Charles Wycliffe Goodwin (1817–1878) was an English

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...

bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

scholar,

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

and

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

. His last judicial position was as Acting

Chief Judge A chief judge (also known as presiding judge, president judge or principal judge) is the highest-ranking or most senior member of a lower court or circuit court with more than one judge. According to the Federal judiciary of the United States, th ...

of the British Supreme Court for China and Japan.

Early life

Goodwin was born on 2 April 1817 in

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

. He studied at

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The college is located in the historic city-centre of Camb ...

and graduated, in 1838, 6th Classic and senior optime in Mathematics. He became a

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the College. He was called to the bar at

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1843. He lost his fellowship of St Catharine's in 1847.

Academic Interests

The first

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

publication has been credited to Goodwin, who published for the

Cambridge Antiquarian Society The Cambridge Antiquarian Society is a society dedicated to study and preservation of the archaeology, history, and architecture of Cambridgeshire, England. The society was founded in 1840. Its collections are housed in the Haddon Library on Downi ...

, one of the

Papyri Graecae Magicae The Greek Magical Papyri (Latin: ''Papyri Graecae Magicae'', abbreviated ''PGM'') is the name given by scholars to a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, written mostly in ancient Greek (but also in Old Coptic, Demotic, etc.), which each conta ...

V, translated into English with commentary in 1853. In 1860 he wrote one of the articles in ''

Essays and Reviews ''Essays and Reviews'', edited by John William Parker, published in March 1860, is a broad-church volume of seven essays on Christianity. The topics covered the biblical research of the German critics, the evidence for Christianity, religious tho ...

'', to which he was the only lay contributor, writing alongside such great theologians as Rowland Williams and

Henry Bristow Wilson Henry Bristow Wilson (1803–1888) was a theology, theologian and a fellow of St John's College, Oxford. Life Born on 10 June 1803, he was elder son of Harry Bristow Wilson, by his wife Mary Anne, daughter of John Moore (Biblical scholar), John M ...

. In a speech, "The Growth and Nature of Egyptology: an inaugural lecture" by Stephen Ranulph Kingdon Glanville, Glanville said of Goodwin: "By the time Goodwin left Cambridge, he was a first class Greek scholar, an accomplished Hebraist, and an authority on Anglo-Saxon with valuable editions of new texts to his credit. He also had a considerably knowledge of natural history, especially geology. In London, where his practice was not large, he wrote music and art criticism; was for a time editor of '' Literary Gazette''; was the only layman among the seven contributors to the much talked of ''

'' (1860); and, because of his Greek and Hebrew scholarship, was frequently consulted by the Revisers of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

. But throughout his life, his main interest, begun when he was at school was in the elucidation of Ancient Egyptian and Coptic texts, more especially those Egyptian texts written in the cursive script called hieratic. In London, he spent much of his time in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, copying papyri. He was in close touch with

Samuel Birch Samuel Birch (3 November 1813 – 27 December 1885) was a British Egyptologist and antiquary. Biography Birch was the son of a rector at St Mary Woolnoth, London. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School. From an early age, his manifest ...

, then Keeper of the Oriental Department and was constantly exchanging information by correspondence with other leading Egyptologists of his day."

Appointment as Judge in China and Japan

Goodwin was appointed Assistant

Judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

of the British Supreme Court for China and Japan in 1865 on the founding of the court. Sir Edmund Hornby was appointed the

. The British Supreme Court for China and Japan exercised jurisdiction over British Subjects in China and Japan pursuant to

extraterritorial In international law, extraterritoriality is the state of being exempted from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations. Historically, this primarily applied to individuals, as jurisdiction was usually cl ...

rights granted under treaties with China and Japan. The Court was also an appellate court from British

consular court Consular courts were law courts established by foreign powers in countries where they had extraterritorial rights. They were presided over by consular officers. Extraterritoriality Western powers when establishing diplomatic relations with count ...

s in China and Japan. Goodwin served as assistant judge to Sir Edmund Hornby. Goodwin was based in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

until 1874. In that year he moved to

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

where he was based until early 1877 when he returned to Shanghai. Goodwin became

Acting Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode. Acting involves a broad r ...

in 1876 after Edmund Hornby retired.

Death

Goodwin died in

on 17 January 1878. He was buried in the Shanghai Cemetery in Shanghai. The Shanghai Cemetery was later renamed the Pahsienjao Cemetery (八仙桥公墓). It is now Huaihai Park ( 淮海公園).North China Herald, 24 Jan 1878 pp81-2. This article published a long obituary that concluded: "Non Omnia Terra/Obruta: vivit amor, vivit dolor." Or, in English: “Not everything is buried in the earth. Love lives, grief lives on!”
bust of Goodwin
was placed as part of the memorial to Auguste-Edouard Mariette at

Cairo Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display ...

Works

*Ed. and tr. ''The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Life of St. Guthlac, Hermit of Crowland''. London, 1848. Edition of the Old English adaptation of Felix's Latin ''Life'' of St Guthlac
PDF downloads available from Google Books and Internet Archive
*Ed. and tr. ''Anglo-Saxon Legends of St Andrew and St Veronica''. Cambridge Antiquarian Society. Cambridge, 1851. Editions of Old English prose lives of St Andrew (

Blickling Homily The Blickling Homilies is the name given to a collection of anonymous homilies from Anglo-Saxon England. They are written in Old English, and were written down at some point before the end of the tenth century, making them one of the oldest colle ...

19) and St Veronica ('' Vindicta Salvatoris''). Available from Google Book
here (Harvard scan)
an
here (Oxford scan)

Translation of a Fabulous Tale from an Egyptian Papyrus in the British Library

On Four Songs contained in an Egyptian Papyrus in the British Library

On Some Japanese Legends

Legal works

The Practice of Probate and Administration

The Succession Duty Act