Thomas Goodrich

Life

He was a son of Edward Goodrich of East Kirkby, Lincolnshire and brother of Henry Goodricke of Ribston Hall, North Yorkshire.

He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, afterwards becoming a fellow of Jesus College in the same university. He was among the divines consulted about the legality of Henry VIII's marriage with Catherine of Aragon, became one of the royal chaplains about 1530, and was consecrated Bishop of Ely in 1534. The diplomat Nicholas Hawkins had been the successor in waiting for his uncle Nicholas West; but he had recently died on a mission to Emperor Charles V.

Goodrich was favourable to the Reformation, helped in 1537 to draw up the Institution of a Christian Man (known as the Bishops' Book), and translated the Gospel of St John for the revised New Testament.

On the accession of Edward VI in 1547 the bishop was made a privy councillor, and took a conspicuous part in public affairs during the reign. "A busy secular spirited man," as the historian Burnet called him, he was equally opposed to the zealots of the "old" and the "new religion."

He assisted to compile the First Prayer Book of Edward VI, was one of the commissioners for the trial of Bishop Gardiner, and in January 1552 succeeded Richard Rich as Lord High Chancellor. This office he continued to hold during the reign of Lady Jane Grey (July 1553); but he made his peace with Queen Mary, conformed to the restored Catholic religion, and, though deprived of the Chancellorship, was allowed to keep his Bishopric until his death.