Godolphin was born at
Treveneague,
Cornwall. He was the son of Sir John Godolphin and Judith Meridith. His father died before he was 21. His uncle was
Sir William Godolphin. Godolphin became active with the Cornish trained bands in 1638, and may have taken part in the King's Scottish Wars in 1640. In April 1640, Godolphin was elected
Member of Parliament for
Helston in the
Short Parliament. He was probably also elected MP for
Cornwall, but the Short Parliament did not last long enough for such situations to be resolved. On the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642, Godolphin was colonel of a trained band raised for the King in Cornwall. By October 1642 the Royalists had driven Parliamentary forces from Cornwall but as the trained bands could only fight within Cornwall, the Royalist commander
Hopton raised a new volunteer force. Godolphin raised one regiment made up from part-time volunteers in his trained bands. The other regiments were formed under
Nicholas Slanning,
Sir Bevill Grenvile, Colonel
John Trevanion and
Warwick, Lord Mohun. Hopton first used his forces to make an unsuccessful attempt on
Exeter then fell back on Plympton, took it, and invested Plymouth on 1 December. Later that month they took
Alphington,
Powderham, and
Topsham but failed to capture Exeter in a night attack. Their first field battle was
Braddock (actually Pinnock) Down in January 1643 when Ruthin's forces were forced to flee back through
Liskeard and on to
Saltash, while the
Earl of Stamford withdrew from
Launceston. Godolphin's regiment pursued Ruthin. Later in the year the Royalist captured and disbanded the parliamentary army of the Earl of Essex on 22 August 1644. In 1645 Godolphin's Regiment returned to Exeter to become one of the garrison units and was still there at the fall of the city on 9 April 1646. Godolphin was one of the signatories to the surrender. Godolpin lived to see the Restoration of King Charles II. He died at Spargor, Cornwall in 1663 and was buried at
St Mabyn on 27 November 1663. ==Family==