Satirical print of 1821 showing Caroline of Brunswick on an ass at the centre, and John Page Wood to her left, mounted and holding her hand, in a jester's costume[1]

The Rev. Sir John Page Wood, 2nd Baronet (1796–1866) was an English cleric, magistrate and radical Whig, closely associated with the return in 1820 to the United Kingdom of Queen Caroline of Brunswick, and her private secretary at that period.

Life

He was the eldest son of Matthew Wood, a London merchant, Lord Mayor of London, and radical Whig Member of Parliament, and his wife Maria Page, daughter of the surgeon John Page of Woodbridge, Suffolk, born 25 August at Woodbridge.[2] He had two younger brothers, William Wood who was Lord Chancellor in the first Gladstone administration, and Western Wood who took a major share in the family business when their father retired in 1842, and sat in parliament as a Liberal;[3] with another brother Henry Wright who died young, and two sisters, Maria Elizabeth who married the barrister Edwin Maddy, and Catherine who married the banker Charles Stephens.[4]

John Wood was sent as a boarder to the school run in Bow, London by James Lindsay DD (1753–1821), a Scottish Presbyterian minister of Unitarian views.[5][6] He then attended Winchester College from about 1810.[7]

Cambridge and Queen Caroline

John Wood matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1815.[2] In 1820, while he was still an undergraduate, his father and his brother William began a diplomatic intrigue to bring Queen Caroline, at this point in Italy, back to the United Kingdom.[3] William, expelled from Winchester College in 1818 after a protest against corporal punishment, was at this point in Geneva, in the care of Antoine Duvillard who lectured at the Auditoire de Calvin.[8] He made an attempt to meet Caroline at Parma in 1819.[9] Speaking Italian, he later went to Italy to interpret for supporters of Caroline.[10] John Wood was married in February 1820.[2] He was drawn into the negotiations. His father was in correspondence with Caroline from the middle of April 1820. It was John who met her, in Geneva.[11]

William Wood was back in England in time to be admitted at Trinity College, Cambridge on 14 June 1820; nine days after Queen Caroline disembarked at Dover.[10][12] John Wood took on the position of private secretary to the Queen, perhaps agreed as early as 1819.[13] An onerous part of the duties would have been composing replies to addresses sent to the Queen by supporters. The work, however, may have been shared with Robert Fellowes.[14]

John Wood graduated LL.B. at Cambridge in 1821; and was ordained deacon in the Church of England in June 1821 by Henry Bathurst, the reputed "only liberal bishop" in the House of Lords. He acted as chaplain to Queen Caroline, at the end of her life.[2][15][16]

At Queen Caroline's deathbed on 7 August 1821, John Wood and his father were among those recorded as attending.[17] At her funeral in London on 14 August, John Wood as her chaplain was in one of the main mourning coaches.[18] On 15 August 1821, the Queen's coffin was taken to Harwich, and put on board HMS Glasgow. It arrived at Stade on 20 August, and ultimately was placed in a vault in Brunswick Cathedral.[19] Supporters had managed while the coffin was at sea to place on it the inscription "Caroline, the injured Queen of England".[20] Accompanying it was John Wood.[20]

Later life

Wood was ordained priest in February 1822, again by Henry Bathurst, on the same day being appointed a curate at St Margaret's Church, King's Lynn. Later that year he moved as a curate to Bircham Newton in Norfolk.[15] In 1824 he was rector, given the London living of St Peter upon Cornhill, where the patron was the City of London Corporation.[21]

In 1833, Wood became also vicar of Cressing in Essex.[22] The parish was then in the Diocese of London. The patron was the vicar of Witham, but the post was vacant at the time since the incumbent at Witham from 1830 to 1840 was a curate, William Manbey.[21][23][24]

Once installed at Cressing, Wood settled at Rivenhall Place near Witham. He involved himself in local politics as a Whig and Liberal supporter and in the poor law administration at Braintree. He also joined the bench of magistrates, and succeeded in bringing the notorious Coggeshall Gang to justice in the 1840s, a task shirked by others.[3] He succeeded his father as 2nd Baronet in 1843.[2] In 1865 he chaired the election committee that succeeded in winning a place in parliament for Sir Thomas Western, 1st Baronet at the Northern Division of Essex.[25]

Death

Wood died on 21 February 1866, leaving a widow, three sons and four daughters.[26]

Works

Wood published:

Henry Christmas addressed to him Capital Punishments Unsanctioned by the Gospel and Unnecessary in a Christian State (1845), as a magistrate and priest.[33]

Family

Wood married Emma Michell, daughter of Sampson Michell, on 16 February 1820.[2] They had 13 children, of whom a number died young. The youngest, Katie (Katharine O'Shea), was born in 1846, at which time the family consisted of eight children.[34]

  • The eldest surviving son Frederick died in 1851.[35]

As a widow, Lady Wood became a novelist, writing sometimes as C. Sylvester. John Sutherland considers that one of her novels, Ruling the Roast (1874), may contain some autobiographical material in the marriage of the heroine to the clerical son of an earl.[36]

Of the sons who survived their father:

Of the daughters:

