Global InformationCharles Godwyn information
Reverend Charles Godwyn (1701-1770) was a cleric, antiquarian, and book collector at the University of Oxford. Born in Thornbury, Gloucestershire, Godwyn was descended from Thomas Godwin, the bishop of Bath and Wells.[1] Godwyn studied at Balliol College, Oxford starting in 1718.[1] He earned his BA in 1721 and his MA in 1724.[1] Godwyn followed several members of his family into a career in the church and was ordained in 1727.[1]
Godwin remained affiliated with Balliol as a tutor, during which time he also pursued interests in antiquarianism and numismatics. He had collected more than 3,000 coins by the time of his death on April 23, 1770.[1]
Godwyn developed a reputation among contemporary scholars for his learning and attention to students.[2] He corresponded with scholars like John Hutchinson and Richard Chandler, and is said to have contributed to their work.[1][3][4] As a testament to his scholarly reputation, Godwyn was the subject of multiple poetic tributes after his death. One anonymous poem appeared in Lloyd’s Evening Post, which called Godwyn “renown’d [and] rever’d” and praised his strength as a scholar:
On thee, her early pride, fair Science smil'd,
Lur'd from the mazes of her dark retreat,
And led thee, wondering, through the boundless wild,
To those sweet bowers where Wisdom fix'd her seat.[5]
Ten years later, John Walters, a scholar at Jesus College, Oxford and sub-librarian at the Bodleian Library wrote that Godwyn was “of strongest mind, yet gentlest heart, / Whose boundless genius rang’d the fields of art.”[6]
- ^ a b c d e f Jones, John. "Godwyn, Charles (1701–1770), antiquary and book collector." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2004. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-38482
- ^ Jones, John (1988). Balliol College: A History, 1263-1939. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 154–69.
- ^ Nichols, John (1814). Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century. Vol. 8. London. pp. 224–60.
- ^ Chandler, Richard (1763). Marmora Oxoniensia. Oxford. pp. preface.
- ^ Anonymous (9 May 1770). "ENGLISH POETRY 1579-1830: SPENSER AND THE TRADITION". Lloyd's Evening Post.
- ^ Walters, John (1780). Poems: With Notes. Oxford. p. 43.