Family and inheritance
Record of BG Windus christening
Family
Edward William Windus (1766-1832) married Mary Godfrey (1768-1819), heiress to Benjamin Godfrey and retired from his father’s coach-building business. Their son Benjamin Godfrey Windus was born on 15 January 1790 in Sun Street, on the corner of Bishopsgate, London.
In 1793 the family moved to Tottenham Green. BG Windus was sent to boarding school in Hackney and later to a famous school for merchants in Tower Street in the City. Despite his wish to attend university, he had to join his maternal grandfather, Benjamin Godfrey in his medicine business.
Inheritance
BG Windus inherited wealth from both sides of the family. Arthur Windus (1737-1818), his paternal grandfather who was descended from Hertfordshire parsons and lawyers, started a coach building business which included the commission to maintain the coach of the Lord Mayor of London. In 1826 like his father before him, BG Windus became Master of the Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and Coach Harness Makers.
From his maternal grandfather, Benjamin Godfrey (1740 – 1812) he inherited a share in the recipe for Godfrey’s Cordial as well as extensive property in Bishopsgate. Godfrey’s Cordial was one of the most notorious of the opium-based remedies that sometimes did more harm than good.
Edward William Windus (1766-1832) married Mary Godfrey (1768-1819), heiress to Benjamin Godfrey and retired from his father’s coach-building business. Their son Benjamin Godfrey Windus was born on 15 January 1790 in Sun Street, on the corner of Bishopsgate, London.
In 1793 the family moved to Tottenham Green. BG Windus was sent to boarding school in Hackney and later to a famous school for merchants in Tower Street in the City. Despite his wish to attend university, he had to join his maternal grandfather, Benjamin Godfrey in his medicine business.
Inheritance
BG Windus inherited wealth from both sides of the family. Arthur Windus (1737-1818), his paternal grandfather who was descended from Hertfordshire parsons and lawyers, started a coach building business which included the commission to maintain the coach of the Lord Mayor of London. In 1826 like his father before him, BG Windus became Master of the Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and Coach Harness Makers.
From his maternal grandfather, Benjamin Godfrey (1740 – 1812) he inherited a share in the recipe for Godfrey’s Cordial as well as extensive property in Bishopsgate. Godfrey’s Cordial was one of the most notorious of the opium-based remedies that sometimes did more harm than good.
Worshipful Company of Coach Makers and Coach Harness Makers Benjamin Godfrey Windus Father of the Company 1865
Record of marriage to Mary Rowe
Marriage at All Hallows
On 27 September 1814 BG Windus married his first wife Mary Rowe in All Hallows Church. They had a son, William Edward in 1827 and their daughter Mary was born in January 1830. Mary died within weeks of the birth of her daughter on 23 January.
On 24 March 1831 BG Windus married Margaret Armiger, first cousin to his first wife, but following Margaret’s death in August 1842 BG Windus did not marry again. He died in 1867.
The children
The two children, who had appeared in John Scarlett Davis’s painting of BG Windus’s library in 1835, were William Edward Windus, who married Elizabeth Kennedy in 1849 and Mary Windus who married Pierre de Putron, the curate at Holy Trinity Church, in 1853.
BG Windus and his father were both active in local life at Holy Trinity Church, almshouses and schools. EW Windus became a trustee of Reynardson’s Almshouses in 1817 and treasurer from 1827 – 1832 and BG Windus was a trustee from 1832 – 1854. BG Windus was a trustee of Tottenham Free Grammar School, Blue Coat school for Girls and a trustee and treasurer for Green Coat school for girls. He was also Clerk to the Parochial Charities until his retirement in 1864 for which he received a letter of thanks.
More to come on Godfrey's Cordial shortly ...
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