Arms on Hunsingore communion Plate: - Goodricke impaling Benson. First Argent on a Fesse Gules between two Lions passant guardant Sable, a Fleur-de-lis Or between as many Crescents Argent, Second Argent three Trefoils in bend Sable Cotised Gules. Motto (Leal Y Libre) "Loyal yet free."

On the death of Sir Henry Goodricke, the 2nd Bart. the Baronetcy and estate of Ribston devolved upon his half-brother John, only son of Sir John, the first Baronet, by his second wife Elizabeth, relict of William, third Viscount Fairfax, of Gilling Castle.  Sir John, the 3rd Bart. was born 16th October 1654 and therefore fifty-one years of age at the time of succeeding to his paternal estates.  In early life he had resided at Haddockstones, near Ripon, a property he inherited under his father's will, but in 1705 when Ribston fell to him he was residing at Altofts Hall, Normanton, which was then a fine Elizabethan mansion, built by Admiral Frobisher, purchased by Sir Francis Goodricke and bequeathed by him to this nephew John.

There is nothing of importance to record about Sir John, the 3rd Bart.  He had a family of five sons and five daughters.  He enjoyed Ribston only nine months, dying on 19th December 1705.  (Vide Goodricke History).  His eldest son Henry, born 8th September 1677 succeeded to Ribston at the age of twenty-eight.  At the age of seventeen he received a commission as ensign in Lieutenant-Colonel William Ashton's Company of the lst Foot Guards, commanded by the Earl of Romney.  He was a Justice of the Peace for the West Riding and High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1718.

Sir Henry appears to have loved his home where he spent his life in quiet and retired devotion to arboriculture, the improvement of his estate and the general happiness of his tenants.  It is to him Ribston Park and gardens now owe some of their finest and rarest trees as also that delicious apple known as the "Ribston Pippin."

He married 26 April 1707 in York Minster, Mary, only surviving daughter of Tobias Jenkyns, Esq., of Grimstone, Co. York by this wife Lady Mary, second daughter of Charles Paulet first Duke of Bolton, and died 21st July 1738, leaving issue four sons and four daughters.

His eldest son John who was the fifth Baronet succeeded him in Title and Estate.  Sir John Goodricke, 5th Bart. was born at Ribston 20th May 1708.  He was thirty years of age when he succeeded to Ribston and he lived to enjoy his ancestral home for fifty-one years, a much longer period than had been granted to any of his predecessors.

He married at the early age of twenty-three, (28 Sept. 1731) at Hendon, Co. Midd.  Miss Mary Benson a natural daughter of Robert Benson, Lord Bingley, who had died on the 9th April in the same year.

Sir John had issue, an only surviving son, Henry, born at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, 6th April 1741.  A daughter, Mary, was born at Ribston 23rd October 1732 but she died in the following July.  Another daughter, Harriet, was born at Bingley House, London, 9th March 1739 but she also died in infancy (1746).

The quiet life led by his father at Ribston does not appear to have appealed very strongly to Sir John.  Three years after succeeding to his paternal acres we find him at Boulogne in France, and in March 1745 he was at Rotterdam making a very strong appeal to Sir Thomas Robinson, British Ambassador at Vienna to obtain for him a commission in the Wallon Regiment of Prince Charles as he was "extremely desirous to be in the Queen of Hungary's Troops and to serve the Glorious Defenders of the Cause of Liberty."   (Add. M.S. 23819, p. 422).   He begs Sir Francis to use his interest to obtain for him this commission, as a Captain and thus place him under "eternal obligations."  Whether or not his commission was obtained I do not know but in August 1750 Sir John commenced a career in the Diplomatic world, which continued for twenty-three years during which time (1750-1773) he appears to have resided almost entirely abroad, in the discharge of several important positions under the State.

On 18th August 1750 Sir John was appointed Resident at the Court of Brussels, eight years later (14 March 1758) he was appointed

 "Resident at the Court of the King of Sweden"

though he appears to have acted as British Minister in Denmark, and to have resided at Copenhagen.  (Signet Office Docquet Books and Foreign Office Calendars).

