corporated M.A. at Oxford on 28 May 1856. In 1840 he was elected a fellow and tutor of St. John's College. Among his pupils was the astronomer, John Couch Adams.
In 1846 Woolley married, relinquished his fellowship, and was ordained a curate in Norfolk. In the following year he was presented to the rectory of Crostwight in the same county by Edward Stanley (1779–1849) [q. v.], bishop of Norwich. In 1848 he was appointed principal of the school of naval construction, newly founded by the admiralty, at Portsmouth dockyard, retaining this post till the abolition of the school in 1853. During this period he had under his tuition many well-known naval architects, including Sir Edward James Reed and Sir Nathaniel Barnaby.
Woolley's mathematical attainments and the interest which he took in applying his scientific knowledge to the solution of problems connected with ship design and construction enabled him to render valuable services to the science of naval architecture. While in the position of principal of the school of naval construction he devoted his attention to advancing technical knowledge. In 1850 he published ‘The Elements of Descriptive Geometry’ (London, 8vo), which he intended as an introductory treatise on the application of descriptive geometry to shipbuilding. The second volume, however, though almost ready for press, never appeared owing to the abolition of the Portsmouth naval school. On quitting his post at Portsmouth Woolley was appointed admiralty inspector of schools, and in 1858 he was nominated a government inspector of schools.
In 1860 Woolley had a large share in founding the Institution of Naval Architects, and he afterwards assisted to carry on the institution. One of the earliest efforts of the new society was directed to influence government to re-establish a technical school for naval construction. In 1864 the Royal School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering was founded, and Woolley was appointed inspector-general and director of studies. This post he held until the school was merged in the Royal Naval College at Greenwich in 1873. Shortly after the loss of the Captain in 1870 he was nominated a member of Lord Dufferin's committee which was appointed to consider many doubtful points concerning the design of ships of war. In 1874 and 1875 he was associated with (Sir) E. J. Reed as editor of ‘Naval Science,’ a quarterly magazine for promoting improvements in naval architecture and steam navigation. Woolley remained a clergyman until 1865, when he took advantage of the clergy relief bill to divest himself of his orders. He died on 24 March 1889 at Sevenoaks in Kent. In 1846 he married Ann, daughter of Robert Hicks of Afton in the Isle of Wight. Five papers by Woolley on naval architecture are printed in the ‘Transactions’ of the Institution of Naval Architects.
[Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, vol. i. pp. xv–xx, vol. xxx. pp. 463–465; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Times, 26 March 1889.]
WOOLMAN, JOHN (1720–1772), quaker essayist, son of Samuel Woolman, a quaker farmer of Northampton, Burlington county, West Jersey, was born there in August 1720. He was a baker by trade, when, about the age of twenty-three, he began a lifelong testimony against slavery. He learned tailoring in order to support himself simply, became a travelling preacher in the states, and journeyed on foot handing payment to the wealthy host, or to the slaves themselves, rather than accept hospitality from slave-owners (Brissot, Nouveau Voyage, Paris, 1791, ii. 9). To his exertions, joined with those of the eccentric Benjamin Lay [q. v.], may be traced the abandonment of slave traffic by members of the yearly meetings of New England, New York, and Philadelphia during the years following 1760. In 1772 he embarked for England, and on landing at London on 8 June he proceeded straight to the yearly meeting of ministers and elders. His peculiar dress (he wore undyed homespun) created at first an unfavourable impression on the more conventional English quakers; but as soon as they knew him better he won their friendship, and passed on to work in the English counties. He reached York at the end of September 1772, and almost immediately sickened of smallpox. After little more than a week's illness, he died there in the house of Thomas Priestman on 7 Oct. 1772. He was buried on the 9th in the Friends' burial-ground, York. He had been thirty years a recorded minister. By his wife Sarah Ellis, whom he married in 1749, Woolman left a son John and other children.
Woolman's ‘Journal,’ his most memorable work, reflects the man. Its pure and simple diction is not its greatest charm. It is free from sectarianism, and there is a transparent guilelessness in the writer's recital of his experiences in the realm of the unseen. It has appealed to a large circle of divergent minds. John Stuart Mill was attracted by the ‘Journal;’ Charles Lamb says ‘Get the
