“John Goddard, born about 1608, as a deposition shows, was one of Capt. John Mason’s colonists, who came over in the Pied Cow, arriving at Newichawannock, or South Berwick, Me., 13 Jun 1734, where he aided in erecting a saw-mill and grist-mill. Sept. 21, 1647, he bought of Joseph Miller (He removed to Cambridge, Mass. He is called also Joseph Millard and was probably one of the ancestors of President Millard Fillmore) land and buildings in Dover, on Goddard’s Creek, near the shore of Great Bay. Dea. W. S. Meserve and I [Everett Stackpole] visited the spot in April, 1913, and it seems plain that Goddard’s house must have stood about where a summer cottage does now on a little hiss, at the extreme point of land, on the south side of the creek. The landing must have been near by, to which a road was laid out in early times. His house was a garrison. Goddard’s Neck of land is mentioned in 1657, in alying out the boundareies of Dover and Exeter.
“John Goddard was constable for Dover in1655. He was made freemand of Dover in 1653. He owned a share in Piscassic falls with timber accommodations, which he sold in 1659. He died 12 Nov. 1666. The verdict of the coroner’s jury concerning the ‘untimely death of John Goddard’ was put on file 25 June 1667. His widow, Welthea, or Welthen, born about 1621, married (2) John Symonds. She was living, non compos mentis, in 1705. John Goddard was a carpenter by trade. He was once fined for being absent from meeting four days and ‘twice at the Quakers,’ the fine being forty shillings. We are led to think that courts were almost as anxious then as they are now to collect fine and fees. Fancy John Goddard rowing at low tide the whole length of Great Bay and Little Bay and up Oyster River half way to the Falls to get to meeting. The division of his estate in 1670 shows the following children [namely John, Benjamin, a daughter who m. John Gilman, Mary, and Martha], and since the male lines of descent speedily ceased, the Goddards of Maine who claim descent from his will have to look for Massachusetts for their ancestor.”
John married Welthen [Goddard]. Welthen died aft 1705.