Goddards Wives Children Research Notes
Neville Lancelot Goddard Birth Neville Lancelot Goddard (b. February 19, 1905, d. October 01, 1972) Neville Lancelot Goddard (son of Joseph Nathaniel Goddard and Wilhemina Ellis Hinkson) was born February 19, 1905, and died October 01, 1972 in Los Angeles, California, USA. 1. He married Mildrid Mary Hughes (1923) Mildrid Mary Hughes was born March 29, 1901 in Lancaster & Blackburn, England, and died November 09, 1979 in New York City.n2212 ¶1
Groom: Neville L. Goddard Age: 20 Residence: 1926 E. 1st St., Brooklyn, NY Occupation: Clerk Father: Joseph Goddard Mother: Eliza (or Elisa) Goddard Bride: Mary Hughes Age: 20 Residence: 144 Waverly Pl., NYC Birthplace: England Father: Thomas Hughes Mother: Mary Magdala (or Magdala Hughes) Date of Marriage: October 13, 1923 Location: Manhattan Certificate Number: 35968 Witnesses: E.M. Hackett, F.C. Waterman Filed: October 18, 1923 Officiant: McCormick, Deputy City Clerk Children of Neville Lancelot Goddard and Mildrid Mary Hughes are: Joseph Neville Goddard, b. May 19, 1924, New York City, d.n2212 ¶2
March 01, 1986, New York City. 2. He married Catherine Willa Van Schmus (1942) Catherine Willa Van Schmus was born February 02, 1907 in New Jersey USA, and died January 01, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA Children of Neville Lancelot Goddard and Catherine Willa Van Schmus are: Victoria Goddard, b. June 28, 1942. Certificate Summary Marriage Details Divorce Info (From Affidavit) 3. Children Joseph Neville Goddard Joseph Neville Goddard (son of Neville Lancelot Goddard and Mildrid Mary Hughes ) was born May 19, 1924 in New York City, and died March 01, 1986 in New York City. 1.n2212 ¶3
Loris H Peterson Divorce: July 30, 1946 Marriage: 1942 “Loris Peterson Goddard” is dancing in the N. Y Copa Chorus The Miami News Oct 20, 1946 2 Joseph Neville Goddard and Virginia B Siena He married Virginia B Siena on 1949. Divorce: March 26, 1959 Marriage: 1949 2. He married Iris Angela Johnson on May 06, 1963 in Four Winds Maxwell Barbados. Iris Angela Johnson (b. March 30, 1936) She married Joseph Neville Goddard on May 06, 1963 in Four Winds Maxwell Barbados, son of Neville Lancelot Goddard and Mildrid Mary Hughes Victoria Goddard Victoria Goddard (daughter of Neville Lancelot Goddard and Catherine Willa Van Schmus ) (28 June, 1942 – 25 September, 2024) 4. Neville’s Parents You may enjoy: How Neville Goddard’s Family Built Their Fortune: Rags to Riches, Rum, and Reinvention Joseph Nathaniel Goddard (son of Joseph Josiah Goddard and Mary Elizabeth Jane King ) was born November 24, 1874 in St. John, Barbados, and died November 1959 in Barbados. He married Wilhemina Ellis Hinkson, daughter of John William Ellis Hinkson and Elizabeth Ann Gibson. Children of Joseph Nathaniel Goddard and Wilhemina Ellis Hinkson Lecture Summary quote: “I was born and raised a Britisher, born under the Union Jack. All my family are still living under the Union Jack. I am very proud I was born with that background, a rugged, rugged background of Scotch, English, and Irish. My forefathers were from Cornwall, that rugged English setup. I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. They were adventurers when they ventured and re-adventured across all the seas of the world. Nothing could be more clear than my background.”… I am an American by adoption, but I cannot rub out my love of England. All the physical blood that flows through me comes from Scotland, England, and Ireland. A little bit of Holland Dutch got in from my mother’s side, for they were rugged individualists too, living on dykes (living on water, really). But though physically I would like to resent it, I am happy I saw it.n2212 ¶4
“ Publisher’s note 1. Publisher’s Note from Neville Goddard: “ The Power of Awareness ” (1952) “Forty years ago Neville added notes in his own hand to his personal copy of the newly published Power of Awareness. In conveying this copy to DeVorss & Company for the purpose of a new printing, Neville’s daughter, Victoria Goddard, has both authenticated the handwriting as her father’s and authorized the publication of a new edition incorporating his notes. 2. Dedication Neville Goddard: “ The Search” (1946) – To Victoria The fulfilment of a dream 3. From “Imagination Plus Faith” And strangely enough, in my imagination I allowed my brother Victor to carry my daughter Victoria up the gangplank, and to justify his action when we got off the little tender onto the gangplank, he said, “Come, your father’s arms aren’t strong enough to take you. I will take you. But my arms certainly were strong enough to carry my daughter, but he had to justify it, as we all do. He had to justify that action, and then took her up. Well, that is exactly what he did when we got to the little boat!n2212 ¶5
4. Neville Goddard’s first marriage was short lived, and he remained single for years until in the 1930s he met his second wife, who was a designer. After they married, they had a daughter named Victoria or “Vicky”. Old Wikipedia 5. 1923—Neville briefly marries Mildred Mary Hughes, with whom he has a son, Joseph Goddard, born the following year. Joseph Neville Goddard (first marriage) 6.n2212 ¶6
