SECTION 19 - The Gooderes

Summary

Sir Henry Goodere, Drayton's friend, born in 1534, was the elder son of that Francis Goodere who acquired Polesworth after the dissolution of the Abbey. He had a younger brother, William, who witnessed his will in 1595, and was father of the younger Sir Henry. This William was probably the writer of The Voyage of the Wandering Knight, translated out of the French of Jean de Cartigny. So far as we know, Sir Henry wrote nothing himself, but we have the testimony of Dugdale that he was ‘a Gentleman much accomplisht and of eminent note in the Countie (i.e. Warwickshire) while he lived.’ He married Frances, daughter of Henry Lowther and sister of Sir Richard Lowther, who took part in the Rising in the North (1570) and in the Catholic project, culminating in the Ridolfi plot of 1571, of marrying the Duke of Norfolk to Mary, Queen of Scots, and putting her on the throne. Goodere was also involved in the latter business, and was sent to the Tower in September 1571, but was released in 1572. From his prison in the Tower he wrote to Burleigh confessing at length the particulars of his communications in cipher with the Queen of Scots, the bishop of Ross and the Duke of Norfolk, and protesting his innocence of any treasonable designs. It does not appear that he was a declared Roman Catholic.