Godown Family History
Richard L Godown
158 North Street
Caledonia, NY 14423
585-538-6956
Send email to preparer: RGodown@Rochester.rr.com
Table of Contents
Abbott, Abel,
Able, Ackerman, Agin, Ahlswede, Akers, Albin, Albright, Alden, Alexander, Alford, Allbright, Allen, Aller, Anderson, Anglemoyer, Anglemyer, Annino, Antonetti, Apgar, Applegate, Aremdt, Arendt, Arnold, Arnwine, Arvin, Ashcroft, Ashton, Aston, Atkinson, Aul, Ault, Avery, Baars, Bachman, Backman, Bailey, Baits, Baker, Baldwin, Bales, Banta, Barber, Barcroft, Bardwell, Barger, Barkley, Barlow, Barnes, Barr, Barrass, Barrett, Bartholomew, Bartolette, Barton, Bates, Baumgardner, Beaty, Beavers, Beck, Becker, Beebe, Bell, Bellis, Bence, Bengfort, Benito, Bennet, Bennett, Bertain, Besecker, Besson, Best, Bethel, Bice, Bill, Billenstein, Bird, Bishop, Bisson, Black, Blackwell, Blanchard, Bleazard,
Bloom, Boaz, Bodine, Bolmer, Bolowske, Bonham, Boots, Bortmass, Bosenbury, Boss, Bossart, Botts, Bouchard, Boulineau,
Boyd, Boze, Brandes, Bray, Breder, Brewer, Brink, Britton, Brodhecker, Bronne, Brooks, Brown, Brunk, Brush, Bruss, Brynn, Buchanan, Bucklew, Buckson, Buffer, Bump, Bunn, Burket, Burkit, Burns, Burr, Burt, Bush, Buss, Butterfoss, Button, Butz, Bynner, Cain, Campbell, Carey, Carhart, Carkhoff, Carkhuff, Carlile, Carling, Carpenter, Carr, Carrell, Carroll, Carson, Carter, Carthart, Cartwright, Caruthers, Case, Cauley, Cauthen, Chalmers, Chamberlin, Chambery, Chapman, Cherry, Chidester, Chidister, Chilson, Chisman, Chismar, Christian, Clapp, Clark, Clayton, Clemans, Clifton, Cline, Clinton, Closson, Clugston, Cobb, Cochran, Colbert, Colburn, Cole, Collins, Commons, Compton, Conaway, Concannon, Condon, Confesse, Conklin, Conner, Connor, Cook, Cooley, Coon, Cordes, Cordroch, Corson, Corteville, Coryell, Cotterman, Couch, Coughlin, Coulter, Cowdrick, Cowell, Cramer, Cregar, Creveling, Cripps, Crips, Criswell, Cromer, Cronce, Cronk, Cross, Crouse, Crowell, Cruit, Cruthers, Culbertson, Cullen, Culver, Cunning, Curran, Curtis, Cuthbert, Daggett, Dalrymple, Danberry, Danner, Dargitz, Darst, Davenport, Davidson,
Davis, Day, Dean, Deats, Dech, Decker, Denkhaus, Dennelly, Denny, Deputy, Derhammer, DeSchepper, Devilbiss, Dickenson, Diettrich, Dilley, Dilts, Ditmer, Divens, Dixon, Doak, Doersch, Dohrmann, Doll, Dolson, Donaldson, Doud, Dover, Drake, Du Moulin, Duckworth, Duffield, Duffill, Duggan, Duke, Dulin, Dull, Dunn, DuRoss, Dutton, DuVall, Dye, Earley, Ebberly, Eckel, Ecker, Eckhard, Eddy, Edelman, Edwards, Egler, Eichlin, Eick, Eicke, Eldridge, Elleman, Ellis, Ells, Elmore, Elsworth, Embry, Emerson, Emmons, Engler, Ennis, Ent, Enyart, Errickson, Erwin, Evans, Everett, Everitt, Fable, Fairbank, Fallis, Farnham, Fee, Felkner, Finch, Fisher, Fleeger, Fleming, Foley, Force, Foreman, Foster, Foth, Fourman, Fox, Frazer, Frederick, Fredricks, Freeman, French, Fritchman, Fritts, Fryman, Fulbright, Fulmer, Fulton, Furstenburg, Gallmeyer, Galmeyer,