From “Proof, The Law Works” (1971) I told the story, and I was severely criticized for it by a lady at a dinner party one night when Fred Bailes, who is now gone from this world, gave a party at the Ambassador Hotel. And I had told this story about two weeks before to one of his great – I would say –contributors who would come and always write a huge big check at the end of a year or the end of a month to keep that going. And she was most critical that night. I didn’t feel well that night at all.n2212 ¶7
And she said, “You know, I can’t quite understand how you could take the platform before an audience of twenty-six hundred, a thousand who could not get in – they were all overflowing at the Fox Wilshire, and tell what you told about your wife” – this was my first wife. I told a simple story to explain that everything in this world must be forgiven, no matter what it is. When I met the girl who now bears my name and who is the mother of my daughter – the very first time I met her, I knew she was going to be my wife. She didn’t know it, but I knew it. I said to myself, “She doesn’t know it, but she is going to be my wife. We sailed for Barbados six months later, and she met my mother and met my family – met them all. They all loved her. That was back in 1936. In New York City, because of the archaic law that is now past, you couldn’t get a divorce unless she was insane for seven years or for adultery, and that’s all. The orthodox Christian churches had sewed the whole thing up so that it made life miserable and made everything simply a burden to all. When I met her, I had just such an entangled background. And here it’s New York City, the most archaic city in the world concerning such laws.n2212 ¶8
I went to bed and slept as though I was happily married to the girl who now bears my name. I did not have any physical emotion with her: just that she was sleeping there, and I am here, and it’s blissful. I did that for one solid week.n2212 ¶9
Then comes a telephone call from the court one morning, telling me that I must come down to this federal court on Tuesday morning. Well, I was groggy, it was early in the morning, and in those days I didn’t rise as early as I do now. And so, I just said, “All right,” and I hung up. Well, on Tuesday morning that I am supposed to be there, I made no effort to go there. And about 9:30 the phone rang.n2212 ¶10
It’s the court, and they said to me, “You are supposed to be here in court this morning. We meet at 10:00. And I said, “What on earth am I supposed to be in court for? They said, “Well, it happens that your wife is arrested, and we thought maybe you could throw some light on the reason for her arrest. That’s why we are asking you to come down. Well, I wasn’t shaved. I simply threw myself into some clothes, and off I went in a taxi down to the court. I got there just as they were bringing her in. A man whispered into – there were three judges – into one judge’s ear that I was in the audience. The judge asked me to take the stand. “You don’t have to swear, but will you please take the stand and throw some light on the behavior of your wife?n2212 ¶11
She tells me you have been separated now for almost fourteen years. I said, “Yes. “Is it a religious reason why you have been separated?n2212 ¶12
I said, “No, none whatsoever. We knew we were wrong the very first day we got married. We knew it was completely a failure right away.n2212 ¶13
Then he read the case. She was picked up for shoplifting. They went to her home and found other things in her home. He said, “What can you say for this? I said, “As far as I am concerned, I don’t think that really she is a shoplifter. As far as I am concerned, she just moved under compulsion. Take into consideration her age. She is eight years my senior, and she is passing through a certain emotional state.n2212 ¶14
And do be lenient. We have a son who lives with me, and I don’t want anything to happen to his mother that would cast any shadow on his life. He is a wonderful boy. He is in my charge by law. He is in my home, lives with me, and I don’t want anything to happen to her that in any way would reflect upon my son.n2212 ¶15
The judge said, “You know, in all my years on the bench, I have heard no plea by one for another who has every reason in this world to get her committed, because that in any other state would be enough for a divorce, and yet he pleads for her. He sentenced her to six months, and then, on my plea, he suspended it. She met me on the outside, and said, “Neville, that was a very decent thing to do.n2212 ¶16
Give me my papers. She knew I was looking for her. My dancing partner had told her I was looking for her to serve the papers and therefore to be scarce and move out of New York City.n2212 ¶17
So, she did. But she had to commit the act, and they had to call me and ask me to throw light upon that. How could I condemn her? Who was the actual cause of her shoplifting? I! I slept as though I were blissfully married to the girl who now bears my name, and I had to get the evidence. I had to get some reason to bring the action.n2212 ¶18
And here, my wife actually gave me the papers. I said, “I don’t have the papers with me. She said, “I am driving home to your place right now, and you can give me the papers. That is illegal to serve your own papers, but she drove up to my hotel where I was living. I went to my room and came down to the lobby and gave her the papers – did my own serving!n2212 ¶19
