Details of Sculptor

Surname

Woodman

Alternative Surname

First Name

William II

Initial of Surname

W

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1713-c1741

Year of Death

Biographical Details

The son of William Woodman I and his wife Elinor, he carried on the family business after the death of his father c1731. In 1713 he and his father provided the marble pavement for the chancel of St Alkmund, Whitchurch (4), but it was not until many years later that the younger Woodman sent in his account for £46. Writing to Alexander Duncombe in October, 1733, he explained that ‘being under an extream fitt of the Gout, I could not go to render the bill and was forc’d to send one of my Dautrs who this day recd the money’ (Bridgewater Archives, cited by Gunnis 1968, 442).
His father’s monument to Viscount and Viscountess Newhaven, c1728-35, was still in preparation when the elder Woodman died. The female effigy was probably carved by Henry Cheere, no doubt because it was considered beyond the younger Woodman’s competence.
Only two of William II’s monuments have been identified: the Northampton Mercury of 22 January 1733, reporting the will of Christopher Rawlinson of Cartmel, Lancs, said that he desired to be buried at St Alban’s and that he left £200 for a monument ‘to be made by Mr. Woodman a Freemason in Holborn’. The wall monument has a flat obelisk above a sarcophagus and below that is a cornice and consoles enclosing the inscription. A seated mourning woman, carved in the round, sits on the sarcophagus ledge (1). The monument to Daniel Dodson has a pedimented frame enclosing a life-size, cross-legged effigy in toga and sandals, leaning against an urn (3). It was inspired by G-B Guelfi’s monument to James Craggs in Westminster Abbey, 1724-7, which provided a pattern for monuments by a number of other sculptors.
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 442; Whinney 1988, 251-3
Archival References: GPC