Galmeyer-Koencke, Gamatko, Gamble, Ganger, Gano, Gardner, Garlick, Garner, Garret, Garrison, Gearhart, Geary, Gennusa, Gentry, Gephart, Gerken, Getty, Geweke, Gibboney, Gibson, Gilbaugh, Gill, Gillaspie, Gillespie, Gillilan, Glasing, Gloska, Glover, Godon, Godown, Godown?, Godowne, Godowns, GodownUnknown, Goedowne, Good, Goodown, Goodowns, Goodrich, Gordon, Gordown, Gorham, Gostley, Gouger, Gould, Graham, Graves, Gray, Grazier, Green, Greene, Greenway, Greenwood,
Groff, Gross, Gue, Gum, Gunter, Gurley, Guy, Hackett, Hagaman, Hagans, Hager, Hagerman, Hague, Haines, Hall, Hallo, Hamann, Hamburg, Hammitt, Hampton, Hand, Hann, Hansen, Happ, Harding, Harkenrider, Harley, Harper, Harrison, Harrop, Harshbarger, Hart, Hartpence, Hartzell,
Harvey, Hash, Hatzell, Hawk, Hay, Hayes, Hazen, Heath, Heckman, Heckmanunknown, Heckmeyer, Heers, Heiney, Heini, Heister, Hemby, Hendershot, Henry, Henton, Hepner, Herbel, Hess, Hesseling, Heuser, Hewitt, Hice, Hide, Higgins, Higman, Hildebrandt,
Hill, Hillpot, Hilt, Hima, Hiner, Hines, Hinkle, Hise, Hitesman, Hixson, Hoagland, Hoch, Hockenbury, Hoff, Hoffert, Hoffman, Holcombe, Holcraft, Holgate, Holmes, Holmstrom, Holt, Hoover, Hope, Hoppaugh, Hora, Hordendorf, Hornecker, Horner, Horr, Hough, Housel, Houser, Houseworth, Howell, Howsare, Hudson, Huff, Huffman, Hulett, Hull, Hulsizer, Hummer, Humphrey, Hunt, Hunter, Hurlbert, Hurlburt, Hutchens, Hutchins, Hutchinson, Hyde, Iliff, Ingersoll, Ingle, Irwin, Jackemeyer, Jackson,
Jacox, James, Jamison, Jeffords, Jemison, Jennings, Jinkins, John, Johnson, Johnston, Joiner, Jones, Jordan, Joyner, Kadezabek, Kamman, Kammen, Kaska, Kay, Kehler, Keller, Kels, Kemmerer, Kemp, Kemple, Kennedy, Kepler, Kerr, Kessler, Kibler, Kichline, Kichner, Kiefer, Kikuchi, Kimber, Kimble, Kimple, Kindell, King, Kinney, Kinnison, Kintzel, Kise, Kitchen, Klein, Kleppinger, Kline, Knapp, Koch, Koencke, Komraus, Kratzer, Kreider, Kresge, Kress, Kretzer, Krewson, Kriedler, Kronheim, Kuechlein,
Kugler, Kuhl, Kuntz, La Rue, Lacy, Lafever, Laff, Lafler, LaGree, Lagree, Lair, Laird, Lake, Lambert, Lampe, Lamphere, Landon, Laquear, Larason, Lare, Larew, LaRoche, Larowe, Larson, Larue, Laswell, Latimore, Laudenbach, Lawrence, Lawshe, Leavitt, LeBar, Lee, Leech, Lees, Leffler, Lehr, Lehrman, LehrUnknown, Leidy, Leigh, Leinbach, Lenegar, Leonard, Lepper, Lequear, Lerch, Levers, Lewis, Licata, Light, Lillibridge, Lilliston, Lingo, Linton, Lippincott, Lisle, Little, Lombing, Long, Longino, Lott, Lowe, Luehrs, Lundvall, Lutz, Lyman, Mackey, Malkowski, Manners, Manning, Marbacher, Marlowe, Marrs, Marsh, Marshall, Martin, Martindale, Martinez, Martino, Masgrave, Mason, Masten, Mathews, Mattes, Matthews, Mattison, Maul, Maxell, Maxwell, McAllister, McAtee, McBride, McCaslin, McCauley, McClure, McClureunknown, McCool, McCoy, McDermott, McDevitt, McElroy, McElroye, McGahee, McGlauffin, McHugh, McKeehan, McKinley, McKirgan, McKnight, McLane, McLaughlin, McMillan, McMurphy, McPeck, McPherson, Mcpherson, Meadows, Mechling, Meissner, Melick, Melvin, Menagh, Mengesser, Mercer, Merk, Merritt, Messinger, Mettler, Meyer, Michener, Miles, Millener, Miller, Minder, Minnich, Mires, Mofield, Moltz, Mommy, Monighoff, Moor, Moore, Moran, Morin, Morton, Mote, Motts, Moyer, Muller, Munson, Murphy, Murray, Murrey, Myers, Nagy, Nahrwold, Nall, Nance, Nardi, Naylor, Newman, Newton, Nicholas, Niece, Niswonger, Nixon, Nobel, Nolf, Norris, North, Nugent, O'Brian, Oat, Obrian, Oehling, Oliver, Opdycke, Opdyke, Orr, Osmun, Oswalt, Ott, Otto, Pacque, Paddock, Palenapa, Palmer, Pangburn, Paradice, Parent, Parkinson, Parks, Parrack, Parvin, Patchin, Pearson, Peechatka, Pegg, Pendleton, Perdue, Perkins, Peterson, Petit, Petruzzelli, Philkill, Phillips, Phipps, Piatt, Pickering, Pidcock, Pierce, Pilgrim, Pinkerton, Piotrowski, Piro, Pittenger, Pixley, Platt, Plum, Porter, Potts, Powell, Powers, Powner, Powszukiewicz, Prall, Price, Pursell, Pursellunknown, Putcher, Pyatt, Quick, Quimby, Rake, Rapp, Rasley, Ravely, Ravipinto, Raymond, Reading, Reamer, Reardon, Reay, Reble, Recob, Reed, Reichner, Reidell, Reider, Reinhart, Reis, Rejder, Relph, Reynolds, Rhodes, Richards, Richardson, Richmond, Riegel, Riegle, Riggs, Riner, Ringo, Risher, Risler, Risley, Rittenhouse, Roades, Roat, Robbins, Roberson, Roberts, Robins, Robinson, Rockafellar, Rockafeller, Rockafellow, Rockefeller, Roeber, Romine, Rose, Roseberry, Rosebery, Rosen, Rounsavell, Rounsavill, Rouser, Rudebock, Rufe, Runk, Runyon, Runzo, Rupel, Ruth, Rutherford, Ruyon, Ryan, Sadler, Saffels, Salter, Sandt, Sankey, Santee, Sapp, Sargeant, Savage, Schaffer, Schamp, Scheetz, Scheffy, Schlegel, Schlemmer, Schlueter, Schmidt, Schneider, Schnorf, Schomp, Scott, Seabold, Seal, Search, Sebold, Seibold, Selfridge, Sell, Sellers, Selway, Serfass, Servis, Seve, Seyfried, Shaffer, Shamp, Sharer, Sharp, Shaver, Shaw, Sheets, Shelton, Shepanski, Shephard, Shepherd, Sherman, Shively, Shivers, Shoup, Shrope, Shurts, Shuster, Sidders, Sidler, Siegfried, Siena, Sigafoos, Sigenfoos, Silverthorn, Simpson, Sinclair, Sine, Singer, Siwy, Skinner, Slack, Slater, Slatton, Slavens, Sloane, Smiley, Smith, Smithson, Smock, Snider, Snook, Snorf, Snow, Snyder, Souders, Spangenberg, Sparks, Spickler, Spinner, Spitler, Spittler, Srope, Stadler, Stahler, Stallkamp, Stant, Stapleton, Starks, Steckel, Steiner, Steinhauser, Stephens, Stevens, Stewart, Steyaert, Stine, Stokes, Stong, Storm, Storr, Stout, Street, Strimple, Stringham, Stroud, Strouse, Strunk, Stryker, Stucker, Studley, Stull, Sullivan, Surber, Sutphin, Sutton, Suydam, Swallow, Swarts, Swope, Taggart, Tate, Taylor, Templer, Templeton, Teneyck, Terry, Thacker, Tharp, Thatcher, Thigpen, Thomas, Thomason, Thompson, Threlkeld, Tigar, Tillman, Tilton, Tinsman, Titus, Tobias, Tomey, Tomlinson, Tovell, Townsend, Traill, Transue, Traywick, Trein, Trimmer, Trout, Turner, Tyson, Uhler, Ulmer, Unknown, unknown, Updyke, Utt, Valle, Van Eaton, VanCamp, Vanderbelt, Vanderbilt, Vaness, Vanfield, Vanfleet, VanHoorn, VanHorn, VanKirk, Vanorman, Vanselous, VanSyckle, Vansyckle, Vansycle,
