Biography

"Gabriel Goodman ( 1528 - 1601 ), dean of Westminster and founder of Christ's Hospital, Ruthin b. 1528 , second son of Edward Goodman (d. 1560 ) of Ruthin . He was educated at Cambridge ( B.A. 1550 , M.A. 1553 , D.D. 1564 ); was Fellow of Christ's College , 1552-4 , and of Jesus College , c. 1554-5 . About 1555 he entered the service of William Cecil , later lord Burghley , as chaplain . A sympathizer with the religious settlement of Edward VI , he compromised under Mary and fully accepted the Elizabethan church settlement , disliking equally Catholics and Puritans . He was rector of South Luffenham , Rutland , 1558 ; rector of Waddesdon, Bucks. , 1559-82 ; prebendary of S. Pauls , 1559 ; prebendary of Westminster , 1560 ; dean of Westminster , 1561-1601 . He served frequently as member of the court of high commission . In 1575 he assisted in the condemnation of Peters and Turnwort , Dutch anabaptists who were burnt at Smithfield that year. He never reached the episcopal bench, though he was considered for London ( 1570 ), Norwich ( 1575 ), Rochester ( 1581 ), Worcester , Rochester and Chichester ( 1584 ), and Chester ( 1596 ). His failure was probably due to his opposition to Leicester , his prominence on the court of high commission , and his reputation as ‘a grave, solid man, yet … peradventure too severe’ ( Strype , Parker , ii, 6, 1570 ). He was one of the commissioners appointed to reform abuses in the hospital of the Savoy , 1589 , a member of the royal commission for the settlement of Jesus College , Oxford , 1589 , and was concerned in the foundation of Sidney Sussex College , Cambridge , 1598 . He was one of the executors of Burghley 's will.
His influence with the Cecils made him an important link between Wales and the Court . He assisted in the production of bishop William Morgan 's Bible ( 1588 ) and he was responsible for the translation of 1 Corinthians in the Bishops’ Bible of 1568 . In 1590 he founded Christ's Hospital , Ruthin ( president , warden , and twelve poor inmates) and endowed it with the tithes of Ruthin and Llan-rhydd which he purchased from the lay impropriators into whose hands they had fallen after the dissolution of the collegiate church of S. Peter . In 1595 he added a grammar-school to the foundation. In 1600 he brought to the notice of Sir Robert Cecil a petition from the inhabitants of Ruthin complaining of their burden of taxation; and he was active a few months before his death in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a new charter for the borough. He d. 17 June 1601 and was buried in Westminster Abbey."