Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Goodman, Arthur Worthington

26 October 1871-8 March 1951

The contributions of Arthur Goodman, Honorary Canon of Winchester Cathedral, should be considered in tandem with those of his wife, Florence, also profiled for CHH. He was born in Chapel-en-le-Frith, in the Derbyshre Peaks, the son of Thomas Devonport and Emily Jane Goodman. He lost his father at the age of 3, but was clearly well cared for as he went on to Manchester Grammar School and Newcastle under Lyme High School, before going up to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1890, where he became a scholar. In his second year he suffered the experience of having a colleague struck dead by lightning whilst crossing Stourbridge Common, near Cambridge. He obtained Firsts in both Classics and Theology, but was not ordained priest until 1903, in which year he and Florence married. After leaving Cambridge in 1895 he had first served as a Classical Lecturer at Rondebosch College, Cape Colony, South Africa, then became a schoolmaster – at Aysgarth Prep School 1896-8 and Sedbergh School 1898-1909. He was rector of St Botolph’s, Cambridge 1910-23, and whilst there wrote a history of the church that went through at least six editions, later with his wife as co-author, and still in print in 1961.

He came to Winchester as Assistant Librarian to Canon F. T. Madge in 1923, then as Co-Librarian after the latter’s retirement two years later and Librarian at his death in 1933. He served until 1948 and was followed by Dr Walter Oakeshott, then headmaster of Winchester College. He had ‘an established reputation as a classical scholar and it was under his direction that the greatest impact…in the twentieth century on the study of the Winchester collection was…made’, according to a fellow historian (Turnbull, 1992).

Very soon after coming to the city in 1923 he published a work on the Manor of Goodbegot and in 1927 another on the cathedral chartulary (or ‘cartulary’). He was not adverse to contributing to popular works, including ‘descriptive notes’ for Gordon Home’s Sketch-book on Winchester, published by A. & C. Black in 1933, and to various editions of Warren’s Guide to Winchester. This was in association with Frank Warren, editor of the Hampshire Observer until his death in 1957. His father, William Thorn Warren, sometime Mayor of Winchester, was the son of Nathaniel Warren, the founder of the business in 1835. Arthur was the founding editor in 1932 of the Winchester Cathedral Record, published by Warren & Son. In 1934 he was involved, with script-writer Charles Thursby, in a pageant play The Marriage of Henry IV & Joan of Navarre, an event in the Cathedral in 1403.His most important work is, however, reckoned to be Registrum Henrici Woodlock, Diocesis Wintoniensis, Bishop Woodlock’s Register, published in 1941. He was a member of the HFC, but his only paper in the Proceedings is a detailed tabulation of the responses of Bishop Horne to questions on the Winchester archdeaconry raised by Archbishop Parker in 1562, four years after the accession of Elizabeth I. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and his and Florence’s research papers are held by HRO, including five volumes of papers published and otherwise, the ‘Goodman Collection’, and the ‘Goodman Notes’ (DC/K6).

He and his wife lived in Dormy Cottage, 49 St Cross Road, Winchester, left to Florence by her father, the Rev. John Hepburne Merriott.

Sources

HRO, DC/F2/14, DC/K6. DC/F5-6.

Barbara Carpenter Turner, Cathedral Historians, Winchester Cathedral Record, 1979, No. 48, 5-

Barbara Turnbull, Scholars of the priory archives, Winchester Cathedral Record, 1992, No. 61,

F. Bussby, Winchester Cathedral, 1079-1979, Southampton, 1979, passim, especially pp. 130, 291, 299, and 290.

F. Bussby, The Cathedral Library II, from the Restoration to the present day, Winchester Cathedral Record, 40, 35-42

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

His work was, of course, mainly aimed at the history of the cathedral, but that ultimately contributed to the histories of the many places held at various times by the church. He was one of the few people of his day capable of translating and interpreting medieval Latin. He and his wife mentored John Drew, the Compton historian, who was ‘encouraged by the enthusiasm of the Goodmans’, and from 1931 carried out extensive work on compotus and court rolls for some of the local manors of St Swithun’s Priory.

Relevant published works

• The Manor of Goodbegot, Winchester, Winchester, 1923.

• The Statutes governing the Cathedral Church of Winchester, given by King Charles I, co-authored with Canon William Holden Hutton, 1925, Oxford, Clarendon Press.

• Chartulary of Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, 1927, Warren & Son.

• The Marriage of Henry IV & Joan of Navarre in the Cathedral Church of S. Swithun, Winchester, Wednesday 7 February, 1403. An historical note. Winchester, [1934], Warren & Son. Note also material in HRO on the pageant play performed in 1934 on the same subject (14 items, including 109A03W/1).

• Registrum Henrici Woodlock, Diocesis Wintoniensis, 2 volumes, 1941 Canterbury and York Society Publications.

• Chase’s Calendar of Muniment, 1623-1650, a transcription, Winchester Cathedral Library, shelfmark 39.B.2.

Critical Comments

Other Comments

He trod in celebrated shoes and was himself a key figure in the gradual transformation of the library and archives of Winchester Cathedral into a convenient resource for scholars, with an ongoing publication, the Winchester Cathedral Record, now online, and extended by Record Extra.

Contributor

Barry Shurlock, 1 September, 2023.

Key Words

Winchester cathedral, Drew, Florence Remington Goodman, Henry Woodlock

Any queries or further suggestions for this part of the list should be addressed to celebrating@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

Back to Historians G-H from Gallup, Peter to Hudson, William Henry