Oxford 1863 directory index
Directory of Pubs in the UK, historical public houses, Taverns, Inns, Beer Houses and Hotels in Oxfordshire. The Oxfordshire listing uses information from census, Trade Directories and History to add licensees, bar staff, Lodgers and Visitors.
The following entries are in this format:
Year/Publican or other Resident/Relationship to Head and or Occupation/Age/Where Born/Source.
Oxford .
This beautiful and venerable city, the capital of the county, and seat of a
bishopric, is the most celebrated university in the British dominions, and
equalled By none in extent, wealth, and antiquity. It is situate in the
midst of fertile meadows, at the confluence of the rivers Cherwell and
Thames, in the hundred of Bullington, 63 miles N.W. by railway from London,
28 N.W.W. from Reading, 41. S.S.W. from Northampton, 62 S.E. from
Birmingham, and 79 W. of Cambridge. Its liberties, which form a separate
jurisdiction, are bounded on the north by the hundred of Wootton, on the
east by the hundred of Bullington, and on the south and west by Berkshire.
The number of inhabitants included in the municipal and parliamentary
limits, according to the census of 1861, was 27,561, with 5230 inhabited
houses. The prospects around Oxford have long been the admiration of every
lover of nature. A cordon of hills, cut through on the south-east by the
united vaters of the Thames and the Cherwell, sweeps round three-fourths of
the compass, forms a beautiful softly-featured amphitheatre, and opens on
the north on a rich champaign country, extending away to the horizon in a
sheet of the highest cultivation; along the skirts of the hills, or of the
plains into which they subside, flow the Cherwell and the Thames, the former
on the east of the city, and the latter on the west and the south. These
streams glide silently and tranquilly amid luxuriant meadows, and an endless
variety of lofty trees and foliage. A great elevation rises on all sides
from the banks of the rivers, and constitutes a fine vantage-ground over the
sweep of convergent vale, and its noble curving screen of hills. From every
direction, particularly from the elevated ground on the road to Abingdon,
the views of the city are of the most interesting and magnificent
description; from this position the landscape includes a gorgeous array of
architecture, consisting of domes, spires, towers, pinnacles, and turrets,
surmounting a compact mass of handsome streets and edifices; nor does the
impression of the wealth and splendour of the place decrease on a nearer
inspection, on the contrary, the effect is increased by disclosing the
magnitude of some of the edifices, and the splendour of their ornamental
details. The finest specimens of the Gothic and Palladian styles of
architecture meet the eye on every side, the productions of the skill and
taste of the most eminent artists England has produced. Probably no city of
the continent of Europe, with the single exception of Rome, can excel Oxford
in point of academic interest and classic beauty, and the traveller is
struck with admiration of a spot where, for a thousand years, the genius of
learning has been associated with the beautiful in art.
Oxford, including its suburbs, comprises an area of about four miles in
circumference, and extends a mile and a half from the eastern side to the
western, aud the same distance from the northern to the southern extremity.
The city is elliptical in form, and was formerly environed by a wall with
bastions 150 feet distant from each other; but of these works few traces
remain. The principal approaches are from the four points of the compass,
they are all very imposing but dissimilar ia effect; the entrance from each,
except from the north, which opens on a magnificent city vista in St.
Giles', is over bridges. The eastern approach crosses the Cherwell by the
handsome structure of Magdalen Bridge, 526 feet in length, which was erected
in 1779 at a cost of £8000 ; it commands a charming view of the valley of
the Cherwell, the Church of St. Clements, Magdalen College, and Christ
Church meadows; while on the south we pass over the Thames by Folly Bridge,
where formerly stood a tower called Friar Bacon's Study. The western
approach is by a broad and excellent causeway, which crosses the Great
Western Hallway; on this road aro several excellent stone bridges, the
principal of which consists of three substantial arches. The principal
street of the city is High street, stretching from east to west about a mile
in length, generally esteemed one of the most magnificent thoroughfares in
Europe; its sides are adorned with University, Queen's, and All Souls'
Colleges, and its extremities are overlooked by the embattled tower of
Carfax Church, anS the grand and lofty tower and pinnacles of Magdalen
College; a prevailing gentle curvature in its direction is much admired, and
believed to add indescribably to the interest of its views. Mingled with the
prospect of these architectural grandeurs are handsome private residences
and shops of a truly metropolitan character. The next thoroughfare of
importance is St. Giles'. This street is 2000 feet long and 250 feet wide,
and is planted on each side with lofty and well-grown trees, and in
conjunction with Magdalen-street and Corn Market street, extends from the
northern entrance to the centre of the city, intersecting the High street at
right angles at Carfax. The other principal streets are St. Aldate's, Broad
street, Queen street, and Beaumont street; the latter composed of two rows
of handsome private residences, is built on the site of Beaumont Palace, the
abode of Henry I., and birthplace of Richard Cceur de Lion. That splendid
edifice, the Taylor and Randolph Building, occupies a considerable portion
of this street. Most of the minor streets of the city run parallel with the
principal ones, and in these, within the last twenty years, great
improvements have been effected; the population in this period has increased
4,000; and new suburbs have extended in all directions.