VanWoert, Vegh, Vermilyea, Victor, Vogler, VonBehren, Voorhees, Wagner, Wagoner, Waite, Walcutt, Waldron, Walker, Walrod, Walsh, Walter, Walters, Warford, Warner, Warren, Wasson, Watson, Way, Waydelis, Weaver, Webb, Weber, Webster, Weiss, Weller, Wene, Werkeiser, Werkheiser, Wert, Werts, Werzel, Wesling, West, Weyant, Whalen, Whip, White, Whitehouse, Whitlock, Whitman, Whitney, Whittlesay, Whittlesey, Wieloch,
Wiese, Wietfeldt, Wilcox, Wildrick, Willett, Williams, Williamson, Wilson, Winckler, Windle, Winter, Wismer, Wolverton, Wombough,
Wommer, Wood, Woodall, Woodfuff, Wooley, Worthington,
Wright, Wunderly, Wyant, Wyckoff, Yale, Yard, Yeager, Yoder, Yohe, Young, Zambella, Zapatka, Zeigler, Zellner, Ziegenfuss, Zimmerman
These are the descendants of the Godon/Goedowne (Godon, Godown, Godowns) family. Goedowne was the promanant spelling for the family while
they were living in England. The name has been found to have a number of possible spellings: lesGodon, Godon, Godonet, Godinot, or Godinet,
all coming from the French Huguenots. Godon is found in Amsterdam. Godonet and Godinot also was quite prominet in the Provinces of Lyon
and Champagne in Southern France. Godown, Godowne, Gordown, Goodown, and Godowns are spellings that have been found here in the US and in
England we find Goedowne, Goodowne, Godowne, and Godown. I am currently working on placing all of the families of Alexandria and
Kingwood Twp's in Hunterdon Co NJ from the 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 census. Also got a good start from "Baptistown Recollections" that
will also be included in its entirety.
Correction/additions are very welcome.
Notes
received from Patrick Godon:
Concerning Godonet it could be just the French word for 'little' (or young) Godon. For example in French boy is 'garcon' and young (or
little) boy is 'garconnet'. A good index could be if Godonet appears also as Godonnet with 2 n's.
By the way, I had a look at the Oxford English Dictionary for Godon and found:
Godown (also godon, gadong, gedong, goedown) an
Anglo-Indian word, supposed to be a place where goods lie (some early writers state that these stores were subterranean, which may partly
account for the form which the word has assumed in English). Coming from Malay godong. Some references are made with date: 1588 T.Hickock
tr. C. Frederick's Voy. 27 a, The merchants have all one house or Magason, which house they call Godon. etc... The interessing point here
is that godon and godown seems just to be different spelling of the same word which can in fact give the same sound.
