Edwin Stephen Goodrich, 1868-1946

Abstract

Edwin Stephen Goodrich was born on 21 June 1868 at Weston-super-Mare. He had one brother and one sister, and was the youngest of the three. His father was the Rev. Octavius Pitt Goodrich, and his mother was Frances Lucinda Parker. Goodrich’s family contained more than one member notable for abilities and achievements. He was descended from Edward Goodrich of East Kirby, Lincolnshire, who had three sons. One of these was Thomas Goodrich, who became a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1510, Bishop of Ely in 1534, and Lord Chancellor in 1551. He urged the Masters and Fellows of the Colleges at Cambridge to embrace the Reformation and assisted in compiling the First Book of Common Prayer. Another of Edward Goodrich’s sons was the ancestor of John Goodricke, who, at the age of eighteen, observed and worked out the period of change of the variable star Algol, and suggested the explanation of the phenomenon which is still held, viz. the interposition of a dark satellite. For this work, John Goodricke was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1783 when he was in his nineteenth year. In 1786 he was elected into the Fellowship of the Society, fourteen days before his death at the age of twenty one. For this unfortunate reason, his signature does not appear in the Charter Book.