THE GOODERS OF OAKES GREEN, RASTRICK
There are many contrasting spellings of this surname such as Goodheir, Goodyear, Goodear. This research document follows the name in Rastrick from the year 1486 to modern times.
Researched by
RONI SENIOR
INTRODUCTION
The Goodheir family acquired land in Rastrick by 1486 when Henry VII was newly crowned. A century later the Goodheirs of Okesgrene paid pew rent at Elland, although the first reference to an individual named Goodheir living at Oaksgrene dates from 1603.
In 1759, one hundred and seventeen men were listed in a census of the adult male population who were liable for military service. Near the top of the list was William Goodhear born at Oaksgreen in 1720 whose sons were still too young to be counted. The brothers Joseph and John Goodhear (three quarters of the way down the list) were at Bridge End. These three men were the only Goodhears in town, but over the centuries the Goodheir family in Rastrick rarely numbered a handful of adult men at any time.
By 1841 however, the grandchildren and great grandchildren of William and Hannah Gooder alone occupied eight of the ten properties at Lower Fold with other families at Oaks Green, Crowtrees and Delf Hill making a full dozen. We will look at the families of Joseph and John elsewhere, concentrating here on the family at Oaks Green.
THE EARLY TUDOR BEGINNINGS
The records may note three dozen variants, but Thomas Goodheir acquired ten acres in Rastrick in 1486. A generation later there were three adult men using variants of Goodheir noted by the manorial court records for Rastrick. John Goodyere was elected constable in 1511 and Thos. Goodale in 1515.
The Manorial Court records of 28th April 1513 records: “Edmund Goodheire constable at Rastrick reported that ……Wm Nicholl made affray on Alice wife of Thomas Goodeheire and Isabell their daughter and Robert their son at the end of the Bridge of Rastrick by force of arms against the king’s peace”; the fine of 20d was inflicted.
Presumably this Thomas was one of only five men wealthy enough to pay Henry VIII’s lay subsidy in 1523, although for “40s guds”which suggests trading rather than landholding.
In 1532 “Thos. Goodheire being dead, John his son paid 5s heriot for 10 acres in Rastrick” to ensure his inheritance of the land was acknowledged by the manor.
At this point the published records go blank but the parish records for Elland start to furnish information from 1558 -1588; sadly the minister in charge from 1588-1603 kept poor records.
THE ELIZABETHANS – THOMAS GOODHEIR (d. 1592)
Thomas Goodheir first appears in Elland parish records when a son John of Thomas Goodheir of Rastrick was baptised in 1559. John died in 1561 and a year later another son Thomas was baptised; two daughters also being baptised in the next decade before Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Goodheir of Rastrick died in 1573-74.
Thomas married Agnes Clay in 1575 and their only known child, also Agnes, daughter of Thomas Goodheir of Elland was baptised in 1577. In 1580 a previously unrecorded daughter Jane died and then in July his second wife Agnes was also buried at Elland. He remarried within months to Francesca Clay. The 1581 list of pew rents for Elland attaches his name to one of the long forms (number 4) on the north side of alley; the long form on the opposite side was shared by the Goodheirs of Okesgreen.
Therefore, sometime between March 1574 and September 1577 Thomas had moved from Rastrick to Elland. Thomas Goodheir of Elland was buried on 14th October 1592 and his widow Francesca re-married a few months later.
It initially appeared that the Elland and Rastrick Goodheirs were discreet lines in the 16th century until an estate record of November 1592 exposed the relationship between John Goodheir son and heir of Thomas Goodheir, yeoman, who grew up in Elland but had recently moved to Rastrick, and John’s younger brother Edmund.
No baptisms are recorded for either John or Edmund, but they must have been adult in November 1592 and therefore born by 1571. The death of Thomas and Elizabeth’s first recorded son John, in 1561, indicates that John son and heir of Thomas was born sometime after that date, and Edmund later and there several years between 1561 and 1571 when Thomas and Elizabeth could have born two sons.
THE GOODHEIRE FAMILY IN STUART ENGLAND
JOHN GOODEIRE (c. 1570-1634)
John Goodiher married Susan in June 1600 although no children are recorded until 1603 when an unbaptised infant of John Goodheire of Okesgreen is buried. However, Robert Goodheire of Greetland married in 1596 and no baptisms are registered until 1603 after the new vicar was installed. There is however nothing definite to link John son and heir of Thomas, yeoman and John who married Susan.
