author
B. B. (Bernard Bolingbroke) Woodward
1816–1869
A Victorian scholar with an unusually varied career, he moved from teaching and ministry into antiquarian research and eventually became Royal Librarian at Windsor Castle. He is best remembered for reference works that brought history, biography, and chronology together for general readers.
1 Audiobook
Sea-Weeds, Shells and Fossils
by Peter Gray, B. B. (Bernard Bolingbroke) Woodward
About the author
Born in Norwich on May 2, 1816, Bernard Bolingbroke Woodward was the eldest son of geologist and antiquary Samuel Woodward. Early in life he worked as a teacher and heraldic draftsman, and he later served as a Congregational minister before turning more fully toward literary and scholarly work.
Woodward built a reputation as an antiquary, cataloguer, and compiler. His career culminated in his appointment as Royal Librarian at Windsor Castle in 1860, where he also worked with the royal collection of prints and drawings. He wrote and edited several useful reference works, including the Encyclopaedia of Chronology, Historical and Biographical, published after his death with William L. R. Cates.
He died on October 12, 1869. Remembered as a careful Victorian man of letters, Woodward belonged to a notably scholarly family and left behind work shaped by a lifelong interest in books, records, and historical detail.