William Henry Goddard

William Henry Goddard (6 February 1795 16 December 1872) was an English merchant who traded in the Gambia in the early 19th century.[1]

Goddard was born in Nunton, Wiltshire, and was still in his teens when he first arrived in Gambia. He married a local woman, Ellen Casteign (or Castaign), and they had two daughters. From 1819 they lived in the town of Bathurst (now Banjul), where Goddard and another British trader, Charles Grant, had a timber export business. Goddard and Grant were among the first British settlers in the country.[2] Goddard was a member of the Legislative Council from 1843, and in 1860 he set up the Gambia Trading Company. His nephews, William and Alfred, came to Gambia to work for him.[1]

In 1862, Goddard retired to Britain, and in Hampstead he would die, aged 77. His nephew William took over the company after his death.[1]

References

  1. David Perfect (27 May 2016). Historical Dictionary of The Gambia. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 187–. ISBN 978-1-4422-6526-4.
  2. George E. Brooks (2010). Western Africa and Cabo Verde, 1790s-1830s: Symbiosis of Slave and Legitimate Trades. AuthorHouse. pp. 156–. ISBN 978-1-4520-8871-6.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.