At least three more children were baptised to John and Susan over the next six years. There is no record of Susan’s death but in 1619 an illegitimate child is born to John Goodheir of Rastricke and Margaret Brooke, the first of a string of baptisms.
The Manorial Court Rolls fill in a few of the gaps in the parish records. In 1608 John Goodheire and Susan his wife (daughter and heir of Edward Hanson) assign a small field called Leathall to John Hanson, thus filling the gap left in the marriage record. Edward Hanson of Rastrick died at Dewsbury in 1605 and was buried there whilst Margaret, widow of Edward Hanson of Rastrick, was buried locally in 1615.
Initially it looked as if there were three generations at Oakes Green from 1600 to 1720 but one of those involved John and Susan’s marriage in 1600 and children being baptised in 1637. A closer look at the records discloses that John, father of both Thomas Goodheire buried in 1623 and Richard baptised in 1624, was described as “junioris” and the Rastrick church wardens included Jo: Goodheire yonger in 1633.
Given that there are no Goodheir(e) baptisms or burials at Rastrick between 1588 and 1603, after the next minister took post, the fact that the younger John has no baptism is not surprising. John Goodheire was buried in 1633-34 and the younger man baptised Susan in 1635 and Sara in 1637. Baptisms for 1638-40 seem to be missing for the whole parish.
There is no marriage record though the burial, but not the name, of the wife of John Goodier of Okegrene in Rastrick is recorded in 1660. This is unlikely to be Susan Hanson who married in 1600, more probably the wife of John yonger.
JOHN “YONGER” (c.1600 – 1681 ?)
John “yonger” appears to have three sons who surviveD into adulthood.
RICHARD GOODHEIRE (1624 – bef. 1690)
It would be easy to miss further evidence of Richard Goodheire baptised in 1624. but one daughter Mary was baptised in 1651, the year that the Elland churchwardens had to use all their reserves to write up the parish registers that had not been transcribed by previous ministers. The following spring, John Goodheire, now described as the elder, and Richard his son and heir assign the field known as the Inge to Thomas Thornhill of Fixby, rapidly becoming a major local landlord. Several fields at Oaksgrene are also conveyed for a twenty-one year period as security. It is not until 1690 that a second daughter Elizabeth Gamme (widow) daughter and heir of Richard Goodhaire, confirms her release from any claim to one of those fields. There is no current sign of Elizabeth’s baptism, marriage or burial.
JOHN GOODHEIRE (1627 -?)
John ”yonger’s” son John, born in 1627 is known only from the fact that in 1651-52 John yonger is described as “the elder”. It is possible that the wife of John Gooder of Okegrene who was buried in 1660 was married to the son rather than the father but amidst the chaos of the Commonwealth and Restoration records it is impossible to tell. A 1657 conveyance refers only to John Goodheire of Rastrick suggesting only father or son is alive.
After the Restoration in 1660, two non-conformist ministers were dismissed, and Rev Ashton did not take up his post until 1667 so the intervening records are sparse.
JOSEPH GOODHEIRE (1633 – 1706)
Joseph Goodheire was the youngest son, born in 1633. He almost certainly married during the Commonwealth period when marriage was a civil contract or during the period after the Restoration when Elland marriage records are missing, as no marriage record appears to exist. Even at this point the association with Goodale remains, as Joseph Goodall of Rastrick baptizes a son James in 1663.
George Redmonds notes that in 1634 Joseph is on the wrong side of the court leet at Brighouse, despite being one of the sworn men. Joseph Goodall is fined ten shillings for “eavesdropping“ at the house of Samuel Dyson. The said Samuel is also found guilty of eavesdropping at the house of Joseph Goodheire and an Elizabeth Dyson was presented for “standing under the ewse of the house of Joseph Goodheire as an ewsedropper”. The Dysons are fined 10 shillings each. Whatever the row, this small community could not afford to let it continue.
With a new and diligent minister in place, records relating to Joseph’s expanding family improve. Richard Goodheire was baptised in 1666 but his mother Mary dies when he is 6 months old. Joseph obviously remarried urgently; with one or two small sons, he needed a new wife to care for them. Anna is born to the second wife before his son Richard dies in 1669. Joseph Goodheyre and David Goodheire are baptised in 1671 and 1673 before a gap in the records, with Faith and William Goodheir being born in 1678 and 1682.
