Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lloyd, Godfrey
LLOYD or FLOYD, Sir GODFREY (fl. 1667), military engineer, was son of Sergeant-major Brochwel Lloyd and a younger brother of Sir Charles Lloyd or Floyd (d. 1661) [q. v.] He does not appear to have been engaged like his brother in the civil wars, but was proscribed as a conspirator by the parliament. During the Commonwealth he was captain of a company of foot in the Dutch service. He is believed to be the ‘Captain Lloyd, a stout, choleric Welshman, brought up under William of Orange,’ who is mentioned by Clarke (see Life of James II, i. 283) as in charge of the advanced approaches at the French siege of Condé in 1655, and wounded in the head there. He is mentioned by Hyde in 1656 as an ‘honest man’ in the king's employ (Cal. Clarendon State Papers, iii. 171). He was knighted by Charles II at Brussels in 1657. He had a high reputation as a military engineer. On 27 Dec. 1661 he was appointed ‘chief engineer of all ports, castles, and fortifications in England and Wales’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1661–2, p. 192). Sir Bernard de Gomme [q. v.] had been appointed to the like post some months before. The post of chief-engineer was held by more than one person at once (Whitworth Porter, vol. i.) In 1665 Lloyd petitioned for a sum of 360l. due to him as ‘engineer-general of England and Wales,’ he having quitted the service of the Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburg by the king's order (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1665–6, p. 594). On 12 May 1666 he was appointed captain of a company of foot-guards in garrison at Portsmouth (ib.) In 1667, after the Dutch attack on the Medway, Lloyd and De Gomme were consulted by the king as to the defences of the kingdom (Pepys, Diary, 1854 ed. iii. 424). On 27 Sept. 1667 Lloyd again received a commission as captain in the foot-guards, which he appears to have sold the same day (Hamilton, Gren. Guards, iii. 430). The ‘State Papers, Domestic Series,’ of this period contain frequent references to Lloyd's employment in fortifying Portsmouth Dockyard and Sheerness. There is some uncertainty as to the date of his death. He is believed to have been father of Godfrey Lloyd, who was colonel of a regiment of English foot at Portsmouth and in the West Indies at the time of the Martinique expedition (cf. treasury records).
[Le Neve's Knights; Whitworth Porter's Hist. Royal Engineers, vol. i.; Hamilton's Hist. Gren. Guards, vol. iii.; Cal. of Clarendon State Papers in the Bodleian Library, vol. iii.; Pepys's Diary, 1854 ed. iii. 424, v. 256; Calendars of State Papers, Dom. and Treasury.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.183
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 33 | Lloyd, Sir Godfrey: for Bronghill read Brochwel |