Thomas Godwin

Thomas Godwin (also spelled Goodwyn, Godwyn) (died 1677/8) was a Virginia politician, planter and real estate speculator in Tidewater Virginia. He thrice served in the House of Burgesses representing the Nansemond River area (variously Nansemond County, and later Upper Norfolk County), and was its Speaker in the June 1676 session that preceded Bacon's Rebellion.

Early years Godwin's birth and early years are undocumented.

Virginia landowner

He and Richard Axom jointly patented 1,500 acres of land in York County, Virginia in 1650 (based on paying passage for emigrants). Godwin patented 200 acres of land in Nansemond County in 1655. He also patented 179 acres in Nansemond's Chuckatuck parish in 1668 and may have owned other land there as well as in Virginia's Northern Neck as well as Southside Virginia. Godwin's Chuckatuck property was expressly included in Nansemond County when the Virginia General Assembly drew its boundary with Isle of Wight County in 1674, When Godwin became Speaker in 1676, it was the first time a speaker had been elected from south of the James River since his co-burgess Thomas Dew in 1652. Since that assembly in March 1676 named Godwin, John Lear and Thomas Milner to impress men and supplies to fight Native Americans, one historian deduced he was not allied with either the Governor Berkeley/Green Spring faction, nor the Nathaniel Bacon faction that revolted.

Death and legacy

Godwin's will was dated March 24, 1677 (old style) and admitted to probate in 1679, after the rebellion.