Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Woodward, Samuel (1790-1838)

by Horace Bolingbroke Woodward

WOODWARD, SAMUEL (1790–1838), geologist and antiquary, born at Norwich on 2 Oct. 1790, was the only son of William Woodward, bombazine weaver, who died in 1795. Receiving but little school education, he was sent to work, when less than seven years old, with a shawl-weaver. In 1804 he was apprenticed to Alderman John Herring, manufacturer of camlets and bombazines, with whom he remained ten years. A taste for serious reading which he early manifested was stimulated by Alderman Herring, and to such good effect that he qualified himself to teach in both evening and Sunday schools. He thus became known to Joseph John Gurney, who greatly aided him. His interest was specially aroused in natural history and archæology, and he commenced to form the extensive collection of fossils and antiquities which after his death was purchased by subscription for the Norwich museum. From 1814 to 1820 he was employed in the Norwich Union Fire Office, and then obtained in Gurney's (now Barclay's) Bank at Norwich a clerkship which he held until his death. He thus came under the notice of Hudson Gurney [q. v.] and Dawson Turner [q. v.], from whom he received great help and encouragement in his scientific work. In 1824 he exhibited before the Society of Antiquaries a series of maps of ancient Norfolk, which were afterwards published (through the liberality of Hudson Gurney) as an appendix to his ‘History and Antiquities of Norwich Castle.’ To the same society he later on sent several papers, which were printed in the ‘Archæologia.’ Among these were observations on the round church towers of Norfolk, the Roman remains in Norfolk, and the foundations of Wymondham Abbey. Between 1829 and 1836 he contributed articles on natural history and geology to the ‘Magazine of Natural History’ and the ‘Philosophical Magazine.’ He died on 14 Jan. 1838. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Bernard Bolingbroke of Norwich. His sons, Bernard Bolingbroke Woodward and Samuel Pickworth Woodward, are separately noticed. His independent works were:

1. ‘A Synoptical Table of British Organic Remains,’ 1830, 8vo and 4to, in which, for the first time, all the known British fossils were enumerated.
2. ‘An Outline of the Geology of Norfolk,’ 1833, 8vo and 4to, illustrated by geological map, sections, and plates of fossils.
3. ‘The Norfolk Topographer's Manual,’ 1842, 8vo (posthumous); this was a catalogue of Norfolk books and engravings, revised and augmented by W. C. Ewing and Dawson Turner.
4. ‘The History and Antiquities of Norwich Castle,’ 1847, 4to (posthumous), edited by his son B. B. Woodward.

[Memoir and list of papers in Trans. Norfolk Naturalists' Society, 1879, ii. 563–93, in part reprinted, with portrait, in Geol. Mag. 1891, pp. 1–8; private information.]

H. B. W.