Godfray

Godfray family page

This family has been long established in Jersey. With a record of a spelling variant in 1200, it qualifies as one of the very earliest surnames in the island

Ada Rebecca Godfray with Cyril Bacon

Record Search

Direct links to lists of baptisms, marriages and burials for the Godfray family can be found under Family Records opposite. If you want to search for records for a spelling variant of Godfray, or for any other family name, just click below on the first letter of the
family name you are interested in. This will open a new tab in your browser giving you a list of family names beginning with that letter,
for which there are baptism records in our database of half a million church and public registry records.

You can also select marriages or burials. Select the name you want
and when the list of records is displayed you can easily refine the search, choosing a single parish, given name(s) and/or start and end dates.

The records are displayed 30 to a page, but by selecting the yellow Wiki Table option at the top left of the page you can open a full, scrollable list. This list will either be displayed in a new tab or a pop-up window. You may have to edit the settings of your browser to allow pop-up windows for www.jerripediabmd.net. For the small number of family names for which a search generates more than 1,500 records you will have to refine your search (perhaps using start or end dates) to reduce the number of records found.

New records

From August 2020 we have started adding records from non-Anglican churches, and this process will continue as more records, held by Jersey Archive, are digitised and indexed. Our database now includes buttons enabling a search within registers of Roman Catholic, Methodist and other non-conformist churches. These records will automatically appear within the results of any search made from this page.

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If you can help with information about the Godfray family, please contact editorial@jerripedia.org, using Jerripedia as the subject of your email. We are particularly interested in information which will help create further family trees, family histories and photographs

A blue link anywhere in the text will lead you to another page with more information on this family

Origin of Surname

This family name originates with the personal name Godfrey, or Godefroi, the leader of the first Crusade.

The personal name Godfrey, is ultimately of Old German origin, as "Godafrid", a compound of "Guda, Goda", god, with "frithu, frid", peace. There was a corresponding Old English given name, "Godfrith", but it was not common, and most of the modern surnames derive from the Norman form of the German name, "Godefroi, Godefrois", introduced into England after the Conquest of 1066.

The given name is recorded in its Latinized form in the Domesday Book of 1086, as "Godefridus", and the surname development includes Alan Godefre (1252, Huntingdonshire), and Maud Godefray (1277, Nottinghamshire).

The first record of the name is that of Symon Godefrei, which was dated 1221, in the "Charters of Ely", Suffolk, during the reign of King Henry III.

Harriet Elizabeth Godfray, nee Joyce (1784-1877) married Durell Godfray, a dairy farmer of Town Mills. She left £204 7s 10d to him in her will and administration was granted on 8 July 1877

Early records

Godfray is found in the Assize Roll of 1309.

Over 850 baptisms of Godfrays and variants are in our database, starting as early as 1546.

Payne's Armorial of Jersey

This family settled in Jersey some time previous to 1600, in the person of Drouet Godfray. His son, Humphrey Godfray, as appears by family tradition, based on documentary evidence, having sold some landed property in the county of Northumberland (whence his fether had emigrated), purchased an estate in the parish of St Martin, near St Catherine's Bay. Thence, in the middle of the last century, the representative of the elder branch of the family, Philip Godfray, removed to Anneville, on his marriage with Sarah, daughter and eventual heiress of George Messervy. Their eldest son, Philip Godfray, on the death of his mother, inherited this estate, and in 1773 married Frances, the daughter and heiress of Francis Fauvel, a member of a wealthy insular family. The eldest son of this marriage, Philip Godfray, was for several years Constable of St Martin.

Variants

• Godefroi
• Godfrey, 1528
• Godfray, 1668
• Godfroy 1461
• Godefre 1402
• Godeffre 1363
• Godeffroy, 1331
• Godefrei 1381
• Godefrey, 1309
• Godefreye 1540
• Godefridi 1229
• Godefrithis 1200

Family records

Family trees

• Descendants of Jean Godfray - 3
• Descendants of Jean Godfray
• Descendants of Jean Godfray - 2 Added 2017 , a different Jean at the head of a tree going back to 1581
• Descendants of Philip Godfray links to the above and follows a different descent from the early 18th century
• Descendants of Thomas Godfray
• Descendants of Edmund Godfray
• Descendants of Edouard Godfray
• Descendants of Edouard Godfray - 2 another descendancy Added 2018
• Descendants of Philippe Godfray Added 2021
• Descendants of Guillaume Godfray Added 2021
• Descendants of Thomas Godfray - 2 Added 2021

Church records

Tips for using these links

• Godfray baptisms in Jersey
• Godfray marriages in Jersey (groom)
• Godfray marriages in Jersey (bride)
• Godfray burials in Jersey

Biographies

• Advocate Francois Godfray
• Brigadier General John William Godfray
• Hugh Godfray
• Humphrey Godfray
• Philip Godfray: Prominent 19th century photographer