In February 1764, he was appointed
"His Britannic Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary to the Court at Stockholm"

 with effect as from 20th December 1763.  The Signet Office Docquet Books at Record Office contain warrants to pay him £2 per day on his appointment as Resident at the Court of Brussels, 18 August 1750; £300 for his equipage and £3 per day on his appointment to the Court of Sweden, March 14th 1758; and £5 per day from 20th December 1763.

His appointment to Stockholm on 14th March 1758 does not appear to have taken immediate effect, as he seems to have continued to reside at Copenhagen.  His secretary Charles F. Sheridan in his "History of the late Revolution in Sweden" 1783 p.p. 201, 204, writes that in 1763 Sir John was at Copenhagen until after the war, left there at the end of that year and arrived at Stockholm in April 1764.

This agrees with one batch of Sir John's Correspondence in the Brit Museum Library (Hardwicke Papers Add. M.S. 35885, p.p. 99-142).   He remained as British Envoy Extraordinary at Stockholm from 1764 to his retirement in 1773.  (It may be here noted that Charles Francis Sheridan was second son of Thomas and Frances Sheridan and elder brother of the celebrated Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1751-1816.  Charles F. Sheridan was appointed Secretary to the Legation in Sweden in May 1772.  It was while he was on his journey to Stockholm that his brother Richard fought his second duel at Bath with Mr. Mathews in which he nearly lost his life. "Sheridan" by W.F. Rae, Vol. I. 197).

In the Manuscript department of the British Museum Library there is, dispersed over many files, a voluminous correspondence between Sir John and various high officers of state, between the years 1750 and 1773.  A careful examination of this would undoubtedly reveal much of great political interest for at that time Sweden occupied a vastly different position in Europe to that she now holds, but I have not had the time at my disposal to devote to this research work.  In his work entitled "A Queen of Tears" or the History of Caroline Matilda, wife of Christian VII, Mr. W.H. Wilkins says that Sir John was nominated Minister Plenipotentiary to Sweden, but through the intrigues of the French Government he never got nearer to Stockholm than Copenhagen.  This is, of course, quite incorrect as the heavy correspondence from Sir John in the B. Mus. Liby. Shows.  At pages' 136-147 of his book, Mr. Wilkins relates a story about Sir John's relationship with Anna Catherine Bathaken who went by the nickname of "Storlep Katerine" or "Catherine of the Gaiters" while he was resident at Copenhagen.  After Sir John's departure from that City, Catherine became mistress to the new King of Denmark and Norway, Christian VII a semi-idiot, over whom she gained a great ascendancy.  I do not propose to repeat this story - it can be read, if desired, in Mr. Wilkin's book.

As we have seen, Sir John Goodricke commenced his diplomatic resident at Stockholm in the spring of 1764.  In 1766 the celebrated French artist Lundberg painted his portrait in pastel at Stockholm, and a photograph of this same picture now in my possession, is here presented.  It represents Sir John in Court dress scarlet velvet coat, salmon silk vest, the whole elaborately embroidered in gold, lace cravat, etc.  The King of Sweden, Adolphus Frederick died in 1771 and was succeeded by his eldest son Gustavus III.  The condition of Sweden was deplorable and Gustavus finding himself little better than a hostage for the maintenance of existing anarchy at once turned his thoughts towards the bold project of a revolution as the only means of saving his country from utter ruin.  A revolution headed by a King was a somewhat anomalous expedient but Gustavus planned this revolution so skilfully that it was carried out at Stockholm on 19th August 1772 with the greatest success and without the loss of a single life!  Sir John Goodricke was a close and deeply interested spectator of this event.  He was, "by common consent the most quick-witted and keen-sighted of the whole diplomatic corps" and appears to have been the first to possess direct proof of the King's designs.  In addition to the exhaustive account of Gustavus III in the Encyc. Brit., Vol. 12. p. 736, interesting accounts of the Swedish revolution of 1772, the immediate consequences of which threatened to involve Europe in a general war, will be found in Bains Gustavus III etc. 1894, and C. F. Sheridan's "History of the late revolution"1783.
In the year 1773 an event occurred which caused Sir John, then in his sixty-sixth year, to resign his appointment at Stockholm and to return to England.  That event was the death, on 21st February, of George Fox Lane, second Baron Bingley, who left his beautiful domain of Bramham Park and many other properties to Sir John and Lady Goodricke for their lives.  Sir John's probable retirement was foresaw by Thomas Sheridan in a letter he wrote to his son Charles, Sir John's secretary under date 16th March 1773.  Sheridan said: -