During this period the Hearth Tax is imposed; charging everyone for each hearth in their property, except those exempt or poor. In Rastrick there are forty-two properties where the householder is named in 1672, eleven exempt and four where the inhabitants are too poor. Joseph is not only the only Goodheire in Rastrick, he is the only one taxed in the West Riding in 1672, although Isaac Goodheire is recorded at Huddersfield in 1664.
This is probably Isaac Goodyere of Huthersfield whose son John was baptised at Elland in 1651 and who appears to be descended from the Goodheire family in Greetland; and in 1672 his surname is Goodyear. Given that West Riding hearth tax records do not include the names of those exempt or poor, it is possible that the family name is still represented at Elland as twenty-five households were exempt, and seventeen households were too poor to pay. Since Elland was part of the Honour of Pontefract, the Wakefield manorial court rolls cannot provide supplementary evidence.
However, the person owing pew rent in June 1681 for the fourth long form on the south side (belonging to the Gooders of Okesgrene a century earlier) was John Goodheire not Joseph, presumably the same man who is buried weeks later in early September? A couple of octogenarians gave evidence at a trial by road in 1628, so perhaps John “yonger” was amongst those exempt from the hearth tax in 1672, perhaps he has already assigned his property to Joseph and is living in his household, or perhaps the John concerned is Joseph’s older brother John born 1627?
At the end of the decade Joseph conveys that portion of the common “given to him by John Goodheire” to the Thornhills, who are acquiring the rights piecemeal before enclosing a large portion. That is the last time the Goodheire name appear in the Thornhill records.
Joseph Goodheire’s second wife Ann died in 1695 and Joseph Gooder was buried in 1706. His later years co-incide with major changes in England, as James II is removed from the throne and replaced by his daughters Mary and Anne. Halifax was a seat of non-conformism but that barely touched Rastrick in the years immediately after the Act of Toleration in 1689.
18th CENTURY RASTRICK
Joseph’s son David (born 1673) had already married (presumably, as no legible record remains) and the old man saw his first two grandsons William Gooder born 1703 and James Gooder born 1705. The arrival of minister Petty in 1699 spelled the end of the Goodheir surname, henceforth the family would always be recorded as Gooder in parish records.
Sadly, Mr Petty outsourced the writing up of his parish records. Even when they are legible, the scribes recorded the records for Elland and Ripponden chapel and then left one or two pages blank, as if expecting additional material (Norland, Rishworth and Rastrick) to copy. The records were never written up. Thankfully the new curate John Metcalfe took over at Rastrick in 1719 and for the next 40 years he and his successors kept a useful record.
WILLIAM GOODER (1682 – 1740)
William at Oakes Green was the only Gooder baptising children during the first decade of the Rastrick register. There is no record of his marriage, but this did not have to take place in a church until 1754. However, the Wisconsin family of his great-grandson William (1790-) believe that she was called Dorothy. There are two otherwise unclaimed burials for Dorothy Gooder in the mid-18th century and it is not unreasonable to suppose that grandchildren Martha and William might have known the lady personally.
As far as can be ascertained William only had one son, another William. Many on-line trees ignore that baptism of William son of William born at Oakes Green in 1720, possibly because the child’s name has been obliterated in the Elland Register. The chapel register completed for the chapel by minister Metcalfe completes the record. He had two elder sisters Anna baptised in 1711 and Martha 1717, and a raft of younger sisters including Margret and Mercy.
WILLIAM GOODER (1720 – 1783)
William Gooder married Hannah Berry in 1744 and they largely completed their family by 1759 when the Rastrick Register ends. They baptised Martha in 1845 and sons John, William, Tobias and Job between 1747 and 1761. David was baptised in 1757 and died two years later. Hannah died in 1779, after which William may have married the widow Mary Aspinall. He died in 1783.
In 1759, one hundred and seventeen men between aged between 18 and 50 were listed in a census of the adult male population of the township who were liable for military service. Some households would not be headed by fit adult males and some had more than one eligible male, but the number of households was double that of 1672 when forty-two households paid the Hearth Tax, eleven were exempt and four were too poor, and at least three times the twenty-four households noted in 1605.
