Goffe, William
Goffe, William
(gôf), d. c.1679, English soldier and regicide. A personal adherent of Oliver Cromwell, he fought in the English civil war, signed the death warrant of Charles I, and became an administrative major general during the Protectorate. He was excepted from the Act of Indemnity (at the Restoration) and fled with his father-in-law, Edward WhalleyWhalley, Edward, d. 1675?, English regicide. During the English civil war he served under his cousin Oliver Cromwell in the parliamentary army. He was given custody of Charles I for a time in 1647, served on the high court of justice that tried him, and signed the death warrant.
..... Click the link for more information. , to America. After short periods in Cambridge (Mass.), New Haven, and Milford (Conn.) he lived in seclusion at Hadley (Mass.). The tradition that he headed the citizens of Hadley in repelling an attack by Native Americans was used by Sir Walter Scott in his Peveril of the Peak and by James Fenimore Cooper in his Wept of Wish-ton-Wish.