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 If you can help with information about this family, please contact editcontact@theislandwiki.org, using Jerripedia as the subject of your email

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 Bernabey Godfray
• Descendants of Philip Godfray
• Descendants of Jean Godfray
• Descendants of Thomas Godfray
• Descendants of Edmund Godfray
• Descendants of Edouard Godfray Added 2016

Baptisms

• Godfray baptisms in Jersey

Biographies

• Advocate Francois Godfray
• Brigadier General John William Godfray
• Hugh Godfray
• Humphrey Godfray

Great War service

• Godfray family members who served in World War 1

Family wills

• Godfray family wills from 1663 to 1948 held by Jersey Archive

Family businesses

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

Family album

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Family gravestones

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