The Very Reverend William Richard Wood Stephens DD, FSA was Dean of Winchester in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Stephens was born in Gloucestershire in 1839 the youngest son of Sir. Charles Stephens, a banker. He was educated privately before proceeding to Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1862 with a first class in Literae humaniores. Ordained deacon in 1864 and a priest in 1865. He started his career with a curacy in Staines. In 1866 he became the curate of Purley, Berkshire. On 31 August 1869 he married Charlotte Jane Hook, the youngest daughter of Walter Farquhar Hook, the dean of Chichester. This was the start of long connexion with the Chichester Diocese. With Dean Hook's recommendation he became vicar of Mid-Lavant from 1870 to 1873, and lectured at Chichester