Maxwell Woosnam (priest)

The Ven. Charles Maxwell Woosnam MA (6 August 1856 – 7 May 1930)[1] was Archdeacon of Macclesfield from 1893 to 1904.

Woosnam was born in Bombay, the second son of Royal Horse Artillery Maj.-Gen. James Bowen Woosnam (1812 – 1877), of Bicknor Court, Coleford, Gloucestershire, and his wife Agnes, daughter of William Bell, of Bellbrook, Queen's County. His parents were both of landed gentry families; the Woosnam family were of Cefnllysgwynne, Brecknockshire, Wales, originally of Montgomeryshire, and the Bell family of Pendell Court, Bletchingley, Surrey.[2]

Woosnam was educated at Repton and Trinity College, Cambridge.[3] He was ordained in 1880 and his first post was that of Chaplain to the Tyne Mission to Seamen. He was Vicar of St Peter's, Tynemouth from 1881 [4] to 1888; then Rector of Kirby Wiske[5] for a further two years.[6] In 1890 he became Chaplain of the Mersey Mission to Seamen [7] before his years as an Archdeacon. In 1905 he became Vicar of St Margaret's, Dunham Massey; and his final appointment was as Rector of Aberhafesp,[8] a post he resigned in 1923.

In 1886, Woosnam married Mary Seeley, daughter of Hilton Philipson.[9] Their son, also Maxwell Woosnam, was a well-known sportsman.[10]

Notes

1. The Times (London, England), Saturday, 10 May 1930; pg. 15; Issue 45509 Deaths
2. Burke's Landed Gentry 17th edition, ed. L. G. Pine, 1952, p. 2790
3. "Who was Who" 1897-1990 London, A & C Black, 1991 ISBN 0-7136-3457-X
4. NORTH COUNTRY NEWS Northern Echo (Darlington, England), Saturday, 12 November 1881; Issue 3669 to 1888
5. New Vicar of Kirby Wiske Leeds Mercury (Leeds, England), Thursday, 17 May 1888; Issue 15635
6. Genuki
7. ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE Hampshire Advertiser (Southampton, England), Saturday, 10 May 1890; Issue 4582. 19th Century British Library Newspapers: Part II
8. Geograph
9. Burke's Landed Gentry 17th edition, ed. L. G. Pine, 1952, p. 2790
10. Obituary Mr. Max Woosnam The Times (London, England), Friday, 16 Jul 1965; pg. 18; Issue 56375