Sir William Godfrey, 1st Baronet explained

Sir William Godfrey, 1st Baronet (1739–1817) was an Anglo-Irish member of the Irish House of Commons.^[1]

Godfrey was the son of John Godfrey, Esquire and Barbara, the daughter of Reverend Hathway. He was a great-grandson of Thomas Coningsby, 1st Earl Coningsby and his family owned a sizeable estate in County Kerry.

He served as High Sheriff of Kerry in 1780. He was Member of Parliament for Tralee between 1785 and 1790. On 17 June 1785, he was created a baronet, of Bushfield in County Kerry.^{[2] [3]} He subsequently served as MP for Belfast between 1792 and 1797.^[4] Godfrey rebuilt the family home at Bushfield House near Milltown, County Kerry, renaming it Kicolman Abbey in reference to the family's ownership of Killagha Abbey.

Godfrey married Agnes, the only daughter of William Blennerhassett, on 15 August 1761. Together they had nine children. He was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son, John.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Henry Colburn, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (1839), 449.
2. John Debrett, The baronetage of England, revised, corrected and continued by G.W. Collen (1840), 616
3. William Betham, The Baronetage of England: Or The History of the English Baronets, and Such Baronets of Scotland, as are of English Families; with Genealogical Tables, and Engravings of Their Coats of Arms, Volume 5 (Burrell and Bransby, 1805), 55.
4. Henry Colburn, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (1839), 449.
5. John Knightly, The Godfrey Estate During the Great Famine http://www.kerryhistory.ie/documents/5.%20Godfrey.pdf (Accessed 25 February 2014), 125-149