Background
Born at Kimpton, near Weyhill, Hampshire, on 29 April 1743 (Operating system), he was the third son of the Review William Goodenough, rector of Broughton Poggs, Oxfordshire.
Born at Kimpton, near Weyhill, Hampshire, on 29 April 1743 (Operating system), he was the third son of the Review William Goodenough, rector of Broughton Poggs, Oxfordshire.
He is honoured in the scientific names of the plant genus Goodenia and the red-capped robin (Petroica goodenovii). In 1750 the family returned to Broughton, and Samuel was sent to school at Witney, under the Review B. Gutteridge; five years later he was sent to Westminster School, where William Markham was headmaster.
He became king"s scholar, and in 1760 was elected to a studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, took his Bachelor of Arts degree 9 May 1764, and proceeded Master of Arts 25 June 1767 and Doctorate.C.L. 11 July 1772.
In 1766 Goodenough returned to Westminster as under-master for four years, when he left the post for the church, having inherited from his father the advowson of Broughton Poggs, and received from his college the vicarage of Brize-Norton, Oxfordshire. Two years subsequently he established a school at Ealing, and carried it on for 26 years, during which time he had the charge of the sons of many noblemen and gentlemen of position.
Goodenough had a reputation as a classical tutor, but his strongest bent was towards botany, and when the Linnean Society was established in 1787 he was one of the framers of its constitution and treasurer during its first year. He contributed a classical memoir on the genus Carex to the second and third volumes of its ‘Transactions’.
In addition to being one of the vice-presidents of the Linnean, while Sir J. East. Smith being president, he was for some time a vice-president of the Royal Society (of which he became a Fellow in 1789) while Sir Joseph Banks presided, and he also shared in the running of the Society of Antiquaries.
In 1797 he was presented to the vicarage of Cropredy by the Bishop of Oxford, in the following year he was advanced to the canonry of Street George"s Chapel, Windsor, and in 1802 promoted to the deanery of Rochester. In this preferment he was aided by William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, all of whose sons had been his pupils. By the Duke"s favour Goodenough in 1808 was elevated to the episcopal bench as bishop of Carlisle.
Royal Society.