William Goddard was born in 1772, in Milton Lilbourne, Wiltshire, England. He married Sarah Newman on 14 October 1797, in Milton Lilbourne, Wiltshire, England. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 2 daughters.
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"On April 18, 1775, a shot known as the ""shot heard around the world"" was fired between American colonists and British troops in Lexington, Massachusetts. This began the American War for Independence. Fifteen months later, Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence. The Treaty of Paris was signed in September 1783 which ended the war. The colonies were no longer under British rule. Many who fought for the British fled to Canada, the West Indies, and some to England."
The first fleet of convicts sailed from England to Australia on May 13, 1787. By 1868, over 150,000 felons had been exiled to New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, and Western Australia.
English (of Norman origin): from Godhard, a personal name composed of the ancient Germanic elements gōd ‘good’ or god, got ‘god’ + hard ‘hardy, brave, strong’. The name was popular in Europe during the Middle Ages as a result of the fame of Saint Gotthard, an 11th-century bishop of Hildesheim who founded a hospice on the pass from Switzerland to Italy that bears his name. This surname is also borne by Ashkenazic Jews, presumably as an Americanized form of one or more similar (like-sounding) Jewish surnames.
English: perhaps occasionally a variant of the occupational name Gothard . The two surnames may have been much confused.
French: variant of Godard , a cognate of 1 above.
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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