Near the top of the 1759 list was William Goodhear, born in 1720; John Bentley and the Walker brothers are also at the top of the list (as noted in Andy Eccles’ family tree). This suggests that the enumerators started at the top of the hill above Oakes Green and worked their way down the road to Rastrick Bridge, placing the brothers Joseph and John Goodhear (three quarters of the way down the list) in Bridge End where they were born in 1727 and 1733.
Of course, William, Joseph and John each named sons William and John, and they also liked the names Ann, Joseph, Thomas and David, so disentangling their descendants is a challenge, even more so in the generation born after the Napoleonic War, but it is possible…
THE CHILDREN OF WILLIAM GOODER OF OAKS GREEN AND HANNAH BERRY
MARTHA (1745 – 1779)
When Martha Gooder was baptised in 1745 her parents lived at Oaks Green, as they did when the younger children were born. She married Jonas Wilkinson in December 1789 and they had at least three children Mary in 1770, James in 1772 and John two years later. Martha wife of Jonas Wilkinson of Rastrick was buried on 31st January 1779. It seems likely that Jonas Wilkinson, woolcomber, married Alice Bottomley, widow on 21 February 1781 at Elland. Given the plethora of Wilkinson’s this branch has not been easy to trace this line forward but quite possible that Jonas only died in 1834.
JOHN (1747 – ?)
Although baptised in 1747, there is no further record of their eldest son.
WILLIAM (1750 – 1817)
Baptised in 1750, William developed an interest in Independency as a young man. He was admitted to Highfield Chapel but in 1778 was one of six Rastrick members dismissed to set up a local chapel. Attempts to develop a site near Bridgend were not successful initially and William was one of only two of those dismissed who amongst the earliest members of Bridgend Independent Chapel.
He had married Elizabeth Hall at Huddersfield in 1780 and it was at Highfield that William, butcher of Oaks Green and Elizabeth baptised their daughter Mary in 1783. Five years later William Hall Gooder was one of the first children baptised at the Bridgend chapel, followed by Elizabeth in 1792 and Thomas in 1795. The minister Hollingworth took to “making pieces, drinking and failed to prepare services or keep records” from this time. William was one of the trustees appointed in 1798 to try and sort the situation. Mr. Hollingworth left in 1800. William plainly ceased to be a member of the chapel as his burial in 1817 was recorded at St Matthew’s Church.
TOBIAS (1755 – 1833)
Baptised at Rastrick in 1775, Tobiah or Tobias became a shoemaker. He married Anne Bentley, who was probably a cousin, in 1778 and they had a large family. The older children were baptised in the Anglican faith, the younger ones at Bridgend Chapel. Their first daughter Mary died in infancy and a second child of the same name was baptised in 1783. This was followed by the baptism of Joseph in 1785, John in 1788 and David in 1790.
Daughter Ann was also baptised at St Matthews in 1792 but in 1795, Tobias and Anne had transferred their allegiance to Bridgend Independent Chapel where Martha was baptised. The family experienced Mr Hollingworth’s failing as the baptism of Dorothy in about 1797 was never recorded. The family were not chapel members however, as both Martha and Dorothy were buried at St Matthews. There may have been other children whose baptism were not recorded prior to that of Reuben in 1801.
Tobias was renowned locally as a follower of the hounds, as is recorded in the obituaries following his death in 1833. Ann appears to have survived him by three years.
JOB (1761 – 1825)
The youngest of the Gooder brothers, born a couple of years after the death of David in 1759, he married Betty Holroyd in 1789. The following year William was born, followed by Helena, in 1791 and Job in 1793. In common with his brothers, Job baptised Hannah at Bridgend chapel when she was born in 1795, and like his brother, the baptism of at least one child was not recorded by Mr Hollingworth between 1795 and 1800. It is only Isaac’s second marriage to Edna Noble that confirms his parentage.
By 1801, normal service had resumed at Bridgend chapel for the baptisms of James and Abraham. When Jacob was born in 1808, the family chose to baptise him at Square Chapel in Halifax. Sadly, both Jacob or his successor Jacob born in 1810 died in infancy. Mr Crisp did not try to work out the birth order when he baptised the younger Jacob at Bridgend nor their youngest child Elizabeth baptised in 1814.
Elland records rarely provide information about occupation but by 1808 and his death in 1825, Job is described as a farmer.
Despite 20 years involvement with Bridgend chapel, he was buried at St Matthew’s. His widow Betty seems to have lived until 1847.
