William Huddesford

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Use British English|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = William Huddesford | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 15 August 1732 (baptised) | birth_place = [[Oxford]], England | death_date = 6 October 1772 (aged 40) | death_place = Oxford, England | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | other_names = | known_for = [[Ashmolean Museum]] | education = | employer = | occupation = Cleric | title = | height = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | boards = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = [[George Huddesford (academic)|George Huddesford Sr.]] (father)<br/>[[George Huddesford|George Huddesford Jr.]] (brother) | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}

'''William Huddesford''' (1732–1772) was [[curator]] of the [[Ashmolean Museum]] from 1755 to 1772. Huddesford is credited with reinventing the museum's reputation.<ref name="mac">{{cite journal|last=Macgregor|first=Arthur|date=April 2007|title=William Huddesford (1732–1772): his role in reanimating the Ashmolean Museum, his collections, researches and support network|journal=Archives of Natural History |volume=34|pages=47–68|doi=10.3366/anh.2007.34.1.47|issn=0260-9541}}</ref>

==Early life and education== Huddesford was baptised at [[St Mary Magdalen's Church, Oxford]], on 15 August 1732. His father, [[George Huddesford (academic)|George Huddesford]], was the [[President (college)|president]] of [[Trinity College, Oxford]]. His younger brother, also [[George Huddesford]], was a painter and satirical poet. William attended [[John Roysse]]'s [[Free school (England)|Free School]] in [[Abingdon-on-Thames]] (now [[Abingdon School]]) from 1743 to 1749. After Abingdon he was elected a scholar at [[Trinity College, Oxford|Trinity College]] in 1750, completing a BA (1753), MA (1756) and earned his [[Bachelor of Divinity|B.D.]] in 1757.<ref name="dnb">{{DNB Cite|wstitle=Huddesford, William}}</ref><ref name="mac"/>

==Career== In 1755, Huddesford took over from his father as keeper of the [[Ashmolean Museum]] at Oxford.<ref name="hudd">M. St John Parker, ‘[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14025 Huddesford, William (bap. 1732, d. 1772)]’, ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', [[Oxford University Press]], September 2004; online edition, January 2008, accessed 16 February 2010. {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/14025}}.</ref> Huddesford improved the museum's reputation.<ref name="mac" /> His scholarship and his ability to take advice are cited as reasons for his success. Huddesford cleared out many of the collections to ensure that all the exhibits were essential. Amongst the discarded items were two [[dodo]]s. These ended up at the University Museum and they inspired [[Lewis Carroll]] to include a dodo in the opening chapters of ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]''.<ref name="mac"/>

Huddesford had been ordained in 1758 and served as curate at [[Garsington]] before he was made the [[vicar]] of [[Bishops Tachbrook|Bishop's Tachbrook]] in [[Warwickshire]] in 1761. He was [[proctor]] of [[Oxford University]] in 1765.

He did not enjoy the best of health, suffering illness as early as 1761. He died unexpectedly at [[Oxford]] on 6 October 1772, aged just 40.

==Works== # ''Edvardi Luidii … lithophylacii Britannici ichnographia,'' Oxford, 1760, a new edition of the treatise of [[Edward Lhuyd]], whose fossils were under his charge at the Ashmolean. It contained the author's discourse on the sea shells of the British ocean. # ''Martini Lister, M.D., Historiæ, sive Synopsis Methodicæ Conchyliorum et Tabularum Anatomicarum editio altera,'' Oxford, 1760.<ref name="dnb"/> # ''Catalogus librorum Manuscriptorum [[Anthony a Wood|Antonii à Wood]],'' 1761, via [[Sir Thomas Phillipps]] at the Middlehill Press in 1824. # ''An Address to the Freemen and other Inhabitants of the City of Oxford,'' 1764.

==See also== * [[List of Old Abingdonians]]

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huddesford, William}} [[Category:1732 births]] [[Category:1772 deaths]] [[Category:People from Oxford]] [[Category:People educated at Abingdon School]] [[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford]] [[Category:English writers]] [[Category:Keepers and directors of the Ashmolean Museum]] [[Category:English curators]] [[Category:18th-century Church of England clergy]] [[Category:18th-century English Anglican priests]]