Until I moved to Cambridge, I'd never given much thought to the nature of the American university "named-Chair", assuming the operatic scenes in which God descends to the stage in a chair, deus ex machina.
Here in Cambridge, the letter of David's contract to the Woodwardian Professor of Geological Sciences spelled out some curious terms. The Professorship is Cambridge's oldest named "Chair" and perhaps England's oldest as well. (Oxford has dubious competing claims, all theologians of course.)
Terms required that he had to live within 20 miles of Old Saint Mary's Church, for example. And, his election had to be approved by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely -- hearkening back to a time when earth-bound fossils bore discoveries that shook the firmament of Heaven. (... before Creationists, of course, corrected the timeline: man and dinosaurs lived side-by-side, cheek-by-jowl, hand-in-glove, foot-in-mouth.)
Among other terms, he had to spend a weekly allotment of time in the Sedgwick Museum of Geology, which was founded upon John Woodard's fossil collection. Specifically, he was required to sit at Woodward's desk -- still found in the Museum -- and warm Woodward's chair.
Endowed scholarships pre-date Woodward; but, it is quite possible that Woodward gave the world it's first named chair, as well as a greater number of old rocks.
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