Notes

  1. ↑ "Object: Grand entrance to bamboozl'em, British Museum". www.britishmuseum.org.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Wood, John Page (WT814JP)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. 1 2 3 4 McConnell, Anita. "Wood, Sir Matthew, first baronet (1768–1843)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29889. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ↑ Wood, William Page (1883). A Memoir of the Right Hon. William Page Wood, Baron Hatherley: With Selections from His Correspondence. Vol. I. R. Bentley & son. pp. 1–2.
  5. ↑ Wood, William Page (1883). A Memoir of the Right Hon. William Page Wood, Baron Hatherley: With Selections from His Correspondence. Vol. I. R. Bentley & son. p. 6.
  6. ↑ The Monthly Magazine. R. Phillips. 1821. pp. 238–240.
  7. ↑ Wood, William Page (1883). A Memoir of the Right Hon. William Page Wood, Baron Hatherley: With Selections from His Correspondence. Vol. I. R. Bentley & son. p. 6.
  8. ↑ Agnew, Sinéad. "Wood, William Page, Baron Hatherley (1801–1881)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29901. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  9. ↑ Fraser, Flora (1996). The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline. Macmillan. p. 353. ISBN 978-0-333-57294-8.
  10. 1 2 "Wood, William Page (WT820WP)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  11. ↑ "Wood, Matthew (1768-1843), of 77 South Audley Street and Little Strawberry Hill, Mdx., History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
  12. ↑ Fraser, Flora (1996). The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-57294-8.
  13. ↑ Cobbett, William (1998). Collected Social and Political Writings of William Cobbett: Rural rides and social commentary, 1821-34. Routledge/Thoemmes Press. p. 1049. ISBN 978-0-415-16872-4.
  14. ↑ Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1889). "Fellowes, Robert" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 18. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  15. 1 2 "Wood, John Page (1821–1833) (CCEd Person ID 116310)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  16. ↑ "Bathurst, Henry (1744-1837)" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  17. ↑ Lady Charlotte Campbell Bury (1838). The Murdered Queen! Or, Caroline of Brunswick: A Diary of the Court of George IV. Emans. p. 662.
  18. ↑ Fraser, Flora (1996). The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline. Macmillan. p. 463. ISBN 978-0-333-57294-8.
  19. ↑ Fraser, Flora (1996). The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline. Macmillan. pp. 464–465. ISBN 978-0-333-57294-8.
  20. 1 2 Smith, E. A. "Caroline [Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel] (1768–1821)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4722. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  21. 1 2 Edinburgh, Peter Bell (1865). Crockford's Clerical Directory for 1865: Being a Biographical and Statistical Book of Reference for Facts Relating to the Clergy and the Church. Horace Cox. p. 695. ISBN 978-1-871538-21-2.
  22. ↑ Foster, Joseph (1890). Index Ecclesiasticus: Or, Alphabetical Lists of All Ecclesiastical Dignitaries in England and Wales Since the Reformation. Parker & Company. p. 196.
  23. ↑ "Manbey, William (1830–1831) (CCEd Person ID 120287)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  24. ↑ "Presentation of Plate to the Rev. William Manbey". Chelmsford Chronicle. 9 October 1840. p. 2.
  25. ↑ "North Essex Election". Essex Weekly News. 26 May 1865. p. 2.
  26. ↑ "Wills and Bequests". Beverley and East Riding Recorder. 28 July 1866. p. 2.
  27. ↑ Wood, Sir John Page (1824). A Sermon preached in the Parish Church of St. Peter's, Cornhill ... November 7, 1824. Samuel Burton.
  28. ↑ "n/a". Bury and Norwich Post. 13 August 1823. p. 2.
  29. ↑ Wood, John Page, ed. (1831). Funeral Sermons. J. F. Dove.
  30. ↑ Bertie, David (1 January 2000). Scottish Episcopal Clergy, 1689-2000. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-567-08746-1.
  31. ↑ Wood, Sir John Page (1833). Twelve Plain Sermons Preached in a Village Church.
  32. ↑ Wood, John Page (1844). Inaugural Address Delivered by John Page Wood, Bart. at the Opening of the Witham Literary Institution ... 4th November, 1844.
  33. ↑ Christmas, Henry (1845). Capital Punishments Unsanctioned by the Gospel and Unnecessary in a Christian State. A Letter to Sir J. P. Wood. p. 3.
  34. ↑ Kehoe, Elisabeth (2008). Ireland's Misfortune: The Turbulent Life of Kitty O'Shea. Atlantic Books. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-1-84354-486-9.
  35. ↑ "n/a". Chelmsford Chronicle. 7 November 1851. p. 3.
  36. ↑ Sutherland, John (1989). The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press. p. 678. ISBN 978-0-8047-1842-4.
  37. ↑ "Wood, Francis (WT853F)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  38. ↑ Marlborough College (1880). Marlborough College Register: From 1843 to 1879 Inclusive. With Alphabetical Index. R. Clay, sons, and Taylor. p. 43.
  39. ↑ Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed & Official Classes. Kelly and Company. 1882. p. 904.
  40. ↑ Beckett, Ian F. W. "Wood, Sir (Henry) Evelyn (1838–1919)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37000. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  41. 1 2 3 4 Burke, John Bernard (1854). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. for H. Colburn : by Hurst and Blackett. p. 1081.
  42. ↑ "Lennard, Sir Thomas Barrett-". Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  43. ↑ Lodge, Edmund (1860). The Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire as at Present Existing. Hurst and Blackett. p. 6.
  44. ↑ Kehoe, Elisabeth (2008). Ireland's Misfortune: The Turbulent Life of Kitty O'Shea. Atlantic Books. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-84354-486-9.
  45. ↑ "Author: Anna Caroline Steele". www.victorianresearch.org.
  46. ↑ Reilly, Catherine (2000-01-01). Mid-Victorian Poetry, 1860–1879. A&C Black. p. 436. ISBN 9780720123180. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  47. ↑ Kehoe, Elisabeth (2008). Ireland's Misfortune: The Turbulent Life of Kitty O'Shea. Atlantic Books. pp. 25 and 37. ISBN 978-1-84354-486-9.
  48. ↑ Bew, Paul. "Parnell, Charles Stewart (1846–1891)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21384. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
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