The Reverend Joseph Woolley MA LLD FRAS (1817-1889) was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a founding member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. He was also the first Principal of the School of Mathematics and Naval Construction, Portsmouth. He was related to the 20th-century astronomer Richard van der Riet Woolley (Joseph Woolley was the brother of Benjamin Woolley, Richard van der Riet Woolley's paternal grandfather).
Woolley was educated at Brompton Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge. He graduated BA as 3rd Wrangler in 1840, became a Fellow and Lecturer at St John's College, and was Rede Lecturer in 1844.[1]