Now that is an illegal thing in this world. Then I got my divorce in the City of New York, then I could marry the girl who now bears my name. When I told that, I told it only to tell people of that one word, the first word on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. They are all moving under compulsion, and the unseen causation is hidden from the world. They do not know who is “treading in the winepress. And I was “treading in the winepress” to be happily married to a girl who was not then engaged to me. I couldn’t be engaged to her under the circumstances. And then my wife behaved in such a manner that it made it real and natural for me to do what I did. How could I blame her? 6. 1940–1941—Neville meets Catherine Willa Van Schumus, who is to become his second wife. My wife, back in 1945, when she left the Music Hall (she worked at the Music Hall for eleven years as a costume designer, and the head producer used to treat her unmercifully) but I told her one day: “Darling, he couldn’t do anything for you unless you allowed it. You actually feel that he is no earthly good. You feel that you are a cultured American lady. You went to Smith College. You were born and raised in a lovely environment. You never heard unkind things in your home. You never saw anything that was cheap. Your mother had lovely taste, beautiful things. The interior was a beautiful, a huge, enormous home, with eight fireplaces, with every floor beautifully furnished, and she was raised in that environment. She went only to private schools, then off to Smith College, and then she worked in the Music Hall. Well, her father was managing director of the Music Hall, so when she went in there, she did not ask any favors because of her father’s position, and this man simply lorded it over her. She would say within herself (this she confessed to me): “Oh, you foreigner!” because he came from Russia. And she mentally would remind him that she is an American by birth for at least six or seven generations, and he came from Russia, and is now acting this way. Well, that’s wrong. Whether he be a Russian or American, or English, or anything else, we are all one. “Now, stop it, and allow him to praise you for your work. He’s always condemning and always criticizing. Walk to work. You only walk five blocks from where you live to the Music Hall. Just imagine that he is not only praising you for your work, but he wants to use all of your designs, and the budget will not allow it, so he goes to your father and asks your father to increase the budget, that he may be allowed to use all the designs. Your father’s a businessman, and he’s not going to do it. He’s going to cater neither to you nor to him, but he has to run that at a profit for the Rockefellers. So, let him do it. But in your Imagination assume that he does!n2212 ¶20
How long do you think it took for him to actually change his attitude towards her? I’ll tell you: twenty-four hours! When she came downstairs with this wonderful collection of designs, he raved about them, and he actually went to her father and begged him to increase the budget, that he may use them all. Her father would not allow it.n2212 ¶21
And from that day on, he changed his attitude toward her radically for the better. Why? Because she changed hers towards him.n2212 ¶22
From “Many Mansions” (1969) 7. 1942—Neville marries Catherine, who later that year gives birth to their daughter Victoria. 8. From “Power” (1968) “My mother never went to work. She just had ten children and lived at home with her full complement of servants. My sister never worked, so she lives at home with her servants. My wife worked until I could afford to keep her. The day I could afford to keep her, I said, “Now, you stop,” so she stopped. That was almost two years after we got married. Two years afterwards I could afford to keep her, so, “From now on, you don’t work,” and so she hasn’t gone back to work.n2212 ¶23
“Do you know why I know that? My wife did it. She did it! Actually, she did it.n2212 ¶24
One day she was in the presence of a so-called sensitive, and this one said to her, “Why did you take off your wedding ring? She said, “I am not married. “Oh,” she said, “don’t fool me. You took off your wedding ring. She said, “But I’m not married.n2212 ¶25
She said, “I’ll even tell you his name,” and she started off with Neb—Neba—Neva—she didn’t quite get it but she was coming very, very close to it. She was actually sensing what my wife in consciousness was feeling. When I first met her, I wanted her. The very first day I knew her I wanted to marry her, but I was entangled. Was I entangled! But, by this law, I disentangled myself. Without hurting anyone, I disengaged myself from all these complexities so that I could actually legitimately say, “Will you marry me? But in the meanwhile she was wearing the ring. I hadn’t yet put it there, but she allowed me to put it there and slept as though I had put it there. So I tell you unmarried ladies, if you desire to be married—maybe you don’t—if you do, that’s the way to do it.n2212 ¶26
And he’ll come out of the nowhere. You don’t have to go and buy anyone or try to meet the right people. Usually when you try to meet the right one, he’s always the wrong one. So don’t go searching. Those who go searching for love only make manifest their own love-less-ness, and the love-less never find love. Only the loving find love, and they never have to seek for it.n2212 ¶27
