Peter Gooden

Peter Gooden (died 1695) was an English Roman Catholic priest, who came to prominence as a controversialist during the reign of James II.

Life

Born near Manchester, he was educated in the English College at Lisbon, and after being ordained priest was sent back to England on mission, in company with Edward Barlow, alias Booth. He appears first to have been chaplain to the Middletons at Leighton Hall, near Lancaster. About 1680 he removed to Aldcliffe Hall, the seat of the seven daughters of Robert Dalton. There Gooden educated young boys, who were afterwards sent to Catholic seminaries abroad.

After the accession of James II, he was appointed chaplain to the regiment of James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick. At that period he had frequent discussion with Edward Stillingfleet, William Clagett, and other Church of England clergy. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 obliged him to retire to his old place at Aldcliffe Hall, where he died on 29 December 1695.

Works

He published:

His conference with Stillingfleet gave rise to the publication of several controversial pamphlets, and ‘The Summ of a Conference on Feb. 21, 1686, between Dr. Clagett and Father Gooden, about the point of Transubstantiation,’ was published in 1689–90 by William Wake. It is reprinted in ‘Seventeen Sermons,’ &c. by William Clagett, 3rd edit., London, 1699, vol. i.

References

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain"Gooden, Peter". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.