Family and Education

b. 1549, 1st s. of John Woodward by Margaret, da. of George Bulstrode of Hedgerley Bulstrode. educ. ?Eton 1561. m. (1) Katherine, da. of Thomas Woodford of Britwell, 3s.; (2) Elizabeth, da. of Robert Honywood of Charing, Kent, and Markshall, Essex, 3s. d.v.p. 9da. suc. fa. 1567.

Offices Held

Clerk of the works, Windsor castle and steward of honour of Windsor from July 1579; receiver of the revenue in the Exchequer for the castle and honour by 1587.

Biography

Woodward was returned for Windsor by virtue of his office at the castle. His religious sympathies probably lay with the puritans, who were strong at Windsor. On 18 Nov. 1586 he was one of the seven Members of the Commons who urged the necessity of the execution of the Queen of Scots, in reply to Queen Elizabeth’s plea that some other solution might be found; and he was added to the committee which was to confer with the Lords on this ‘great cause’. In his will, made 3 Jan. 1598, he renounced all other means of salvation save Christ, expressed confidence that he would be received into ‘the glory of eternal life’, and asked to be buried ‘without pomp’. His wealth still lay in the woods which had given his family its name. He instructed three trustees, of whom his brother-in-law Michael Heneage was one, to have 16 acres of trees felled in each of the 18 years following his death and to allocate the annual profits to his children, each in turn. Woodward was buried at Upton 30 Jan. 1598.

Vis. Bucks. (Harl. Soc. lviii), 131-2; Eton Coll. Reg. ed. Sterry, 377; PCC 28 Crymes, 37 Lewyn; N. and Q. (ser. 12), iv. 234; PRO Index 16774, f. 6; W. H. St. John Hope, Windsor Castle, 275-6; The King’s Works, iii. 414; Lansd. 55, f. 19; 106, f. 1; CPR, 1558-60, p. 108; D’Ewes, 403.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: Alan Harding

Notes