Henry Sampson Woodfall (21 June 173912 December 1805) was an English printer and journalist. He was born and lived in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Biography

Woodfall's grandfather Henry Woodfall (c. 1686–1747), was the author of the ballad '' Darby and Joan'', for which John Darby and his wife were the originals: the elder Woodfall had been apprenticed in 1701 to Darby, a printer in Bartholomew Close in the Little Britain area of London, who died in 1730. Woodfall's grandfather printed many of the works of

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early ...

. Woodfall's uncle George was a bookseller in

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has been the notional "centre of London" and became the point from which distances from London are measured. ...

. His father, Henry Woodfall (1713–1769), was the printer of the newspaper the ''

Public Advertiser The ''Public Advertiser'' was a London newspaper in the 18th century. The ''Public Advertiser'' was originally known as the ''London Daily Post and General Advertiser'', then simply the ''General Advertiser'' consisting more or less exclusively o ...

'', and Woodfall was apprenticed to his father. At the age of nineteen, Woodfall took over the control of the newspaper. In it appeared, between 21 January 1769 and 21 January 1772, the famous letters of Junius. In December 1769 Woodfall published a "Letter to the King" by Junius that brought legal charges against Woodfall and five others for

seditious libel Seditious libel is a criminal offence under common law of printing written material with seditious purposethat is, the purpose of bringing contempt upon a political authority. It remains an offence in Canada but has been abolished in England and ...

; Woodfall's case went before a jury in June 1770 but a verdict of

mistrial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, ...

was handed down by

Lord Mansfield William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, (2 March 1705 – 20 March 1793), was a British judge, politician, lawyer, and peer best known for his reforms to English law. Born in Scone Palace, Perthshire, to a family of Peerage of Scotland, Scott ...

in November 1770. Woodfall sold his interest in the ''Public Advertiser'' in 1793. His son George Woodfall (1767–1844) was also in the family printing business. Woodfall's younger brother, William Woodfall (1746–1803), a journalist, established in 1789 a daily paper called the ''Diary, or Woodfall's Register'', in which, for the first time, reports of

parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

debates were published on the morning after they had taken place. William Woodfall's nickname was "Memory" Woodfall based on his ability to memorize Parliamentary speeches at a time when journalists were not allowed to take notes or write down speeches while they were being delivered.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodfall, Henry Sampson English printers English male journalists 1739 births 1805 deaths Writers from London