"Sir J. Goodricke has by the death of some Lord come into a considerable fortune.  If so, it is probable he may entirely relinquish his present post for which I should be extremely sorry, as I fear it would not be easy to find a successor of such abilities to give you information or such humanity to make your situation agreeable."  (Temple Bar, March 1900. p. 398)

The "Annual Register" under date 29 November 1773 announces the appointment of Lewis de Visme, A.M. as Envoy Extraordinary to Sweden in the room of Sir John Goodricke

While at the Swedish court the King, Gustavus, presented Sir John with a very fine miniature portrait of himself set in gold, and to Lady Goodricke the Queen presented a ring.  These two interesting relics which I have seen and which were offered to me at an extravagant price were formerly the property of the late Mrs. Fairfax of Gilling Castle, Sir John's grand-daughter, and all now in the possession of Mrs. Randolph, wife of Rev. E.S.L. Randolph.

Sir John and his Lady now returned to their native county and took up their residence at Bramham Park which place it is on record (Batham's Baronetage) Sir John preferred to his paternal estate while Ribston was Lady Goodricke's favourite home.  Sir John was made a Privy Councillor to George III, September lst 1773 and he was M.P. for Ripon. 

BENSON, ROBERT, BARON BINGLEY. (1676-1731), politician, was the son of Robert Benson, of Wrenthorpe. Yorkshire a gentleman described by the proud Lord Strafford as ‘an attorney, and of no great character for an honest man,’ and by Sir John Reresby in his ‘Memoirs’ (ed. 1735), p. 23, as a man of mean extraction and of little worth by Dorothy daughter of Tobias Jenkins, MP. for York city. ‘who afterwards married Sir Henry’ Belasyse. From his father the younger Benson inherited an estate of £1,500 a year, which, in spite of very ‘handsome’ living, he largely augmented In later years. In 1702 he was returned to parliament for the borough of Thetford, retaining his seat I until 1705, when he was elected for the city of York, and continued to represent it until his elevation to the peerage. He began life as a whig, but was induced to join the tories, though he remained ‘very moderate’ in the expression of his political views. In Harley’s administration he became a lord of the treasury (10 Aug. 1710), and when his chief was elevated to the peerage Benson became chancellor and under-treasurer of the exchequer and a privy councillor (Jane 1711). These appointments were retained by him until he was raised to the peerage, 21 July 1713, as Baron Bingley, of Bingley, Yorkshire, a creation, which led to some indignation among the more rigid members of the peerage, and provoked some pleasantries fleer his want of a coat of arms. Charles Ford writing to Swift at this time said that Lord Bingley had ‘disobliged both sides so much that neither will ever own him, but not withstanding this prophecy he was appointed (December 1713) ambassador extraordinary to the court of’ Spain. In 1730 the post of treasurer of the household was conferred on him, but. he held it only for a year. He died on 9 April 1731, aged 55, and was buried on 14 April in St. Paul’s chapel, Westminster Abbey. Through the friendship of Lord Dartmouth he was introduced to and married, at St. Giles-in-the-fields Middlesex, 21 Dec. 1703 Lady Elizabeth Finch. eldest daughter of the first Earl of Aylesford. She died 26 Feb. 1757, and was buried with her husband in St. Paul’s chapel. A copy of verses on her vanity in. old age is printed in Horace Walpole’s ‘Letters’ (ii. 205). They’ had issue one daughter, Harriet. (Who inherited £100,000. in cash and £7,000. a year in land), the wife of George Fox, who afterwards took the name of Lane and was created Baron Bingley in 1762. Robert Benson, Lord Bingley, had an illegitimate daughter Mary to whom he left large sums. Mary, the natural daughter of Robert Benson, Baron Bingley. Lord Bingley was cousin to Sir John Goodricke, his mother being Dorothy, daughter of Tobias Jenkyns, Esq., of Grimstone, and half-sister to Mary Lady Goodricke, Sir John's mother. He also left a considerable Legacy to Anna Maria, wife of John Burgoyne. and, in certain eventualities the residue of his estate to her son and his godson, John Burgoyne, the general. Horace rd Walpole said (Letters, vi. 494) that the general was a natural son of Lord Bingley, in and the statement has been often repeated, but it does not seem to rest on any foundation of fact. Lord Bingley took great interest in architecture; Harcourt House, Cavendish Square, London, was built by him in 1722, and originally called Bingley House.

