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]