'Old' Woodward is first mentioned in a letter of 15 March 1789 from Nugent Buckingham to William Wyndham Grenville (HMC Fortescue 1, 433). He worked for Joseph Parrot. Woodward retired to the George Inn at Aylesbury in 1815:

In consequence of my Father’s leaving Stowe and y^r Lordships wishing him to live at the George—I am once more oblig’d to trouble you—as my Fathers coming here distreƒses me & my Wife for a Home—as we could not think of all living here together. […] Begging yr Lordship if you have no disposed of the Coffee Room part of the House, to let that part to us—as we may try to get a living their by selling Fish […] (HEH STG Correspondence Box 377 (39); Extract of letter from J Woodward at the George Inn at Aylesbury to Richard Temple. Author gives date of 17 November; Huntington Library dates it as c. 1815)