Joseph Woods

Joseph Woods FLS FGS 24 August 1776-1864 was a Quaker architect, botanist and geologist born in the village of Stoke Newington, a few miles north of the City of London. A Member of the Society of Antiquaries, and an Honorary Member of the Society of British Architects, he was also elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society and a Fellow of the Geological Society in recognition of his original research.

Education

Joseph Wood's early education was at home in Stoke Newington, where his parents Joseph and Margaret Woods taught him Latin, Greek, Modern Greek, Hebrew, Italian and French. Later (at about age 16) he studied architecture under Daniel Asher Alexander.

Abolitionist background

His father (Joseph Woods the elder), was a founding abolitionist; and an uncle on his mother's side (Samuel Hoare the younger) was also a founding abolitionist. Joseph Woods the elder and Samuel Hoare the younger were actually two of the four Quaker founders of the "London Abolition Committee", the predecessor body to the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

Architecture

In 1806 Joseph Woods founded the "London Architectural Society" and became its first President. Prior to this date, the design and building of Clissold House in Stoke Newington is often attributed to him, dating from about 1790, but this seems improbable. In 1816, immediately after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, he was able to travel throughout the continent and visited France, Switzerland, and Italy, studying their architecture and botany. Drawing on part of this experience, his accomplished book, "Letters of an Architect", was published in 1828.

Botany

After about 1835 Joseph Wood's interest in architecture gave way to his other passion, botany. Many years earlier, he had completed a study of the genus "Rosa", which had been published in the "Transactions of the Linnean Society" in 1818 under the title "Synopsis of the British Species of Rosa" and established Woods’ reputation as a systematic botanist. leaving architecure to one side, he was now able to devote himself more fully to botany and his botanical notes, made during his Continental and British travels, were published in the "Companion to the Botanical Magazine" in 1835 and in 1836, and in successive volumes of "The Phytologist" beginning in 1843.

In 1850 he published "The Tourist’s Flora: a descriptive catalogue of the flowering plants and ferns of the British Islands, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and the Italian islands", drawing further on his many field excursions in Europe and the British Isles.

A genus of fern, "Woodsia", is named in his honour.

Family

One of Joseph Woods' uncles (on his mothers side) was Jonathan Hoare, for whom Clissold House (now in Clissold Park, London N16) was designed and built. One of Joseph's aunts (on his mother's side) was Grizell Hoare (nee Birkbeck) who became the third wife of the Quaker pharmacist, philanthropist and abolitionist William Allen.

References