An artist's rendition of Dr. Henry Woodward
located in the Parris Island Marine Recruit Depot Military Museum, SC.

Not much is known about Henry Woodward's early life. He is thought to have been born in Barbados in 1646 and his ancestry may have been Scottish.

In 1666, Henry Woodward accompanied Captain Robert Sandford's exploration of the South Carolina coast. There he volunteered to remain in the Port Royal Sound vicinity and live among the Cusabo Indians, to establish relations and learn their language. For this he was granted, temporarily, "formal possession of the whole Country to hold as Tennant att Will" by the Lords Proprietors.

Captured by the Spanish in 1667, he escaped in 1668 after the English raided St. Augustine. For about two years Woodward served as a surgeon on privateer vessels in the Caribbean and later took passage on the Carolina fleet of 1669-1670, which would establish Charles Towne, SC.

He became an interpreter for the fledgling colony, advising the leaders of the first English settlement as the chief liaison between the white settlers and the Indians. Starting in 1670, Woodward began taking a series of expeditions into the interior, making contact with various Indian groups. While a few Spanish expeditions had explored the interior of the American southeast in the sixteenth century, he was the first English colonist to do so.

Dr. Henry Woodward was the first Englishman to live on our shores of South Carolina for any length of time. One of his most important contributions was his introduction of the first seeds of rice from Madagascar to the low country. Rice became a major contributing factor to the economy of Charles Towne and coastal South Carolina for years to come. He died in 1690. Without Dr. Woodward's language and diplomatic skills, the fledgling colony of Carolina might not have survived.