Sir William Godolphin was a 16th century English Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

. He sat as Member for Cornwall

Cornwall (UK Parliament constituency)

Cornwall is a former county constituency covering the county of Cornwall, in the South West of England. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of England then of the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832...

 during the reign of Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 and possibly also of Edward VI

Edward VI of England

Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...

, and also served as High Sheriff of Cornwall

High Sheriff of Cornwall

High Sheriffs of Cornwall: a chronological list:Note: The right to choose High Sheriffs each year is vested in the Duchy of Cornwall, rather than the Privy Council, chaired by the Sovereign, which chooses the Sheriffs of all other English counties, other than those in the Duchy of...

 and Warden of the Stannaries

Lord Warden of the Stannaries

The Lord Warden of the Stannaries used to exercise judicial and military functions in Cornwall, United Kingdom, and is still the official who, upon the commission of the monarch or Duke of Cornwall for the time being, has the function of calling a Stannary Parliament of tinners...

. He seems to have been confused with his eldest son, also Sir William

William Godolphin (1515-1570)

Sir William Godolphin was a 16th century English soldier and Member of Parliament , whose career has, however, been so confused with that of his father and namesake Sir William that it is sometimes difficult to be sure which of the two held which offices...

 (1515–1570), not least in Burke's Extinct Peerage which conflates the two, so that is not clear which offices were held by the elder and which by the younger. Sir William lived to an advanced age, dying at around the same time as his son, which may have been the original cause of the confusion. He married Margaret Glynn, and had four children:

• Sir William Godolphin
  William Godolphin (1515-1570)
  Sir William Godolphin was a 16th century English soldier and Member of Parliament , whose career has, however, been so confused with that of his father and namesake Sir William that it is sometimes difficult to be sure which of the two held which offices...
  
   (1515–1570), who had three daughters but no sons
• Thomas Godolphin (born 1520), Captain (governor) of The Scilly Isles, through whom the male line of the family was continued
• Elizabeth Godolphin (born 1522), who married John Langdon
• Honor Godolphin (born c. 1524), who married William Melton