Henry Godfrey (1824–1882) was an early 19th-century pioneer / settler of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. He was born at

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

(now Chennai, India) on 4 June 1824, the son of Major John Race Godfrey, an East India Company man, and his wife Jane Octavia, née Woodhouse. Godfrey arrived in

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

in 1843 as a young man of 19 years on the ship the

Duke of Roxburgh The Duke of Roxburghe () is a title in the peerage of Scotland created in 1707 along with the titles ''Marquess of Bowmont and Cessford'', ''Earl of Kelso'' and ''Viscount Broxmouth''. John Ker, 5th Earl of Roxburghe became the first holder ...

, in company with Francis Russell Nixon, the first Bishop of Tasmania. He subsequently made his way to Victoria and settled on a number of pastoral runs or properties. An amateur on the violincello, Godfrey was also an accomplished amateur sketcher and his sketchbook, now in the

State Library of Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in th ...

, contains hundreds of sketches from the voyage and the colonies, as well as some from England. The collection forms a significant pictorial record of the early colonial period of Port Phillip (Victoria) and Aboriginal life of the period. Godfrey established himself on the Gobur Station on the

Goulburn River (Victoria) The Goulburn River, a major inland perennial river of the Goulburn Broken catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the Alpine, Northern Country/North Central, and Southern Riverina regions of the Australian state of Victori ...

, the Boort Station on the Loddon River (Victoria), and owned the Nangunia Station near Berrigan in New South Wales, returning to England in 1864, where he died in London in 1882. His eldest son, Henry Polwhele, returned to Australia in 1874, where he died in 1917. Henry's brother, Frederic Race Godfrey, purchased Pevensey Station near Hay in New South Wales and remained in the colony where he became prominent for his public service. Godfrey married Mary Polwhele in 1853 at St Clements, Truro,

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

. They had five children: * Henry Polwhele Godfrey, born 17 May 1854 in Exeter * Clarence Polwhele Godfrey, born 14 September 1855 in Exeter * Ernest William Godfrey, born 28 December 1856 in Melbourne * Bertram Godfrey, born 1860 at Boort Station, Victoria * Charles Montague Godfrey, born 29 April 1865 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

References

*Henry Godfrey sketchboo

*Rosemary Petheram, ''Down Under from Devon'', Durham: The Pentland Press Limited, 1993 {{DEFAULTSORT:Godfrey, Henry 1824 births 1882 deaths History of Victoria (state) People from the Madras Presidency British people in colonial India