Samuel Woodforde and
the Execution of Charles I
A further diary of Samuel Woodforde is in the library of New College Oxford.
Historically, this is an extremely valuable document in that it
is written in the form of an autobiography and covers the years
1636-1700. There are references to the Great Plague and the
Fire of London. One particularly moving passage records
the effect that the news of the death of Charles I had on
Samuel's maternal grandfather, who was at that time already
mourning the loss of his son:
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`My Uncle Samuel Haunch dyed of a Consumption
at London Wall and lys buryed there in the Church so called
All Hallows in the Wall …
My grandfather and Grandmother
Haunch had taken great care in his Education at Katharin
Hall in Cambridg and after Grays Inn; and till his dying day
never left off greiving for him, who had he lived would have
abundantly answered their expectation.
But hee dyed in the
midst of their hope about the 22 yeare of his Age; a young
man of excellent endowments both of body and mind; and of
understanding in the best learning Xtian and Heathen to
almost a Miracle beyond his yeares.
It greaves me every time
I think of it, that my relations entrusted me with his
Collection in an age too green to value them, by whc Shift
they have been long since lost both to them and myself.
The
loss of this son of his, together with the Public Calamitys
and of them all the greatest, the Murder of Our Late
Gracious Sovereign so siesed upon my good Grandfather that
he scarce ever after enjoyed himself, and about the 23 July
following 1649 dyed in a good old age tho' had he not been
thus broken his Constitution promised many more yeares.
Concerning the Late Our Gracious Soverign to this day I
remember that I came at night as I was wont from St Pauls
Schole I found the good Old Man all in tears as who truly
thought the Glory was departed from Our Israel, wondering at
it, tho’ myself was concerned only as I saw my fellowes he
so related it to me and so impressed it by his tears and
laments and most ardent prayers whc thereupon heeputt up
that an abhorence was generated in me young as I was (about
13 yeares old) at the Party in whose anvils so great a
wickedness was forged whc blessed be God has to this day
continued…’ |
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The Heighes-Woodford Family Connection
(by John Heighes)
For many generations, the Woodforde
family has used Heighes as a forename. The earliest
known record of this is in the parish register of West Worldham,
where it is recorded under Marriages:
9 October 1690. Heighes
Woodford Rector of Elvetham eldest son
of Dr. Samuel Woodford Curate of this parish and Mistress
Mary Lamport of Anstey. Licence.
Susan Heighes,
one of the six daughters of Henry Heighes,
1549–1595, of Binsted, married Robert Haunch and one of
their daughters Hannah Haunch, 1617–1698, married Robert
Woodforde, 1606–1654. Their eldest son was Samuel
Woodforde, 1636–1701 and it was to Samuel, that Edward
Heighes, d.1661, left, ‘to my sister’s, daughter’s eldest
son’, considerable property in Binsted, which included South Hay
House and Westcote Farm.
Samuel became Rector of the
parishes of Hartley Mauditt and Shalden. He was also presented to
the Rectory of Alton, and became a Prebendary of Winchester.
Through his first marriage, to Alice Beale, d.1664, there was a
daughter, Alice and one son, Heighes Woodforde, 1664–1724,
who became Rector of Elvetham and in 1704, Vicar of Epsom. His
eldest son, Samuel, born at Elvetham in 1695, became Rector
of Ansford, in Somerset and was the father of the Revd. James
Woodforde. In the diary, Parson Woodforde refers to ‘Brother
Heighes’, the second member of the family to be given this name.
Samuel Woodforde left South Hay
to Heighes Woodforde and Westcote Farm to the eldest son of his
second marriage, Samuel Woodforde. Records of the Poor Law of
1713, show that Heighes Woodforde paid £3.1s. 3d for the manor of
South Hay and Samuel Woodforde paid £2. 10s. 0d for the manor of
Westcote. The Hearth Tax for Hampshire of 1665, shows South Hay
taxed at 16 hearths.
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Late 14th Century Primer
with Samuel Woodforde's signature
dated 1682 (Glasgow University) |
Comments and
contributions to this site are welcome.
Please email us
here.
© Stephen Butt 2004 - rev
18/01/06
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Samuel Woodforde DD (1635-1700)
Samuel
Woodforde was the eldest son of Robert and Hannah Woodforde
of Northampton. He was born in London on 15 April 1636
in the parish of All Hallows in the Wall, London. He
was educated at St Paul’s School and matriculated as a
commoner at Wadham College, Oxford on 21 July 1654 where he
graduated as a B.A. on 6 February 1657.
In 1659 he
became a student at the Inner Temple where his
chamber-fellow was the poet Thomas Flatman. In 1661 Samuel
inherited the manor of Westcotte near Binstead in Hampshire
from his great-uncle Edmund Heighes. Samuel’s mother, Hannah
was the daughter of Robert Haunch of London, by Hannah his
wife, daughter of Edward Heighes and niece of Sir Nicholas
Heighes of Heighes House, Binstead, Hants. A condition of
the inheritance was that he should be obedient to his
grandmother and aunt, especially in the choice of a wife, or
he might be disinherited. For many years he was much
troubled by lawsuits brought against him by the Heighes
family. The Westcotte property finally passed to Samuel’s
grandson, Samuel. He was forced to mortgage it and by 1725
it had passed out of the family into the possession of the
chief mortgagee, Thomas Ridge of Portsmouth.