Another interesting point that has been found is that this is the name given to the English soldiers because of the language that they were
using. More on this angle from Patrick:
I have now double checked about Tournay and Tournai. There is Tournay in France, but
it is in the south rather than the North and therefore it is not the one mentioned in the Archive of the North of France.
Tournai (Belgium) is also written Tournay.
It seems that the epic of the "depucellage de la ville de Tournay" in
1513 is actually the Tournai of Belgium (from where Abraham and Jacob came).
From Encyclopaedia Britanica online:
"Tournai was under French protection.. It fell to Henry VII of England in 1513, was return to France in 1518, and in 1521 was taken by
Charles V, who attached it to the Netherlands, then a Spanish Habsburg province. From 1543 it was a center of Calvinism and favoured the
anti-Spanish rebels of the 1560s until Alessandro Franese broke the defencse of Christine de Lalaing, Princess of Espinoy, and recaptured it
for Spain after the siege of 1581."
Between 1513 and 1518 the English soldiers were in Tournai, so the city was filled with "godons". Certainly at that epoque a godon
decided to stay there somehow. Then it was a part of the Netherlands and in 1543 became the center of Calvinism. So the first godons
probably at this epoque became Huguenots in Tournai itself (a center of Calvinism). Later on there were religious querels (Iconoclastes,
1566) and eventually the city fell to the hand of the Spanish (1581). This was a good reason for the Huguenots to start to move. At that
time it was a part of the Netherlands (a spanish province). Going north was better than going south (religiously speaking for the
Huguenots), so eventually the godons arrive in Amsterdam. Since initially the godons were English soldiers who arrived in Tournai between
1513 and 1518, then it was normal to leave back for England in the late 1590 (probably Abraham might have been the grand-son of the first
English soldier godon who stay in Tournai in 1513-1518; Abraham was born around 1560 and would have certainly known his grand father or at
least the fact that they originate from England - they might have had family there to go back to).
Important point: Jacob Godon
was born in Tournai in 1580, before the Spanish got Tournai back. So the godons were probably all that time in Tournai since 1513
(eventhough there were some religious querels around 1566)
Another piece of history of Tournay which might be of interest is
that because of the troubles caused by the Reform, the local (economically speaking) activity dies out completely around 1560-1580.
Thousands of people moved out of the city to other regions because of the economic decadence. In 1516 there were about 36,000 inhabitants
in the city; by 1557 there are only about 25,000 left.
In 1552, Jesuits settle in Tournai, but the counter-Reform succeeds only starting around 1569 and untill 1667.
So there are actually two reasons for Huguenots to leave Tournai at that epoque:
-1) the success of the Counter Reform (helped by the fact that Tournay falls to the hands of the Spanish in 1581).
-2) the economic decadence of Tournai.
This information was found in French on the web site of Tournai at
http://www.tournai.be the same info is available also in English by clicking on the appropriate icone.
It is important to understand the historical background at the time our ancestors (Abraham) lived, to put the pieces of the puzzle
together, epecially the fact that people fled because of the economic decadence (itself caused by the Counter-Reform against the
protestants).
