John
Godley
(March
9, 1773 —
1826)
Elizabeth
Stark
(March
8, 1796 —
After 1840)
John Godley was an interesting character.
He
was born on March 9, 1773
in
Fauquier
County
in the then Colony of Virginia. In
adjacent Culpepper
County, his future wife, Elizabeth Stark, was born about five years later.
They married on
March 8, 1796
in Fauquier
County.
|
Name
|
Birth
date
|
Birth
place
|
|
XXXXX
Godley
|
About
1797
|
Virginia
|
|
Mary
Godley
|
About
1799
|
Fauquier County,
Virginia
|
|
XXXXX
Godley
|
About
1801
|
Virginia
|
|
Lucinda
Godley
|
About
1803
|
Fauquier County,
Virginia
|
|
Jesse
S. Godley
|
About
1805
|
Fauquier County,
Virginia
|
|
Mumford
Godley
|
About
1815
|
Kentucky
|
Sometime
between 1805, when their son Jesse was born in Virginia, and 1810, the family moved to what is now
Allen County,
Kentucky.
The 1810 census for Warren
County, Kentucky (Allen County had not yet been formed) shows John Godley as the head
of a household consisting of two boys and four girls under ten, one boy and one
girl between 10 and 15, one man between 26 and 44 (John) and one woman between
those same ages (Elizabeth).
John
and his family appear next in the 1820 census, this time the one for the
newly-formed Allen
County. This time there was one boy under
ten years of age, two boys and two girls between 16 and 18, one man (John) and
one woman (Elizabeth) between 26 and 45. There
also were a number of slaves; the writing is not clear, but perhaps as many as
19 of them.
It appears that John Godley was involved with the formation of the Allen
County
itself and was an early magistrate. He
also was involved in an early controversy to determine where the county seat
should be located.
|
Isaac
Shelby |
The
Kentucky
legislature, on
January 11, 1815, created Allen
County
out of parts of
Warren
County
and Barren
County. The new county did not become
official, however, until April 10, 1816
when Governor Isaac Shelby’s appointed officials met and formally organized
it.
In
the days leading up to the formal organization, there was a dispute about where
the new county seat should be located. Some
wanted it to be on property owned by Willis Mitchell and others wanted it to be
about four miles farther south on Bay’s Fork, on lands of John Brown.
The latter location was selected. John
Godley was mentioned in the history of the events surrounding the selection as
“assistant judge under the act of Assembly.”
That referred to an ‘assistant county judge,’ who then had both
judicial and administrative powers. |
But
the battle was not yet over. On April 8, 1816, a group of the organizers met and rescinded their prior decision about the
courthouse. They then appointed a
new commission to decide on where it should be.
The original group met the next day and reversed the April 8th
decision. On April 10th,
they disputed the same issue again. And
John Godley was in the middle of it the whole time.
On
December 19, 1816, John Godley witnessed a deed between William Stewart and Robert Patton.
The same day, he also witnessed William Stewart’s wife, Nancy, sign a document releasing her dower (marital) interest in that property.
On
May 21, 1817, John Godley was one of seven magistrates of the Allen County Court who signed
a document appointing an attorney to represent Allen
County
in an action filed against it in the Hardin Circuit Court.
On
August 26, 1817, John Ray sold to James Kelly land on a branch of the Dry fork of the Bays
Fork. John Godley had paid $600 as a
part of the transaction, apparently assigning his interest to James Kelly.
On
April 8, 1819, John Godley was one of three commissioners appointed by the July 1818 term of
the Allen County Court to make a deed to Samuel Smith.
By
another deed dated September 7, 1819, John Godley bought for $1 an acre 33 acres of land in
Allen
County
from Elijah Cussenberry. The land
was located on the water of Soloman Creek, a branch of Difficult Creek, which in
turn was a branch of
Big
Barren
River.
On
November 15, 1819, John Godley bought from Thomas Dobson of Warren County, Kentucky, for $100, 45
acres of land in Allen
County
on the water of Big Difficult Creek. This
land was part of a military survey patented in the name of Nathaniel Reed.
Other
transactions involving John Godley show that he also bought property from John
Finny and wife
and from the Trustees of Scottsville.
His
will was probated in the December term of 1826.
The
1840 Allen
County
census shows Elizabeth Godley as being between 60 and 70 years of age.
This was the last reference to her discovered in the public records.