He
married Alicia, the youngest daughter of Theodore Beale of
Bucks and by her had one son, Heighes, and a daughter,
Alicia. Alicia (Samuel’s wife) died 14 January 1664 at
the birth their daughter. He married secondly, on 5
February 1666, Mary Norton, the daughter of John Norton of
Benstead, by whom he had four more sons, namely Samuel,
John, Robert and William. In November 1664 Samuel was
elected to the Royal Society, which had received its royal
charter only three years previously. In January 1669 he took
holy orders and in 1673 was presented by Sir Nicholas Stuart
to the benefice of Hartley-Maudit in Hampshire.
His career within the church continued with his appointment
as a canon at Winchester on 27 May 1676 and of Winchester on
8 November 1680. He received the degree of Doctor of
Divinity by diploma from Archbishop Sancroft in 1677. Samuel
was a prolific poet and writer.
His chief
works were `The Paraphrase upon the Psalms’ and `The
Paraphrase upon the Canticles’. Copies of several of
his works are lodged in the Bodleian Library as follows:
A Paraphrase on Psalms of David (Ps CXlX Pt12
lacking), which has a couplet from his brother Robert.
588pp.
Precem Privatarum Horarium – Breviary
adapted for Anglican use by Samuel. 280pp.
Diary
(17 October 1663 to 5 February 1604 (purchased by the
library in 1963. 239pp. This diary covers the death of his
first wife and records the depression, loneliness and
despair that Samuel suffered following her death. It is
inscribed `Liber Dolorosus’
The Woodforde papers
at New College Oxford include a copy of "A
Paraphrase upon the Psalms of David" by Samuel
Woodforde, he eldest son of Robert Woodforde.
This document is said to contain 28 pages of
autobiographical information which may relate in part to his
childhood in Northamptonshire.
Samuel Woodforde
died at Winchester on 11 January 1700. Samuel’s eldest son
Heighes Woodforde (1664-1724) also became an ordained
minister. He served as vicar of Epsom and as a canon at
Chichester. It was Heighes’ eldest son, the Revd
Samuel Woodforde (1695-1771) who married Jane Collins and
established the family in Ansford, Somerset. Their second
son, was the well-known diarist, the Revd James
Woodforde.
A Tribute by Samuel Woodforde
To his very Worthy
and much
Honoured Friend Mr. Izaak Walton
upon his Excellent Life of Mr.
G E O R G E H E R B E R T.
Heav'ns youngest Son,
its Benjamin,
Divinity's next Brother, Sacred Poesie,
No longer shall a Virgin reckoned be,
(What ere with others 'tis) by me,
A Female Muse, as were the Nine:
But (full of Vigor Masculine)
An Essence Male, with Angels his Companions shine.
With Angels first the heavenly youth was bred;
And, when a Child, instructed them to sing,
The praises of th' Immortal King,
Who Lucifer in Triumph led:
For, as in Chains the Monster sank to Hell,
And tumbling headlong down the precipice fell,
By him first taught, How art thou fallen thou morning star?
they said
Too fondly then, we have fancy'd him a Maid:
We, the vain Brethren of the rhyming trade;
A femal Angel less would Urbins* skill upbraid.
[* Raphael Urbin,
the famous painter ]
II.
Thus 'twas in Heaven:
This, Poesy's Sex and Age;
And, when he thence t'our lower world came down,
He chose a form more like his own,
And Jesse's youngest Son inspir'd with holy rage,
The sprightly Shepherd felt unusual Fire,
And up he took his tuneful Lyre;
He took it up, and struck't, and his own soft touches did admire.
Thou, Poesie, on him didst bestow
Thy choicest gift, an honor shew'd before to none;
And, to prepare his way to th' Hebrew Throne,
Gav'st him thy Empire, and Dominion;
The happy Land of Verse, where flow
Rivers of Milk, and Woods of Laurel grow;
Wherewith thou didst adorn his brow,
And mad'st his first, more flourishing, and triumphant Crown.
Assis me thy great Prophets praise to sing,
David, the Poets, and bless'd Israels King;
And, with the dancing Echo, let the mountains ring!
Then, on the wings of some auspicious wind,
Let his great name from earth be rais'd on high,
And in the starry volume of the Sky,
A lasting Record find:
Be with his mighty Psaltery join'd;
Which, taken long since up into the Air,
And call'd the Harp, makes a bright Constellation there.
III.
Worthy it was to be translated hence,
And. there, in view of all, exalted hang:
To which so oft the Princely Prophet sang,
And mystick Oracles did dispence.
Though, had it still remain'd below,
More wonders of it we had seen,
How great the mighty Herberts skill had been;
Herbert, who could so much without it do;
Herbert, who did its Chords distinctly know,
More perfectly, than any Child of Verse below.
O! Had we known him half so well!
But then, my friend, there had been left for you
Nothing so fair, and worthy praise to do;
Who so exactly all his Story tell,
That, though he did not want his Bays,
Nor all the Monuments vertue can raise,
Your hand, he did, to Eternize his Praise.
Herbert, and Donne, again are join'd,
Now here below, as they're above;
These friends are in their old embraces twin'd;
And, since by you the Enterview's design'd,
Too weak, to part them, death does prove;
For in this book they meet again: as in one Heav'n they love.
Sam. Woodforde D.D.
Bensted, Apr. 3. 1670.
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