godolphin, he struggled on his death-bed to reconstruct its contents in his will, drawn up on 2 Sept. and revised two days later. He wished his younger brother (Sir) Francis to obtain the wardship, and accordingly entrusted him with all his property during his eldest son’s minority. The numerous encumbrances left on the estate by his father remained in force, but Godolphin still designed a £1,000 legacy for his daughter. In the longer term his younger sons Sidney* and William were to receive respectively the Norfolk lands which he had acquired by marriage, and the Scillies lease. Godolphin died on 5 Sept. and was buried at Breage.