The derivation of the name of Oxford has been a subject of disputation with
antiquarians. It is believed by most writers to have been originally called
Oxenford, and to have received that name from the Saxons, on account of the
frequent passage of Oxen across the rivers at its site. The Bosphorus of tho
Greeks and the Ochsen-fort of the Saxons are names of the same import, and
may be supposed to have similarly originated. The armorial bearings of the
city exhibit a sort of rebus on the popular derivation of the name, in an
ox, gules, crossing a ford. A few writers suppose the ancient name to have
been Ousen-ford, "the ford over the river Ouse,"' alleging that Ouse was the
ancient designation of the Isis or Thames; or that the object or locality
referred to was Ouseney, or Osney. For ourselves we incline much to the first
derivation as being the most probable, believing on the best authority, that
the word Isis as applicable to the Thames does not occur in any ancient
record. The origin of the city cannot be traced to any particular era, but
it is supposed to have been a considerable British town at the time of the
Roman invasion, and to have much declined in importance under the reign of
that people. The earliest fact respecting it occurred under the Saxons, in
the year 727, when a monastery was founded, which was governed by Frideswida,
the daughter of the founder, and which afterwards bore the lady's name. From
this period commences the known history of Oxford. King Alfred, according to
tradition, made it a place of frequent residence, and is said to have minted
coins here which bore the name of Ocsnafordia. The city was the scene of
frequent conflicts between the Saxons and the Danes. Edmund Ironside was
assassinated here. For many years King Canute held his court and resided at
Oxford, and, in 1022, it was the meeting-place of a great council for
translating the laws of Edward into Latin; in 1026 a parliament was held for
confirming the edicts of Edgar, and in 1036 a wittemagemote for settling the
succession of the crown on the death of Canute. Harold Harefoot—to whom, on
the last of these occasions, the crown was awarded — made Oxford the scene
of his coronation, his residence, and his death.
On the invasion of Ennland by the Normans, Oxford was one of the towns which
longest resisted their power; it was besieged in 1067 by the Conqueror in
person and taken by storm; it suffered greatly by the siege and the
tyrannical edicts of William, who compelled the townsmen to pay thrice more
than had been exacted from them during their prosperity, in the time of
Edward the Confessor; and in order to overawe and restrain them he bestowed
the government of the town on Robert D'Oyley, with permission to build a
fortified castle, a portion of the tower of which, still remains. Before
William's death, however, the town became reconciled to the Norman yoke, and
began to resume its literary character. During the civil war between Stephen
and the Empress Matilda, the latter sustained a siege of three months in the
castle, and when compelled to submit, and the country was, happily for her
purpose, covered with snow, she dressed herself and three trusty knights in
white, issued secretly about midnight from a postern, passed all the enemy's
sentinels unobserved, and travelled on foot to Abingdon and thence on
horseback to Wallingford. The castle surrendered the next day. Henry I,
received his education at Oxford. In 1154 a council was held here which
compromised the competing claims of Stephen and Prince Henry, afterwards
Henry II. Several councils and a parliament were held here in the reign of
the latter prince. Henry II. resided a great part of his reign in the palace
of Beaumont, where Richard I. was born. The weak and unprincipled John held
many of his luxurious feasts in this palace. Henry III. occasionally resided
at Oxford, and made it the scene of many of his councils and parliaments;
during this reign a thousand students came from Paris, who unfortunately
quarrelled with the inhabitants of the town, which led to frequent
exhibitions of riot and bloodshed. In the reign of Edward II. many new
privileges were granted; but this monarch by alienating Beaumont Palace
irreparably damaged the city as a resort of royalty. Edward the third was
educated at the university and conferred great benefits on the town. Some
doctrinal questions between the Nominalists and the Realists created much
ferment, ending in a serious riot in which 63 students were killed. In the
reign of Richard II., Dr. John Wycliffe read his lectures on divinity. Henry
IV. mingled as a would-be mediator in the discussions which agitated the
city on the subject of Lollardism, or the doctrines taught by Wycliffe.
Henry V. was partly educated at the university. Henry VI. professed great
regard for Oxford, and Edward IV. and Richard III. visited it as
benefactors. In 1501 Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII., visited this place.
