# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Goad, Thomas (1576-1638)

1904 Errata appended.
​GOAD, THOMAS, D.D. (1576–1638), rector of Hadleigh, Suffolk, born at Cambridge in August 1576, was the second of the ten sons of Roger Goad (1538-1610) [q. v.], by his wife, Katharine, eldest daughter of Richard Hill, citizen of London (Bramston, Autobiography, Camd. Soc. p. 12). He was educated at Eton, and thence elected to a scholarship at King's College, Cambridge, on 1 Sept. 1592; on 1 Sept. 1595 he became fellow, B.A. in 1596, and lecturer in 1598. At college he distinguished himself by his skill in writing verses, and contributed to the collections on the death of Dr. Whitaker, 1597; on the accession of James I, 1603; on the death of Henry, prince of Wales, 1612; on the return of Prince Charles from Spain, 1623; and on the king's return from Scotland in 1633. In 1600 he proceeded M.A., and was incorporated on the same degree at Oxford on 16 July of that year (Reg. of Univ. of Oxf. Oxf. Hist. Soc. vol. ii. pt. i. p. 355). Wood wrongly identifies him with the Thomas Goad who was incorporated on 15 July 1617; the latter was probably a cousin, Thomas Goad, LL.D. (d. 1666) [q. v.] (Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 374). At Christmas 1606 he was ordained priest, and commenced B.D. in 1607. In 1609 he was bursar of King's; in 1610 he succeeded his father in the family living of Milton, near Cambridge, which he held together with his fellowship; in 1611 he was appointed dean of divinity, and very shortly afterwards he quitted Cambridge to reside at Lambeth as domestic chaplain to Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, his father's old pupil at Guildford Free School. In 1615 he took the degree of D.D.; on 16 Feb. 1617-18 he was made precentor of St. Paul's Cathedral (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, ii. 351); and in 1618 he was presented by Abbot to the rectory of Hadleigh, Suffolk. He also held the rectory of Black Notley, Essex (Newcourt, Repertorium, ii. 443), and probably that of Merstham, Surrey. In 1619 the king, at the instance, it is said, of Abbot, sent him out to supply Joseph Hall's place at the synod of Dort. Hall spoke highly of the qualifications of his successor (Fuller, Church Hist. ed. Brewer, v. 467-9). At Dort Goad, previously a Calvinist, went over to the Arminians (ib. v. 475 n.) He is supposed to have lost in consequence a share in the high ecclesiastical preferments which were granted to his colleagues by James, and his name was omitted, accidentally perhaps, in the 'acts' of the synod. He and his colleagues received the acknowledgments of the States-General, 2001. for their travelling expenses home, and a gold medal apiece weighing three quarters of a pound in weight. Goad returned to his chaplaincy (ib. v. 476). He became on 25 Aug. 1621 prebendary of the tenth stall in Winchester Cathedral (Le Neve, iii. 41). In 1623 he was engaged as assistant to Daniel ​Featley [q. v.] in various disputations which were held with the Jesuits, Muskett (with whom he had previously disputed), John Fisher [q. v.], and others. He distinguished himself in the discussion which charged the Jesuits with a wilful misrepresentation of Featley's arguments (Featley, The Romish Fisher caught and held in his owne Net, 4to, 1624, pt. i. pp. 37-8, 42). About 1624 Prynne showed Goad a portion of his 'Histriomastix,' but failed to convince him of the soundness of his arguments (Gardiner, Hist. England, vii. 327-8). Goad was twice proctor in convocation for Cambridge, and was prolocutor of the lower house in the convocation which was held at Oxford in 1625, acting in the stead of Dr. Bowles, who absented himself through fear of the plague. About 1627 he became a constant resident at Hadleigh, the most important and pleasantest of his preferments, and wrote 'A Disputation,' posthumously published. He wrote the inscription upon Casaubon's tomb in Westminster Abbey. He had an odd fancy for embellishing Hadleigh church and rectory with paintings and quaint inscriptions. These pictures, of which traces remain, were mostly executed, after Goad's own design, by one Benjamin Coleman, a Hadleigh artist. It is said that he intended to turn the so-called 'south chapel' of Hadleigh Church into a public theological library, and many shelves (but no books) were extant in 1727. On 22 Oct. 1633 he was made dean of Bocking, Essex, jointly with Dr. John Barkham [q. v.] (Newcourt, ii. 68), and on 17 Dec. of the same year was appointed an ecclesiastical commissioner for England and Wales (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1633-4, p. 327). He died on 8 Aug. 1638, and was buried in the chancel of Hadleigh Church next day. ' Till the day of his death,' says Fuller, 'he delighted in making of verses' (Worthies, ed. 1662, 'Cambridgeshire,' p. 159). He left land at Milton and his Dort medal (stolen in the present century) to King's College, the rent of the land to be applied in the purchase of divinity books for the library. According to Fuller (Worthies, loc. cit.) Goad 'had a commanding presence, an uncontrolable spirit, impatient to be opposed, and loving to steere the discourse (being a good Pilot to that purpose) of all the Company he came in.' He wrote a painfully interesting tract entitled 'The Dolefvll Euen-Song, or a trve . . . Narration of that fearefull and sudden calamity,which befell the Preacher Mr. Drvry, a lesuite [see Drury, Robert, 1587-1623], ... by the down of all of the floore at an assembly in the Black-Friers on Sunday the 26. of Octob. last, in the after noone . . .,' 4to, London, 1623. During the same year he is believed to have edited a collection of filthy stories by an apostate catholic, entitled 'The Friers Chronicle: or the trve Legend of Priests and Monkes Lives,' 4to, London, 1623. The epistle dedicatory to the Countess of Devonshire is signed T. G. Appended to Bishop Lawrence Womack's anonymous treatise on 'The Result of False Principles,' 4to, London, 1661, is a tract by Goad, 'Stimvlvs Orthodoxvs; sive Goadus redivivus. A Disputation . . . concerning the Necessity and Contingency of Events in the World, in respect of God's Eternal Decree' (republished in 'A Collection of Tracts concerning Predestination and Providence,' 8vo, Cambridge, 1719). An 'approbation' by Goad appeared in the 1724 edition of Elizabeth Jocelin's 'The Mother's Legacy to her unborn Child,' 1st edition, 1624.
G. G.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.137 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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