BRAZIER AND GODDARD FAMILY

The Brazier family were tailors in Newbury from at least the 1780s. Some sources state that they were involved in the wager between Mr John Coxeter, a well-known cloth manufacturer of Greenham Mills, and Sir John Throckmorton that a sheep could be shorn in a morning, the fleece made into cloth, and the cloth into a coat, all in one day. The wager was tested on 25 June 1811 and, by having everything arranged to facilitate speed of work, the coat was presented to Sir John well within the time. Some sources state that the Brazier family had at least one representative working on the tailoring and sewing of the garment.

If this was true then it would have been Thomas Brazier senior, who had a son named Thomas in 1812. This Thomas was married to Caroline Elizabeth Horton Curtis in the December quarter of 1839.   This is not true   Thomas Brazier 1811 to 1890 m Louisa Hyland 1819 to 1869  in Newbury 16 dec. 1839

The couple had numerous children, including the Thomas born in 1860 who was buried in Newtown Road Cemetery in 1940 aged 81. A daughter, Caroline Louisa born in 1845, wished to marry William Lidderdale Goddard, one of the numerous children of Richard Goddard, land owner in Kintbury, and his wife Janet Lidderdale, daughter of the Hungerford doctor. Because of family opposition they eloped to London and married there in 1871. They then emigrated to America where William qualified as a doctor. Unhappily, of their three sons two died as babies followed by Caroline. The surviving son was fostered until William married for a second time.

Miss Mary Livingstone Goddard of Colorado. aged 84 (2014) is a descendant and remembers her grandfather with affection. She has tried unsuccessfully for years to interest her cousins in the family history. William Lidderdale Goddard's father Richard was related to the Goddards of Chieveley, and kin to the late Lord Chief Justice Goddard. The maiden aunts of the Lord Chief Justice were one of the first inhabitants of the houses in Donington Square. Miss Goddard thought she had some papers relating to the sale of the house after the last surviving sister's death, but has been unable to find them now.

Further information is available from the Goddard Association of Europe and the Goddard Association of America. Julie of Newbury