Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Woodward, Thomas Jenkinson
WOODWARD, THOMAS JENKINSON (1745?–1820), botanist, born about 1745, was a native of Huntingdon, where his family had long been established. His parents died when he was quite young, leaving him, however, well off. He was educated at Eton and Clare Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated LL.B. in 1769. Shortly after he married Frances (d. 27 Nov. 1833), the daughter and heiress of Thomas Manning of Bungay, Suffolk.
He was appointed a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant for the county of Suffolk, and on his subsequent removal to Walcot House, Diss, Norfolk, to the same offices for that county. On the establishment of the volunteer system he became lieutenant-colonel of the Diss volunteers. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society of London in 1789.
He died at Diss on 28 Jan. 1820, and was buried there. He left no issue. To botany, especially the English flora, he was devoted, and is described by Sir James Edward Smith [q. v.] as ‘one of the best English botanists, whose skill and accuracy are only equalled by his liberality and zeal in the service of the science’ (Rees, Cyclop.), and it was in his honour that Smith named the genus Woodwardia.
Woodward was joint-author with Samuel Goodenough [q. v.], bishop of Carlisle, of ‘Observations on the British Fuci,’ London, 1797, 4to, and contributed seven papers to the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ and the ‘Transactions of the Linnean Society of London’ between 1784 and 1794, on fungi and algæ. He also furnished much information to Sir J. E. Smith for Sowerby's ‘English Botany,’ and to William Withering [q. v.] for the second edition of his ‘Systematic Arrangement of British Plants,’ as well as to Thomas Martyn (1735–1825) [q. v.] for his edition of Philip Miller's ‘Gardeners' Dictionary.’
[Gent. Mag. 1820, i. 189, 280; Nat. Hist. Mus. Cat.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Britten and Boulger's Biogr. Index Brit. Bot.; Lady Smith's Memoirs of Sir J. E. Smith, vol. i.; Davy's Athenæ Suffolc. in Addit. MS. 19167, f. 169.]