He died at Polesworth on 5 March 1595, leaving by his wife Frances, daughter of Hugh Lowther of Lowther, Westmoreland, two daughters: Frances, the heiress of Polesworth, who married her first cousin, Sir Henry (the subject of this article); and Anne, a coheiress, who married Sir Henry Raynsford, and is reputed to have been the Idea of Drayton.
A Henry Goodyer (whom Gosse would appear to identify with Donne's friend) was knighted by James at Lamer, the seat of Sir John Gerrard at Wheathampstead, in June 1608; but this was probably his cousin.
[8] Drayton addressed an ode to Goodyer as "the worthy knight and my noble friend Sir Henry Goodere, a gentleman of his Majesty's Privy Chamber", in which he speaks of having been "gravely merry" by the fire at Polesworth.
In December 1604 he wrote a pitiful letter to Cecil at Hatfield, basing a very humble appeal for court favour and pecuniary aid upon his uncle's sufferings in the cause of Mary Queen of Scots, and his own expenses in the service of royalty.
[11] At the accession of Charles I he insisted more strongly than ever upon his difficulties, under the added stimulus of "misery grown by his expensive service to the late king"; and he prayed earnestly to be admitted a gentleman usher "of the queen's privy chamber, with meat, drink, and lodging, with some dignity, in that place where he had spent most of his time and estate".
The following epitaph upon Sir Henry, by an anonymous "affectionate friend", is printed in Camden's Remains: An ill year of a Goodyere us bereft,Who gone to God much lack of him here left;Full of good gifts, of body and of mind,Wise, comely, learned, eloquent and kind.Goodyer may be the "H. G." who has verses in Drayton's Matilda (1594), and to whom Drayton's Odes were dedicated in 1606.
He was doubtless the "Sir H. G." who wrote a verse letter with Donne alternis vicibus, and he may have been the author of the poem, "Shall I like a Hermit dwell",[d] which has often been ascribed to Ralegh.
36–9), and there are some others in The National Archives, including an epithalamium on Buckingham's marriage, verses on Prince Charles, his journey to Spain, and other courtly topics.