Clarissa Goddard 

Clarissa Goddard (1756-1840) lived at Broughton House with the William Steele family for much of the 1770s and ’80s.  She was the daughter of Samuel Goddard of Banbury, Oxfordshire, and joined the Broughton church on 1 April 1781, the same day William Morrant, Mr. Steele’s employee, joined.  She had a brother, also named Samuel.  She was a relation of Mrs. Steele, who was formerly a Goddard from Pershore. Clarissa is mentioned in Mary Steele’s poem, ‘To Theodosia, an Epistle from Yeovil, 1773’, which was probably written on her upcoming trip to Yeovil (see above letter). She was dismissed to the Baptist church at Coventry on Christmas day, 1803, and died there in 1840, at the age of 84. For Goddard, see John Broome, A Bruised Reed: The Life and Times of Anne Steele. (Harpenden: Gospel Standard Trust Publications, 2007), 223; Broughton Baptist Church Book, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford.