Richard Wooddeson (1745–1822) was an English jurist,

Vinerian Professor of English Law The Vinerian Professorship of English Law, formerly Vinerian Professorship of Common Law, was established by Charles Viner who by his will, dated 29 December 1755, left about £12,000 to the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of O ...

from 1777.

Life

He was born on 15 May 1745 at

Kingston-on-Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

, where his father Richard Wooddeson (1704–1774) was a noted schoolmaster. Educated at his father's school, he matriculated at

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named after ...

, on 29 May 1759. He was elected to a demyship at

Magdalen College Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the st ...

in 1759, graduating B.A. on 28 January 1763, M.A. on 10 October 1765, and D.C.L. on 31 May 1777. In 1772 he exchanged his demyship for a fellowship, which he held till his death. As a young man Wooddeson frequented

Thomas Payne Thomas Payne (c. 1718 – 1799) was an important bookseller and publisher in 18th-century London. Life Payne was born in Brackley, Northamptonshire. From 1750 he ran a shop at Mews Gate in Castle Street near Leicester Fields (the site is now ...

's house and literary circle at Mews Gate. In 1766 Wooddeson was elected to a Vinerian scholarship in

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...

, and he was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1767 at the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

, who elected him a bencher in 1799. After acting for three years as deputy Vinerian professor, he was elected a Vinerian fellow in 1776, and served as proctor in the same year. On 4 March 1777 he was elected university lecturer on moral philosophy, and on 24 April, on the resignation of Robert Chambers, he was elected Vinerian professor, narrowly defeating Giles Rooke. Wooddeson acted for many years as counsel to the university of Oxford and as a commissioner of bankrupts. In 1808 a fire broke out in his house in

Chancery Lane Chancery Lane is a one-way street situated in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. It has formed the western boundary of the City since 1994, having previously been divided between the City of Westminster and the London Boroug ...

and destroyed his library, mainly of legal works. He died, unmarried, on 29 October 1822 at his house in Boswell Court,

Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...

, and was buried on 5 November in the benchers' vault in the

Temple church The Temple Church is a Royal peculiar church in the City of London located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters. It was consecrated on 10 February 1185 by Patriarch Heraclius of J ...

. He left to the university, for the

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, and to

Works

Wooddeson published two main legal works. The first, which appeared in 1783, was ''Elements of Jurisprudence treated of in the preliminary Part of a Course of Lectures on the Laws of England'' (London; new edit. Dublin, 1792). The second, published in 1792 and 1793, was ''A Systematical View of the Laws of England'' (London, 3 vols.; Dublin, 1792–4, 3 vols.) Originally delivered as a series of Vinerian lectures commencing in Michaelmas term 1777, and extending over a course of years, the latter work was a contribution towards systematising English law. A second edition was edited by William Rosser Williams in 1839 (London; Philadelphia, 1842). Wooddeson was the author also of ''A Brief Vindication of the Rights of the British Legislature, in Answer to some Positions advanced in a Pamphlet entitled "Thoughts on the English Government, Letter the Second"'', a reply to John Reeves, London, 1799. He also made research collections for a work on

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more r ...

s; but in poor health he asked Samuel Toller to carry out the plan.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Wooddeson, Richard 1745 births 1822 deaths English legal professionals English barristers Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Vinerian Professors of English Law