William Stanley Goddard (1757-1845) was a Quirister and then Scholar of Winchester College, 1771-76, and Commoner of Merton College, Oxford. He returned to Winchester as Commoner Tutor, 1781-84; Second Master, 1784-93; Headmaster, 1793-1809. In 1814 he was made a prebendary of St Paul’s and in 1829 a canon of Salisbury. He also held the living of Wherwell, near Andover, for a number of years. The Goddard Scholarship was founded in his memory, and the Goddard Society for major donors is named after him.

This portrait is closely related to Ao69, a full-length portrait of Goddard by Lucas, presented to the sitter by his former pupils. The present work, which is either a head study for the larger work or a reduced version of it, remained in the possession of Goddard’s family before being purchased by the College in 1927. It was reproduced as an engraving with mezzotint and published in 1832 with a dedication from Lucas to the ‘To the Wardens, Fellows and Scholars of the two Saint Mary Winton Colleges’.

The label on the frame carries an attribution to Henry Pickersgill, the result of a long-standing confusion over the authorship of the College’s two full-length portraits of Goddard (Ao69 and Ao118).

 

Provenance: William Stanley Goddard (1757-1845), by whom bequeathed to his niece, Miss Martha Gale, by whom bequeathed to Frederick Gale (OW), by whom bequeathed to Miss Claudia E. Gale, from whom purchased by Winchester College in 1927 for £50

Location: School