Samuel Woodford

Life Samuel Woodford, born on 15 April 1636 in the parish of All Hallows in the Wall, London, was the eldest son of Robert Woodford of Northampton by his wife Jane Dexter. After leaving St. Paul's School he matriculated on 20 July 1654 as a commoner at Wadham College, Oxford, whence he graduated BA on 6 February 1657 (NS). Two years later he entered as a student at the Inner Temple, where his chamber-fellow was Thomas Flatman, the poet. He afterwards lived, first at Aldbrook, then at Binstead, near Ryde, "in a married and secular condition". In November 1664 he was elected to the Royal Society. In January 1669 he took holy orders, and in 1673 was presented by Sir Nicholas Stuart to the benefice of Hartley-Mauduit, Hampshire. Through the influence of George Morley, Bishop of Winchester, he was appointed Canon of Chichester on 27 May 1676, and of Winchester on 8 November 1680. He received the degree of D.D. by diploma of Archbishop Sancroft in 1677. He died at Winchester on 11 January 1700.

Works Woodford began his poetical career by contributing in 1658 to the Naps upon Parnassus of the younger Samuel Austin (fl. 1658). Of his poem On the Return of Charles II, 1660, Wood had seen no copy. His chief works were The Paraphrase upon the Psalms and The Paraphrase upon the Canticles. The first originally appeared in quarto in 1667, with a dedication to Bishop Morley, and was reissued in octavo in 1678. In a lengthy preface the reader is informed that the Paraphrase was written while Woodford "had the convenience of a private and most delightful retirement" in the company of Mrs. Mary Beale and her husband. He had been forewarned against prolixity "by a very judicious friend, Mr. Thomas Sprat" (afterwards the bishop). The object of the poet, who drew his inspiration from Cowley, was to give as nearly as he could "the true sense and meaning of the psalms, and in as easy and obvious terms as was possible". The result may be pronounced successful from a literary point of view; and the Paraphrase won the praise of Baxter in his preface to Poetical Fragments, 1681. Valentin Parisot, writing a century later, thought his poems had fallen into undeserved oblivion.