Poet, minister, and well-known writer on theology, Benjamin Woodbridge was born in Stanton, Wiltshire, England, in 1622, the son of John and Sarah Parker Woodbridge. He began his university studies at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1638, but sailed to Massachusetts in 1640 to join his older brother John and his uncle, Thomas Parker. In Massachusetts he entered the newly established Harvard College in 1642 and in that year became its first graduate, graduating at the head of his class.

Woodbridge returned to England in 1647, accompanied by his brother John, who is credited with carrying with him a manuscript of fifteen poems by their sister-in-law, Anne Bradstreet. In 1650 the publisher Stephen Bowtell published Bradstreet's The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America ..., with a prefatory poem by Benjamin Woodbridge. Unlike his brother, Benjamin Woodbridge did not return to New England. While serving as minister at Salisbury, he once again studied at Magdalen College...