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Thomas Goad

English cleric and controversial writer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ7790075
Source-derived summary

Thomas Goad (1576–1638) was an English clergyman, controversial writer, and rector of Hadleigh, Suffolk. A participant at the Synod of Dort, he changed his views there from Calvinist to Arminian, against the sense of the meeting.

Life

He was born at Cambridge in August 1576, the second of the ten sons of Roger Goad by his wife, Katharine, eldest daughter of Richard Hill, citizen of London. He was educated at Eton College, and elected to a scholarship at King's College, Cambridge, on 1 September 1592; on 1 September 1595 he became fellow, B.A. in 1596, and lecturer in 1598. In 1600 he proceeded M.A. Anthony à Wood wrongly identifies him as the jurist Thomas Goad.

At Christmas 1606 he was ordained priest, and commenced B. D, in 1607 . In 1609 he was bursar of King's; in 1610 he succeeded his father in the family living of Milton, Cambridge, which he held together with his fellowship; in 1611 he was appointed dean of divinity, and very shortly afterwards he left Cambridge to reside at Lambeth as domestic chaplain to Archbishop George Abbot, his father's old pupil at Guildford Free School. In 1615 he took the degree of D.D.; on 16 February 1618 he was made precentor of St. Paul's Cathedral, and in 1618 he was presented by Abbot to the rectory of Hadleigh, Suffolk. He also held the rectory of Black Notley, Essex, and probably that of Merstham, Surrey.

Editorial summary

“Thomas Goad” enters the record as english cleric and controversial writer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Thomas, Goad and English can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1576, 1638, 1592, 1595—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1576-08-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Thomas, Goad and English.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Thomas Goad” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Thomas, Goad and English provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7790075. VIAF identifies the subject as 34771041. The Library of Congress control number is nr93004471. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1576, 1638, 1592 and 1595.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Thomas Goad” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.