This small collection was deposited in 1982 as accession 2019. It concerns the Woodward family, three generations of whom were shoemakers in Oxford during the 19th century. The members of the family referred to in these documents are: Samuel Woodward (1806-1869); his eldest son by his second marriage, Harry Samuel Woodward (1855-1918); Harry Samuel Woodward's wife, Louisa Ruth Taylor and their son Ernest Charles Woodward (born 1881).
Samuel Woodward, whose father Thomas was also a shoemaker, had a business in New Inn Hall Street from the mid 1840s and moved to Turl Street between 1855 and 1857. Harry Samuel Woodward continued the business at Turl Street, although the family seem to have moved to Cambridge Street in the parish of Oxford Holy Trinity in the 1870s. His business last appears in 'Kelly's Directory for Oxfordshire' in 1899. In 'Kelly's Directory for Oxfordshire' for 1907 a Mrs Louisa Woodward of Speedwell Street, St Aldate's, is entered as a dressmaker.
The family tree at the end of this catalogue shows the members of the families of Samuel and Harry Samuel Woodward. The main sources used were the parish register transcripts for the parishes of Oxford All Saints, Oxford St Peter le Bailey, Oxford St Peter in them East and Oxford Holy Trinity, and documents F125/R/1-2 in this collection.
Catalogued by Elizabeth A. Finn, October 1995.