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. A--B--C--D--E--F--G--H--I--J--K--L--M--N--O--P--Q--R--S--T--U--V--W--X--Y--Z If you can help with information about the Godfray family, please contact editcontact@theislandwiki.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 (1784-1877) married Jean de La Lande. She left £204 7s 10d in her will and administration was granted on 8 July 1877 to Durell Godfray, a dairy farmer of Town Mills

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 and Elizabeth Nicolle
• Descendants of Jean Godfray - 3 Another, more extensive, version of the above from a different source, added 2019
• Descendants of Bernabey Godfray
• 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

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

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

Family wills

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

• Godfray burial records 1820-1978

Family homes

• Le Pré au Portier, Grouville
• Bel Air, St Mary
• Grainville Manor, St Saviour

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

Family gravestones

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

Starting in August 2020 we are adding 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