GODFREY, SIR EDMUND BERRY Eng lish magistrate and politician, younger son of Thomas Godfrey (1586-1664), was born on Dec. 23, 1621, and educated at Westminster school and Christ Church, Oxford. After entering Gray's Inn he became a prosperous dealer in wood. He was made a justice of the peace for the city of Westminster, and in Sept. 1666 was knighted as a reward for his services during the great plague. In Sept. 1678 Titus Oates and two other men appeared before him with written information about the Popish Plot, and swore to the truth of their statements. During the excitement which followed the magistrate expressed a fear that his life was in danger, but took no precautions. On Oct. 12 he did not return home as usual, and on the 17th his body was found on Primrose Hill, Hampstead. The evidence proved that he had been murdered, and the excited populace regarded the deed as the work of the Roman Catholics. In Dec. 1678 Miles Prance, under arrest for conspiracy, confessed to having murdered Godfrey, with the aid of Robert Green, Lawrence Hill and Henry Berry, at the instigation of Roman Catholic priests. The three men were hanged in but Prance's confession was subsequently proved false, and he pleaded guilty to perjury. The secret of Godfrey's death has never been solved.
See OATES, TITVS, also R. Tuke, Memoirs of the Life and Death of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey (1682) ; and G. Burnet, History of my Own Time The Reign of Charles II., ed. O. Airy (Oxford, 1900) . On the question of responsibility for the murder, see J. Pollock, The Popish Plot (1903); A. Marks, Who Killed Sir E. B. Godfrey? (19°5); John Hall, Four Famous Mysteries (1922) and R. W. Postgate, Murder, Piracy and Treason (1928).