Patrick
It is also a possibility that the family was one of thousands that fled
France in the late 1500's or early 1600's during the religious persecutions namely the massacre known as St. Bartholomew. It is hinted by
some researchers that the family may have been from Nantes. Many Godowne, Godon, Goudon, Goedowne, Goodown, and Godown family records have
been found that place the family in Spitalfields, London, in and around the Stepney parish. In a search of the English parish registers for
London, England is found the marriage of Jacob and Luce in 1627, John and Susan in 1627, and Abraham and Elizabeth in 1640, and the
christening and deaths of a number of Goedowne children. In researching the parish records, St Dunstan in Stepney was quite prominent and
the one of the Goedowne families lived in Wentworth row. I always thought this was a street name but looks like was the name of the row
houses. A Great web site for this area of London can be found at:
http://eolfhs.rootsweb.com/index.htm
From this
information, the Godown(e) family could have lived in England for at least 50 to 100 years. We are assuming that from these families came
the three are brothers and are the ones referenced in some early research done in South Carolina by Albert W Godown and Leon J Zeigler. In
their research we see that in 1680, fourty-five French Huguenot families landed at Charlestown, South Carolina. It was Alberts belief that
the first Godowns in America were in this group. He had heard the following family tradition repeated many times at family gatherings on
his farm in Amwell valley, New Jersey when he was a boy:
"The first Godowns in America were three brothers who landed in South
Carolina long before the American Revolution. Two of the brothers went north and settled in Hunterdon County, New Jersey and one stayed
down south and later went farther west (to Georgia)"
The earliest documented Godown in the south is from a deed dated Feb 13,
1759, of which there was a Jacob Godown as the Justice of the Peace. This deed is recorded in Charleston SC. I have included some of the
research on the Joiner (Joyner) family back to Malachi (Eugenia's , James Godowns wife's, grandfather) to show his death in the Civil War in
the Georgia Battalion. This is a sad turn of events for me in that with the southern line of the family we have at least 3 documentated
Godown(s) fighting for the South and at least 6 for the North. So far the Civil War soldiers are:
James A Godown Georgia
John M Godown Georgia Thomas Godown Georgia Jacob Godown Ohio John M Godown Indiana Joseph W Godown Ohio Mark Godown
Iowa Thomas W Godown Iowa Andrew J Godown Pennsylvania
There are least two Godown's that fought in the Rev. War, John
Godown from Hunterdon Co., New Jersey and Jacob V Godown from Burke Co., Georgia From the original Jacob, John, and possibly
Abraham, there have been some guesses and speculation at relationships and dates.
All the researched Godown family in
the north seems to originate from the original settlement in Amwell, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. The southern Godowns seen to originate
from around the Charleston area and moving to the Jefferson Co. Georgia area near or at the end of the Rev. War. The "s" seems to have
been added to the Godown name beginning with Jacob W Godowns, Jacob V's only son.
The migration of the Godown's from England is further hinted at by looking at the Carlile family. A John Carlile married a Mary Goedowne
in Stepney, England. Their daughter Mary, born in Stepney England, married Richard Haines Jr of Northamptonshire, England. Both Richard
and Mary died in Evesham, Burlington Co, NJ. A Mary Haines is recorded in the Colonial Census index as living in Evesham Twp in 1709.
Tracking down your ancestors in early New Jersey is very difficult as Colonial New Jersey did not require birth records to be
kept before 1790, like most of the other colonies did. You are dependent upon family Bibles, church records and justice-of-the-peace court
records. Many of these records were burned, lost or otherwise destroyed over the years. (Albert W Godown)
Please until we have
a good deal of this research done, don't take this as 100% accurate.
This is a collection of the research of a number of Godown researchers:
Albert W Godown (NJ/FL) (most of the researchers
have referenced Albert's research); Marilyn L. Winton in her article "THE TALE OF TWO TRADITIONS," ; Dean Godown(CT); Authur Godown(NJ);
Donna Evans(NJ); Leon Zeigler(GA); Peggy Ennis(CA); Doris Godown (Ohio); Donald Godown(Ohio); Ruth Godown(NJ); Patrick Godon; Huff
Research(IA); Robert Godown(FL); Robert Zimmerman; Wilber Haines(Ca); Milton Rubincan Family Papers along with a lot of help from
individuals just sending a note about their families.
Of course there is and will be more discrepencies that I will attempt to make notes on. We have done a lot in the short time I have been
actively working on this starting December 1996. We still lack much detail in they top few generations and in a number of legs. Keep up
the good work and keep the information coming. Any Research on the Godon family in the 1500's will be most welcome. It would be
interesting to see if the families joined back in the past somewhere.
Send email to preparer: RGodown@Rochester.rr.com