Nathaniel Woodard (; 21 March 1811 – 25 April 1891) was a priest in the Church of England. He founded 11 schools for the middle classes in England whose aim was to provide education based on "sound principle and sound knowledge, firmly grounded in the Christian faith". His educational principles are promoted today through the Woodard Corporation, a registered charity. Early life Woodard was born at Basildon Hall in Essex (now known as Barstable Hall) the son of John Woodard, a country gentleman of limited means. He was brought up and educated privately by his mother Mary née Silley, a pious and devout woman. In 1834 he entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford (now Hertford College, Oxford), where his academic studies were interrupted by his marriage in 1836 to Harriet Brill, although he took a pass degree in 1840. As a result of the influence of his mother, Woodard's religious sympathies were Evangelical when he first became a student at Oxford, but, whilst he was there, he soon found himself strongly drawn to the growing Tractarian Movement and, as a result, developed Anglo-Catholic sympathies that he kept for the remainder of his life. Career He was ordained in 1841 and obtained a curacy at St Bartholomew's, Bethnal Green. Here he started a church school for the children of deprived parishioners. As a result of a controversial sermon - in which he argued that The Book of Common Prayer should include separate provision for confession and absolution - he was moved to another curacy at St. James the Greater, Clapton. In 1846, obtaining a curacy at St Mary de Haura Church in New Shoreham, he was again struck by the poverty, and the lack of education amongst his middle class parishioners—many of whom were less well educated than many of their employees who had been educated in the parochial school. He opened a day school in his vicarage, and in 1848 he started St Nicolas' School, which took boarders. This was merged in 1849 to form the College of St Mary and St Nicolas, which eventually formed the present day Lancing College. It was from these beginnings that he started to work full-time on promoting educational projects, resigning from his curacy in 1850. Woodard was supported in these endeavours by Edward Clarke Lowe, headmaster and director of many of the schools, who prevailed upon him in 1874 to provide for the education of