Thomas GOODENOW

                   Historical information included in notes

This passenger list and Goodenow family data was contributed by Donald B. Goodenow and transcribed by the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild. It can be viewed in its entirety at: http://istg.rootsweb.com/1600/confidence.Ship: Confidence, Arrival Date: April 24, 1638, Departing: Southampton, England, Arriving: Boston, Master: John Jobson, Ship Description: 200 tonsJohn Goodenowe, age 42; wife, Jane; daughters: Lydia and JaneThomas Goodenowe, age 30; wife, Jane; son, Thomas, age 1, sister, UrsulaEdmund Goodenowe, 27; wife, Ann; sons: John and Thomasservant: Richard SangerTotal Passengers (not counting crew) 84Three brothers, John, Thomas and Edmund came from the south of England. The brothers had lived near one another in England, John in Semley, Thomas in Shaftsbury, and Edmund in Dunhead, in the neighboring shires of Dorset and Wilts.In 1638, they sailed from Southampton to Boston aboard the 200-ton Ship Confidence. Shortly after their arrival, they joined others to settle the nineteenth town in Massachusetts, Sudbury. To this day the name is well known there, and the Goodenow Library stands as a tribute to the descendants of the line of Edmund Goodenow.The oldest brother, John, had only daughters, Lydia and Jane, thus ending the name in his line.Thomas, stayed in Sudbury until 1656, when he joined a group to settle the town of Marlboro, Massachusetts. The name is well known in that area from the loss of one of his granddaughters. On the highway west of town stands a marker in memory of Mary Goodenow.Edmund, the youngest, was by far the most distinguished of the three, being prominent in Sudbury town affairs all his life. His death in 1688 is still commemorated by an ancient tombstone in the old Sudbury Cemetery in Wayland, Massachusetts. Three grandsons by his son John had sizable families who are the ancestors of about half of the families in America today.Edmund's descendents remained in Sudbury for many generations; those of the family in eastern Massachusetts today are largely descended from his line. Abraham, of the eighth generation, was the first of his line to migrate westward about 1795, finally settling in what is today, Tioga County, New York. The first of ancestors to be buried in Appalachin, Tioga County, is Chauncey Goodenow. This is a mere seven or eight miles west of Endicott, New York on the banks of the Susquahanna River.As the families pushed westward, they left behind them an interesting heritage. Goodenow Mountain and Goodenow River in the Adirondacks, Goodenow, Illinois and Goodenow Hills in Washington stands as mute evidence of the advance of this family. A Goodenow founded Maquoketa, Iowa and another founded Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. Some were prominent, but most were just plain common folks.