Notes and points of interest.

Sir John Goodricke, fifth baronet (1708–1789), diplomatist, was born at Ribston, near Knaresborough, on 20 May 1708, the eldest of three sons (there were no daughters) of Sir Henry Goodricke, fourth baronet (1677–1738), and his wife, Mary, daughter of Tobias Jenkins of Grimston, Yorkshire. His childhood years were spent on the family estate, in country pursuits, and within an atmosphere of physical and spiritual well-being where books and polite conversation abounded. After receiving his early education from a tutor he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a fellow-commoner in 1725; he took his BA in 1728 and his MA in 1734. It was at Cambridge that he refined the traits most commonly associated with him in later years: self-discipline, perseverance, and a sound if not creative intellect.

On 28 September 1731 Goodricke married his second cousin Mary, natural daughter of Robert Benson, Baron Bingley (bap. 1676, d. 1731), politician; her mother was the daughter of James Sill, a mercer from Wakefield. They had two sons and one daughter. Goodricke succeeded as fifth baronet on 21 July 1738; left with an encumbered estate he spent some difficult years in attempting to restore the family fortune. These attempts, none too successful, ranged from various business ventures to a stint in the Netherlands from 1745 to 1747 as observer for the British government, gathering intelligence on the French army, navy, and court. In 1750, thanks to his Yorkshire connections, he was appointed as British resident in Brussels, an appointment suddenly revoked for reasons unknown. He remained in The Hague from 1751 to 1757, conducting informal discussions with the Dutch about the barrier treaty and gaining valuable diplomatic experience. He also established friendships with the British minister Joseph Yorke (later Baron Dover) and his brother Philip (Viscount Royston and later second earl of Hardwicke), both sons of Philip Yorke, first earl of Hardwicke, lord chancellor.

It was through their influence that Goodricke was appointed as minister-resident to Sweden in 1758; he had to wait in Copenhagen until 1764 before the Swedish government resumed diplomatic relations with Britain that had been severed at the outset of the Seven Years' War. During his enforced stay in Copenhagen, Goodricke, whose wife had remained in England, had a very public affair with Stöulet Katrine (Jackboot Kate), a ballet dancer, and also mastered the Swedish language. He was finally received officially in Stockholm on 25 April 1764 and remained there until 1773. He collaborated closely with the Russian ambassador, Count Ostermann, and worked to secure a defensive alliance with Sweden (1766), to safeguard British trade, and to prevent France's resurgence in the Baltic by supporting the pro-Russian party of the Caps in their resistance to the pro-France Hats. The principal triumph of his mission to Stockholm was the emphatic victory won by the Caps at the election in 1765, which ousted the Hats from government posts. However, hopes that the Anglo–Swedish connection would lead to a Russian alliance did not materialize, as successive British administrations proved unwilling to provide the peacetime subsidies and co-operation in Poland that the Russians demanded. French influence revived after the coup d'état of 19 August 1772, by which Gustavus III, a protégé of France, restored royal absolutism.

Goodricke relinquished his Stockholm appointment in 1773, following his wife's succession to the Yorkshire seat of Bramham Park, which brought sudden wealth; he was then free to take his ease as a country gentleman, and devote himself to estate and agricultural improvement. He was elected to parliament for Pontefract in 1774; he supported Lord North's government on the American War of Independence and was in favour of granting further relief to protestant dissenters. He did not stand for re-election to the parliament of 1780 but he was elected for Ripon in 1787 and was appointed a commissioner of the Board of Trade in 1788. He died in New York on 6 August 1789 and was buried in Hunsingore, Yorkshire.