The brothers behind the name
Frank Woodward identified the collaboration in the introduction to his later book, Francis Bacon’s Cipher Signatures (1923). He recalled that he and his brother had published Secret Shakespearean Seals together in 1916. He also distinguished their approaches: Parker pursued the lives and writings of Elizabethan authors, while Frank concentrated on numerical signatures.
Parker Woodward, who lived from 1854 to 1931, was a solicitor associated with Nottingham. He served as clerk to Hucknall Urban District Council and held professional and civic posts alongside his literary interests. He wrote Tudor Problems and other studies arguing for Bacon’s concealed role in the literature of the period. Frank’s work concentrated on purported cipher signatures; he pursued the subject further in Francis Bacon’s Cipher Signatures, published in 1923.
Little about Frank’s personal life is established by the sources consulted here. His dates remain uncertain. Parker’s life dates and professional posts belong to him individually; Fratres Roseae Crucis names their literary collaboration.
Looking for a hidden signature
Secret Shakespearean Seals was published by H. Jenkins in Nottingham in 1916, with photographic facsimiles of the pages and monuments discussed. Its subtitle describes discoveries in works printed between about 1586 and 1740. The preface addresses readers willing to test the argument through addition and subtraction, presenting numerical investigation as a route to concealed literary history.
