James Woodforde (27 June 1740 – 1 January 1803) was an English clergyman, mainly in Somerset and Norfolk, remembered as the author of The Diary of a Country Parson.

He appears to have been a competent but uninspired student, and the portrait he provides of Oxford during his two periods of residence as scholar and fellow (1758–1763 and 1773–1776) only confirm Edward Gibbon's famously damning opinion that it was a place where the dons' "dull and deep potations excuse the brisk intemperance of youth".

[7] This period of his life, under-represented in Beresford's abridged edition of the Diary, is thickly peopled with memorable characters from all strata of society, many of them immortalised with nicknames – Peter 'Cherry Ripe' Coles, 'Mumper' Clarke, 'Riddle' Tucker.

The extended Woodforde family, including James's frequently drunken brothers, figure prominently in these Somerset years.

He was unsuccessful in his application to become headmaster of Bedford School, but in 1773, he was presented to the living of Weston Longville in Norfolk, one of the best in the gift of the college, being worth £400 a year.

[10] In Norfolk, his social life was more limited, but he enjoyed the fellowship of the local clergy who took it in turns to entertain one another to dinner – "our Rotation Club".

The diary provides a wonderfully full account of the small community in which the diarist lived – of the births and deaths, comings and goings, illnesses and annual celebrations.

The diary not only covers "the Squire and his Relations", but also the rector's servants, the farmers and labourers, carpenter and innkeeper, parish clerk and many others.

As a churchman, Woodforde himself was conscientious by the standards of his time, charitable and pious without being sanctimonious and again typical of his day, deeply suspicious of enthusiasm.

The value of the diary to the historian lies in the wealth of primary source material it provides, while the general reader can bring from it the authentic flavour of 18th-century English country life.

His niece Nancy, and his nephew Bill's three daughters all kept diaries, as did a number of his predecessors, for instance his great-great-grandfather Robert Woodford of Northampton (1606–1654).