Charlotte Godley


Charlotte Godley was a New Zealand letter-writer and community leader.

Family

She was born as Charlotte Griffith-Wynne in Voelas House in Denbighshire, Wales in 1821. She was the daughter of Charles Griffith-Wynne, MP for Caernarvonshire and his wife, Sarah Hildyard, the daughter of Rev. Henry Hildyard. Charles Wynne was her brother.

Marriage and New Zealand

Her marriage to John Robert Godley was registered in Llanrwst, Wales in the late summer of 1846. They had four daughters: Rose, Eleanor, Mary, and Margaret; the three younger girls were born in England after 1853. The only son was Sir Arthur Godley, later created Baron Kilbracken.
The Godleys sailed for New Zealand late in 1849, arriving March 1850 on. Their residence at Lyttelton was a six-room wooden cottage where she hosted visitors including the Rev. Thomas Jackson. They left in late 1852. While in Wellington, Lyttelton, and Riccarton, Mrs. Godley wrote letters home to her mother in Wales, which were published much later as Letters from Early New Zealand. The letters described Māori customs, local fashion, earthquakes, society ways in Dunedin, and details of meals, household management, and the climate.

Later life

Charlotte Godley was widowed in 1861, and died more than forty years later, in London, age 85. Arthur Godley's daughter Eveline wrote a remembrance of Charlotte Godley, included in the private 1936 edition of her grandmother's letters.