Sir Thomas Francis Henry Goodricke eight Baronet

SIR THOMAS FRANCIS HENRY GOODRICKE, THE 8TH AND LAST BARONET.

It is now (1833-1839) and we draw up the curtain on a new scene.  It is no longer the old Hall at Ribston overflowing with its varied memories of three centuries - for that domain had passed entirely into the hands of strangers, the Goodricke’s knew it no more - but a room in a mean house in London, Noël Star Street, Edgware Road.

This house which was occupied by a family of the name of Waterhouse afforded lodging to an old gentleman in reduced circumstances  none other than Sir Thomas Francis Henry Goodricke, the eighth Baronet who succeeded to and assumed the title on the death of Sir Harry James in 1833.

Sir Thomas was the only surviving son of Colonel Thomas Goodricke, and grandson of Sir Henry, fourth Baronet, and was born at Rochester, 24th September 1762.  He had married 2nd April 1794, Harriet, eldest daughter of the late Henry Goodricke, Esq., of York and granddaughter of Sir John, fifth Baronet, but she pre-deceased him leaving no issue.

Very little is now known of the life of Sir Thomas, but the fact that Sir Francis Lyttleton Holyoake-Goodricke gave him an annuity of £20 pounds which wretched pittance Sir Thomas accepted and drew quarterly at the counter of Messrs. Glyn Mills & Co's Bank is in itself sufficient corroboration of the fact that his means were painfully small.  He died at the house above mentioned on 9th March 1839 in his seventy-seventh year and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

The writer paid a visit to the house in Star Street some one hundred and thirty years ago and he then found a very old man living there who well remembered the figure of Sir Thomas as he walked about the neighbourhood for exercise.

Thomas Francis Henry Goodricke was the last Baronet, and at his decease the elder branch of the Ribston Goodricke’s became extinct in the male line and the representation of the old family fell to Mr. William Goodricke of Nesham Hall, in the County of Durham, grandson of Mr. John Goodricke of Bounder House, Lamesley, and of Jarrow Grange, both in Co. Durham, who was fourth in descent from Richard Goodricke of Ribston and his wife Muriel, daughter of William, 2nd Lord Eure.
Mr. William Goodricke of Nesham Hall, above mentioned, was grandfather of the writer of these pages. Charles Alfred Goodricke.