Barnabe Googe

Barnabe Googe or Goche (11 June 1540 – 7 February 1594) (also spelled Barnaby Goodge) was a poet and translator, one of the earliest English pastoral poets.

Barnabe Googe, born 11 June 1540 (St Barnabas Day), in Alvingham, Lincolnshire, was the son of Robert Googe (d. 5 May 1557) of Chilwell, Nottinghamshire, Recorder of Lincoln during the reign of Queen Mary, son of John Goche of London and Newland, Gloucestershire, in the Forest of Dean, by Jane Bridges, daughter and heir of James Bridges of the Forest of Dean. His mother was Margaret Mantell (d.1540), the daughter of Sir Walter Mantell (d.1529) of Nether Heyford, Northamptonshire, by Margaret Wood (d.1577), one of the daughters and coheirs of Oliver Wood, esquire. Margaret Wood married twice after the death of Sir Walter Mantell (d.1529). Her second husband was Sir William Haute (d.1539) of Bishopsbourne, Kent, whose daughter, Jane Haute (d. in or after 1595), was the wife of the rebel, Thomas Wyatt. Margaret Wood's third husband was Sir James Hales. Googe's mother died when he was six weeks old, and according to Lyne, he 'was probably brought up in Kent by his grandmother, Lady Hales'.

By his father's second marriage to Ellen Gadbury, widow of a husband surnamed Parris, and daughter of a London goldsmith, he had a half brother, Robert Googe. By licence dated 21 May 1563, Ellen (née Gadbury) married William Burnell (d.1570), esquire, of Winkburn, Nottinghamshire, Auditor to Henry VIII. It is said that Googe 'came to dislike his stepmother intensely'.

At his father's death on 5 May 1557 Googe inherited the manor of Horkstow and the lands of Alvingham Priory in Lincolnshire, and a house in London formerly owned by his grandfather. He studied at Christ's College, Cambridge and at New College, Oxford, but does not seem to have graduated from either. He became a ward of the Queen, and it appears his wardship remained unsold until January 1561, when his kinsman, William Cecil, became Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries, and Googe was allowed to purchase his own wardship for £80, payable over an eight-year term. On 26 June 1563 he was granted licence to enter on his lands. In his will Googe's father had requested his executors to have Googe educated at the Inns of Court, and by 29 March 1560 he was a member of Staple Inn, at the time associated with Gray's Inn, where his cousin,William Lovelace, held the position of Reader in 1562 and 1567. Another of Googe's associates at the Inns of Court was his cousin, Alexander Neville, of Gray's Inn.