You draw them; they come to you. 9. From Five Lessons: A Master Class (1948) “My closest companions in this world, my wife and my little girl, are to me when I address them, second. I must speak to my wife as, “you are. I must speak to anyone, no matter how close they are, as “You are. And after that the third person, “He is. There is only one person in this world with whom I can use the first person present and that is self. “I am,” can be said only of myself, it cannot be said of another.n2212 ¶28
“I personally enjoy telling my plans to my wife, because we both get such a thrill when they come into being. The first person a man wants to prove this law to is his wife. “Quite often my wife will ask me to imagine for her, as though she has greater faith in my ability to do it than in her own. That flatters me because every man worthy of the name wants to feel that his family has faith in him.n2212 ¶29
But I see nothing wrong in the communion between two who love one another. 10. Freedom Barry mentions in Transcript Of “Freedom On The Beach” Lecture Presented By Freedom Barry Held At Cambria, Ca On Sept.n2212 ¶30
14-15, 1996 “So after Abdullah had decided that Neville had enough, and this was seven full years, he just closed his doors to everybody. He didn’t take in the newspapers, he didn’t take in the milk when it was delivered, and this was his way of telling Neville “you’re out of the nest, you have to go, you have to do it. So Neville borrowed $5.00 from the woman who became his wife, he hired a room in which to speak, and he went out to give the first lecture he had ever given, and just as he was ready to leave, there came a knock at the door. He opened it and here’s this little boy that looked like the picture of any run away child you’ve ever seen with a little bandanna with his worldly belongings carried over his shoulder and a note from his mother, who was Neville’s divorced wife. She had divorced him because she couldn’t take his interest in the esoteric, and he had done everything and used every persuasion he could to get custody of that son. Nothing would persuade her. Here of his own accord he comes and there is reenacted the scene that he had done in his mind’s eye when he was working that system to get the custody of his child. He used to imagine that he was standing behind his dining chair, with his hand cupped over the child’s head. So, he said, “Here was this boy with his bundle of goods and a note from his mother saying, ‘there is someone else in my life, I haven’t room for the three of us. She had sent him home to his father. He brought him in, gave him supper and took him with him to the first lecture he ever gave.n2212 ¶31
“Yes, Vicki… she was born in 1942. She lives in Los Angeles. We’re in touch. She’s not interested in this at all. She is the executor of his estate, and has charge of the publishing of his books. His son, by the first marriage, lives in Barbados. His name is Neville Joseph, Jr., but he has always gone by the name of Joe. He didn’t want any of this Neville stuff. 11.n2212 ¶32
Neville mentions in the lecture “Persistent Assumption” about Vicki not reading his books: Benny said to my daughter last Saturday night, “Well, I finally have seen you. “Now tell me, of all your father’s books which one do you like the best?” and she said to Benny, “I haven’t read them. Oh, she read the little one dedicated to her, but a prophet is without honor in his own home. So I don’t expect my daughter to actually read it and think anything more because I am her father. In the intimacy of a family life, you see all the weaknesses of family life. So Benny said quite innocently, “Tell me, of all the books of your father, and he’s written twelve of them, which one do you like the best?” and she confessed, “Well, I haven’t read them. So, a prophet has no honor in his own home. But may I tell you, whether she would ever read them or not, it makes no difference to me.n2212 ¶33
She still in my eyes is a darling! I loved her before she was born. I saw her before she came into the world and she told me her name, so I named her after what she told me her name was.n2212 ¶34
So it would make no difference to me if she ever read one word that I have ever written. She doesn’t come to my meetings. I don’t think she has ever attended one. But time will prove to her that what I am saying to you is all true.n2212 ¶35
And one day she will find herself the father of David; therefore, instead of being my daughter, she will be myself. Because if she is the father of David and I am the father of David, then she and I are one. And she is not then my daughter, for we are the father of David.n2212 ¶36
All I can do is simply tell it just as it happened to me, and try to encourage everyone in this world to believe it. There is no other vision. So when people say there must be another vision, another way, there is no other way. The only way to God is through his Son, and his Son David of biblical fame will reveal you as God the Father.n2212 ¶37
More Resources Neville Goddard: Marriages, Children and Family Tree: Research Notes Where Neville Goddard Lived and Lectured in West Hollywood and New York Neville Goddard: Divorce for Adultery and the “Separated, No Dependents” Military Record Explained Neville Goddard’s Military Records In Memory of Victoria Goddard, Daughter of Neville Goddard (1942–2024) Timeline of Neville Goddard’s Lecture Venues and Appearances (1931–1971)n2212 ¶38