Home — James Woodforde (1740–1803)

The Revd James Woodforde, by his nephew Samuel Woodforde, RA [reproduced courtesy Weston PCC; photo Kiffy Stainer-Hutchins 2022]This website introduces a figure from the eighteenth century who shunned the limelight. Despite his retiring lifestyle as a Church of England parish priest deep in the English countryside the Revd James Woodforde became famous nationally and internationally when his diary began to be published 121 years after his death in 1803.

This unassuming West Country parson eventually settled in rural Norfolk, on the east coast of England. He recorded the details of life in his circle and events further afield for more than 43 years.

The Parson Woodforde Society

The Society was founded in 1968 by the Revd Canon Leslie Rule Wilson (1909–91). It may be said to have two main aims:

• to extend and develop knowledge of James Woodforde's life and the society in which he lived;
• to provide an opportunity for fellow enthusiasts to meet together from time to time in places associated with the diarist, and to exchange news and views.

The Society has produced a range of publications available for purchase.

To mark the centenary of Woodforde's first coming to public notice in 1924 the Society has uploaded the full text of his diary with editorial notes and indexes. These 5000 pages of transcription, in seventeen volumes, are available for view and download by members.

Membership options

Standard membership includes the print versions of the Journal and the Newsletter sent by post three times a year.
Alternatively, Digital membership is available at a reduced subscription rate.
Details are on the Membership page.

The Society's Journal: a resource available to all The 50th-Anniversary Journal was published in 2018 and is available for download

James Woodforde's writings hold great appeal for the general reader as well as social historians. In 2023 the Society scanned all the editions of its Journal from the first issue in 1968. This long series of historical and literary studies is now available to read and to download as pdf files from the Journal page. Those Journals published in the most recent five-year period are accessible only to paid-up members of the Society.

Who was James Woodforde?

James Woodforde started to write his diary while an undergraduate at Oxford University. He wrote his first entry on 21 July 1759:

He was born at Ansford, a village in Somerset in the west of England. His father, the Revd Samuel Woodforde, was the Church of England rector of Ansford and vicar of the adjoining parish of Castle Cary.

James Woodforde later resided for nearly 27 years in the one parish in central Norfolk as rector of Weston. But he never lost his affection for Somerset, returning to visit his family there roughly every three years until he became too frail to undertake the journey.

A lifelong career in the Church

Woodforde followed his father's calling. His diary entry for 29 May 1763 records,An exquisite miniature, only 45 mm by 50 mm, of the diarist's great-grandfather the Revd Dr Samuel Woodforde, FRS (1636–1701): the first in the family to go to Oxford and be ordained [by Samuel Cooper (d.1672): Woodforde Family Collection]

Three days later he noted,

The life of an eighteenth-century undergraduate might appear familiar in some respects 250 years later:

He became an MA in 1767 and BD (Bachelor of Divinity) in 1775. After taking his first degree and Minor Orders in the Church Woodforde left Oxford and spent the next few years as a curate in Somerset. A year after becoming a deacon he was ordained priest at Wells in the Bishop's Palace beside the Cathedral:

Following his father's death, and disappointed in his hopes of appointment to one of the paternal livings, he returned to Oxford where he was made a sub-warden of New College.

On 15 December 1774 the Fellows of New College voted in favour of Woodforde's appointment to one of the livings in the gift of the college. Weston, known today as Weston Longville, was one of the wealthiest in the county of Norfolk.

Woodforde's parish church: All Saints', Weston Longville, Norfolk, from the south-east [photo Margaret Bird 2011]He was also very fortunate to have a parsonage house at his disposal at a time when many had fallen into disrepair and were uninhabitable. He went into residence at the Weston rectory in April 1776 and served the parish faithfully until his health failed. Apart from his journeys to Somerset he remained at Weston until his death on New Year's Day 1803.

There is more about James Woodforde, his family and the value of his manuscript as a historical source on the Diary page. You can view a series of objects associated with his life as links from the Features page.

The benefits of membership of the Society

The Parson Woodforde Society offers members:

• The Parson Woodforde Society Journal; this includes articles, literary and historical, about Woodforde and his extended circle. Print copies are sent by post and online versions are uploaded three times a year.
• The Society's Newsletter is issued three times a year. It is posted with the Journal, and is also available online in the Members' area for paid-up members.
• Full access to the Society's complete transcription of Woodforde's diary, in seventeen volumes, available for download from the Members' area.
• An annual 'Frolic' or expedition usually lasting three days. Recent frolics (the term used by the diarist for an entertainment) have been held at Oxford in 2019 and 2024; Wincanton, Somerset in 2021; Norwich in 2022; and Lowestoft, Suffolk in 2023. Members can read news of individual frolics in the Members' area.

'Frolickers' about to board a tour boat at Oulton Broad, Suffolk in September 2023 [photo Margaret Bird 2023]

Membership of the Parson Woodforde Society is open to all those aged eighteen years and over, and upon payment of the subscription then in force. The Membership page gives information about joining the Society.

The Society is a Registered Charity (no. 1010807), and is affiliated to the Alliance of Literary Societies.