THE EARLY VICTORIANS
By 1841, an extensive family of Gooder siblings, cousins and second cousins were living at Lower Fold and Oakes Green, all by one descended from William Gooder and Hannah Berry, ten families in all. whilst others lived at Crowtrees and Delf Hill. Unless otherwise stated, the heads of household were all woolen fancy weavers, who turned thread and instructions from a manufacturer into pieces which were paid for when returned.
Isaac born 1799 son of Job Gooder born in 1761, and his first wife Elizabeth Smith. He built the house in which they lived, recording this on one of the beams and bought the property from the Clark Thornhill estate in the 1860s.
Joseph recently married to Betty lived between his uncle and aunt; son of Job 1793-1830 and grandson of Job 1761.
Hannah born 1785, daughter of Job 1761 who lived next door with husband James Walker and family.
David born 1792 was the odd one out in Lower Fold; descended from Tobias Gooder born in 1755. His wife Alice Walker. was the younger sister of Mary Walker who married William Bottomley in 1816 and appears in Andy Eccles’ tree.
William, the butcher baptised 1790, son of Job 1761, and his wife Ann Stirk would emigrate to the USA two years later with their whole family, ultimately to Racine, Wisconsin. His second son was a cordwainer. William died in 1857, his grave can be seen below.
Betty Gooder nee Holroyd the elderly widow of Job 1761 was next door.
Job eldest son of William, and Ann Stirk, and his wife Ann Haigh had recently buried their first child, a daughter in St Matthew’s churchyard and lived a few doors down from his parents.
The eldest adult children of William Hall Gooder, son of William baptised 1750, had moved next door, including his married daughter Edna Lumb Eldest Mary and Thomas, a farmer’s hand.
John Gooder, manufacturer, born 1790, son of Tobias 1755, and his wife Sarah lived at Oakes Green
As did William eldest son of Job 1793-1830 with his first wife Ann Rayner; his second marriage exposes his parentage as he does not appear to be baptised locally.
William Hall Gooder, butcher and farmer, son of Tobias and Jobs’ elder brother William born in 1750 and also a butcher, was living at Crowtrees. His wife Susey Bottomley and younger children are living with him.
And Richard Gooder, dyer, the younger surviving son of Job (1793-1830) and Ann Hepworth, grandson of Job 1761 is round the corner at Delf Hill.
THOSE MISSING FROM THE GOODER ENCLAVE
John Gooder, the youngest of Job 1761’s surviving sons, had emigrated to New Zealand a few weeks earlier. Apparently, his family did not support his relationship with unmarried mother Betty Dyson who had helped care for his children after their mother Rachel’s death. After their marriage in Huddersfield in May John and Betty set out on the six month journey to Wellington. Click on the link below to see a booklet about the Karori Methodist Pioneers which includes details of the Gooders
Job 1761 had another son James born in 1801. There are however two men with the same name and date of birth in Rastrick in 1841 and it is impossible to tell whether the carter or the labourer is Job’s son.
Joseph eldest son of Tobias had only married Elizabeth Brook in 1837 and they were resident at Cowcliffe in Huddersfield.
The youngest son of Tobias probably also left Rastrick because of family disapproval. Reuben spent six months in 1834 in York gaol accused of trying to murder his wife Hannah Hartley. The case hit the national newspapers and Reuben was saved by Hannah’s reluctance to testify. She seems to have died before 1841 when he remarried in Huddersfield and their three older children are also living there.
Thomas younger son of William 1750 and Elizabeth Hall was a delver at Anchor Pit in Rastrick, living with his wife Elizabeth Rushforth and family.
THE OTHER WILLIAM
The families living at Toft’s Grove are descended from another William, born in 1759 to John Gooder born in 1733. William 1759 weaver and Methodist had also married a Betty Holroyd who lived with their son Thomas baptised whilst Jonathan baptised 1792 lived nearby.
THE FUTURE
Of course, the railway had just arrived in 1841 making it possible for John to transport his new wife and six children to Wellington. Later Gooder’s headed for Racine, Wisconsin; Kane, Illinois; Lancashire and Huddersfield, Yorkshire over the next decade whilst others were still in Rastrick in the early 20th century.
Two entries from the 1841 census showing the families of Isaac Gooder (42), David Gooder (51) and William Gooder (51) all residing at Lower Fold, Oakes Green, Rastrick.
Isaac built a house on Lower Fold and left his mark which is still visible today.
