The Murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey
John Milton (1759 - London 1805)
Category
Coins and medals
Date
1790
Materials
Silver
Measurements
385 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Great Britain
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 773270
Summary
Silver, medal depicting the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey (1621-78), designed by George Bower (fl. 1660-89), re-struck by John Milton (1759-1805), 1790. A silver medal depicting the murder in 1678 of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey (1621-78), Justice of the Peace for Westminster. The assassination, blamed on Catholics, became one of the defining events in the Popish Plot instigated by Titus Oates. The obverse depicts a bust profile portrait of Godfrey facing right, being strangled with his own cravat by two hands; the Latin legend translates as ‘Edmundbury Godfrey by his death re-established the State’. On the reverse is a graphic depiction of Godfrey’s assassination, on 12 October 1678, with a naked prostrate figure lying on the ground, being strangled by the assassin Green, whilst to the left stands the Pope, holding a bull or papal decree. The legend translates as ‘Such could religion do’. On the edge is a further inscription, in relief, translating as ‘The Christian Atlas sustained the Faith with a broken neck.’ The medal was designed by George Bower and issued in 1678-80, but this example is a restrike from 1790, issued by John Milton (1759-1805).
Full description
Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was a prominent wood and coal merchant in London, and a Justice of the Peace. He was a victim of the so-called Popish Plot, an hysterical anti-Catholic plot, invented to give the impression that King Charles II was about to be murdered and the country taken over by the Jesuits. Details of the plot were contained in a manuscript drawn up by Titus Oates (1649-1705) and his accomplice Israel Tonge (1621-80). On 6 September 1678 Oates and Tonge presented their accusations to Sir Edmund Godfrey in his capacity as an Anglican magistrate, swearing an affidavit as to their truth. This attestation helped Oates to obtain a hearing before the King’s Privy Council, when he made numerous further accusations against a wide range of people. On 12 October Sir Edmund left his house but never returned home. His body was discovered in a ditch on Primrose Hill on 17 October, lying face down and impaled with his own sword. Examination showed that the cause of death had been strangling and that the victim had already been dead when his sword was run through him. Although there were claims that he had committed suicide, the murder was attributed, by Titus Oates and others, to the Catholic conspirators, which helped the accusations by Oates and his followers to gain broader acceptance, despite their many inconsistencies and the king’s strong personal scepticism. Over the course of the next three years some fifteen innocent men were executed as a result of Oates’s bizarre claims, eventually shown to have been more or less entirely false. The murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey has never been satisfactorily solved. Three labourers, Robert Green, Henry Berry and Lawrence Hill were eventually convicted and sentenced to death by hanging, on the evidence of a Catholic Miles Prance, who later admitted having committed perjury at their trial. In its virulent anti-Catholicism, George Bower’s original medal, of which this example is a 1790 restrike, reflects the version of events promulgated by Titus Oates and his followers. Medals of Sir Edmund and his demise by George Bower were advertised for sale in the London Gazette, on 26 February and 1 March 1680. Jeremy Warren 2019
Provenance
Given to the National Trust in 1993 by George Child Villiers, 9th Earl of Jersey (1910-1998).
Marks and inscriptions
Obverse, legend: MORIENDO. RESTITVIT. REM. E. GODFREY Obverse, truncation: MILTON. F. Reverse, legend: TANTVM. RELLIOGIO. POTVIT Reverse, Pope's document: BVLLO Edge: CERVICE. FRACTA. FIDEM. SVSTVLIT. ATLAS. XNS. 1678.
Makers and roles
John Milton (1759 - London 1805), medallist after George Bowers (fl.1660 - 1689), medallist
References
Hawkins, Franks and Grueber 1885: Edward Hawkins, Augustus W. Franks and Herbert A. Grueber (eds.), Medallic Illustrations of the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the death of George II, 2 vols., London 1885, vol. , I, p. 577, no. 247. Griffiths 1989: Antony Griffiths, ‘Advertisements for Medals in the London Gazette’, The Medal, 15 (1989), pp. 4-6, p. 4, fig. 1. Mitchiner 1988-2007: Michael Mitchiner, Jetons, Medalets and Tokens, 4 vols., London 1988-2007, III (British Isles circa 1588 to 1830), 1998, p. 1688, no. 80.3 (4903). Eimer 2010: Christopher Eimer, British Commemorative Medals and their Values, London 2010, p. 59, no. 257, pl. 32.