Thomas Godden, real name Tylden (1624 in Addington, Kent – 1 December 1688 in London) was an English courtier and Catholic priest, who was falsely implicated on charges of murder and treason in the Titus Oates or Popish plot, but managed to flee the country.
His father, William Tylden, was able to provide a liberal education for his son and Thomas was sent first to a private school in Holborogh, conducted by a Mr. Gill, and in his fifteenth year entered Queen's College, Oxford.
He rapidly ascended the ladder of academic distinction, and after being successively professor of theology, prefect of studies, and vice-president, succeeded Dr. Clayton as president of the college in 1655.
Kelly, of whom nothing is known, may have been a figment of Prance's imagination, although Godden and Hill did know an Irish priest called Fitzgerald, who was employed in the household of the Venetian envoy.
From this time until his death he took a prominent part in the religious controversies in England, and in 1686, with Bonaventure Giffard, defended the doctrine of the Real Presence, before the king, against Dr. William Jane and Dr. Simon Patrick.