Newspaper records

• Philip Godfray, 1848 land valuer
• Charles Godfray appointed to reservoir planning committee in 1848
• John Godfray on committee to examine Constable of St Helier's accounts in 1848
• Francis Godfray sworn in as Constable of St Saviour in 1848
  
  

Great War service

• Godfray family members who served in World War 1
• Presentation to Corporal Charles Arthur Godfray, MM, at the Town Hall

Occupation records

• Godfray Occupation identity cards

Family wills

• Godfray family wills from 1663 to 1980 held by Jersey Archive

• Godfray burial records 1820-1978

Family homes

• Pre au Portier, Grouville
• Bel Air, St Mary
• Grainville Manor, St Saviour
• Anneville, St Martin

Family businesses

• Milliner J Godfray was in business at 25 Queen Street in the 1830s

Family album

Click on any image to see the full-size version

New Zealand doctor

The staff of Waipukurau Hospital in New Zealand in 1895. Jerseyman Dr Sydney Charles Godfray is sitting on the right and the woman at his shoulder is Matron Godfray, his sister.

Surgeon Sydney Charles Godfray, one of the sons of Alfred Charles and Henriette Susanne Pirouet, emigrated and lived in Waipawa, New Zealand. He sailed aboard the Knight Templar in February 1900 from New Zealand to South Africa, to treat soldiers injured in the Anglo-Boer War. He was in the 3rd Contingent who were in South Africa for a year (March 1900 to March 1901). He served with the New Zealand Mounted Rifles and was mentioned in Lord Kitchener's despatch of 8 March 1901 for Valuable Services Rendered. He was promoted to Surgeon Captain.

Surgeon Captain Godfray was in charge of the Waipukurau Hospital at Waipawa when the Third Contingent of New Zealand Mounted Rifles (known as the New Zealand Rough Riders) was sent from New Zealand to Durban, South Africa. He accompanied that corps, and saw some very active service with the Rough Riders. At the Rhenoster Kop action on 28 November 1900 the doctor played a valorous part. While attending to the injured he was himself wounded in the thigh, sustaining a severe fracture as a result of the ambulance he was in being attacked and riddled with bullets.

He went into hospital, made a good recovery, and then returned to the front again. He came home to New Zealand in late February 1901 for "urgent private reasons". He told a reporter from the New Zealand Evening Post that the campaign had been rich in experience for him, and he had thoroughly enjoyed the work that had fallen to his lot.

It seems that Surgeon-Captain Godfray was twice wounded, yet stuck to the duty of tending his comrades. Apparently the men of the Third declared that he deserved a VC, but "as no Imperial officer happened along to see the gallant deeds he performed while succouring the wounded, then he didn't get it".

The Evening Post of 13 August 1900 carried a report concerning the men at the front, and this mentioned that Surgeon Captain Godfray was seriously contemplating applying to be relieved, with the object of proceeding to England on matters connected with his profession.

Surgeon Captain Godfray is one of the men commemorated on the South African War Memorial in Napier, that was unveiled by Lord Plunkett, Governor of the Colony, on 10 February 1906. The memorial tablets were erected by the people of Hawke's Bay to commemorate the part taken by troopers from the District in the South African War 1899-1902, and as a tribute to patriotism shown by them in offering their services in the empire's cause.

Family gravestones

Memorial to Arthur William Godfrey, who died of cholera while serving in the Indian Army

Click on any image to see a larger version. See the Jerripedia gravestone image collection page for more information about our gravestone photographs

Tips

The church record links above will open in a new tab in your browser and generate the most up-to-date list of each set of records from our database. These lists replace earlier Family page baptism lists, which were not regularly updated. They have the added advantage that they produce a chronological listing for the family name in all parishes, so you do not have to search through A-Z indexes, parish by parish.

We have included some important spelling variants on some family pages, but it may be worth searching for records for a different spelling variant. Think of searching for variants with or without a prefix, such as Le or De. To search for further variants, or for any other family name, just click on the appropriate link below for the first letter of the family name, and a new tab will open, giving you the option to choose baptism, marriage or burial records. You will then see a list of available names for that type of record and you can select any name from that list. That will display all records of the chosen type for that family name, and you can narrow the search by adding a given name, selecting a parish or setting start and end dates in the form you will see above. You can also change the family name, or search for a partial name if you are not certain of the spelling

The records are displayed 30 to a page, but by selecting the yellow Wiki Table option at the top left of the page you can open a full, scrollable list. This list will either be displayed in a new tab or a pop-up window. You may have to edit the settings of your browser to allow pop-up windows for www.jerripediabmd.net. For the small number of family names for which a search generates more than 1,500 records you will have to refine your search (perhaps using start or end dates) to reduce the number of records found.

New records

Since August 2020 we have added several thousand new records from the registers of Roman Catholic, Methodist and other non-conformist churches. These will appear in date order within a general search of the records and are also individually searchable within the database search form