About this time Erasmus repaired hither and read his Greek lectures. Early
in the reign of that king the plague broke out, and during six weeks
desolated or chased away from the city and colleges nearly all their
inhabitants: during the remainder of that reign, as well as in the course of
the next, it frequently reappeared. Henry VIII. was particularly favourable
to the University, its authorities having given an opinion in favour of his
divorce with Queen Catherine, and his assumption of supremacy. He also made
it powerfully instrumental in effecting the great ecclesiastical and
political changes which he introduced. In the early period of this reign
Cardinal Wolsey founded seven, lectures, viz., Theology, Civil Law, Physic,
Philosophy, Mathematics, Greek, and Rhetoric. In the time of Edward VI. a
body of commissioners, or visitors from the court, spoliated the college
libraries, reversed many of the statutes of the university and menaced the
academical importance of the city with great abridgment and degredation. In
the reign of Mary, Oxford was the lugubrious scene of the martyrdom of those
witnesses of the truth, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer. During her reign the
city was frequently devastated by pestilence, and in 1577 occurred what was
called the "Black Assize "the sudden seizure on an assembly in a judiciary
court, of a serious malady, which, within forty hours, carried off the
judge, the sheriff, several justices, and upwards of 300 other persons.
James I. retreated some time to Oxford from the plague at London; the
privilege of the University sending two members to parliament dates from
this reign. Charles I., driven hither in the early part of his reign by the
same cause, held here a parliament, and during the progress of the civil war
was compelled by the ascendency of the parliament to adopt Oxford as his
residence, the seat of his court, and the head quarters of his army. His
fragmentary parliament, after being collected and constituted by him, in the
hall of Christ Church, held their meetings—the lords in the upper schools
and the commons in the convocation house; he himself had apartments at
Christ Church and his queen at Merton. Though supported with great zeal by
the members of the University, and though strenuous measures were used to
strengthen the fortifications, the city was obliged after the battle of
Naseby to surrender to the parliamentarians under Fairfax - Cromwell visited
the city during the days of his power, and even held the office of
Chancellor of the University. Several Professors and Heads of Colleges were
expelled by commissioners appointed by the Puritan parliament, during the
Cromwellian era. At the restoration these parties were compelled to give
place to those whom they had superseded. Two parliaments were held here in
the reign of Charles II., one in 1665 and the other in 1681. In the time of
James II. several arbitrary attempts at infraction of the privileges of the
University were made by that sovereign, particularly the issue of a royal
mandate for the election of one Farmer, a papist, to the presidency of
Magdalen College, which mandate the fellows and members of that college
refused to obey. After the devolution. Oxford was regarded as the grand
retreat of Jacobitism; and during tiie rebellion of 1715 General Pepper, at
the head of a body of dragoons, took possession of the city, shut up the
students in their colleges, apprehended some persons, seized the property of
others, and then retired to Abingdon, and a regiment of foot was afterwards
poured in to awe the disaffected. In later times the city was the scene of
some important transactions. George IV., when Prince Regent, with the
Emperor of Russia, and the King of Prussia, attended by other royal and
distinguished personages, visited it in 1814, and were presented with the
freedom of the city, in the Town Hall. Our present gracious Queen, then the
Princess Victoria, attended by the Duchess of Kent, on the 8th November,
1832, received a congratulatory address in the same room; in 1835 Queen
Adelaide was presented with a loyal address from the corporation; and in
1841 the late lamented Prince Consort visited Oxford and was entertained
amidst the loyal congratulations of its citizens.
Oxford has regularly sent two members to parliament from the reign'of Edward
I.; it received a charter from Henry II. confirming all proceeding grants
and privileges. and giving the mayor the right of sharing with the Lord
Mayor of London, the office and emoluments of chief butler at the
coronation. Under the Municipal Reform Act, the corporation consists of a
mayor, ten aldermen, and thirty councillors, who elect a sheriff, town
clerk, coroner, treasurer and other officers. The recorder is appointed by
the crown. The city is divided into five wards, the burgesses of each ward
electing six councillors. The magistrates possess no jurisdiction over the
university or its members, and they act as justices of the peace (within the
city and liberties') not by any charter, but by commission under the great
seal. The mayor and magistrates appoint a police force to act during the
day, and another police force, under the direction of the Vice-Chancellor
and Proctors, is appointed on, behalf of the university to act during the
night. The members of the University are a corporate body possessing
important privileges. The borough of Oxford returns two members to
parliament, and the University two.
The Bishopric of Oxford orginated in this wise: Dorchester was an episcopal
see, instituted under Birinus, and existed 460 years; in the reign of the
Conqueror, about the year 1086, Remigius removed it to Lincoln, and it
continued to form part of that diocese until the year 1542. Upon the
dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII. created six new sees, among them
that of Oxford, which he endowed with a portion of the estates of the
monasteries of Osney and Abingdon, assigning at the same time the
magnificent abbey of Osney as cathedral of the diocese. This abbey was
founded by Robert D'Oyley, lord high-constable of England, in the reign of
Henry I. and its last abbot, Robert King, was appointed first bishop of the
new see. In the year 1546 the bishopric was transferred to Christ Church, in
Oxford, at the same time it was granted some of the estates which had been
appropriated by Cardinal "Wolsey to the maintenance of that college, which
he founded. The present cathedral was at its foundation the chapel of a
monastery founded in the 8th century, by Didan, a Saxon nobleman, the father
of St. Frideswida, to whom the church was dedicated. The existing structure
was built partly in the reign of Henry I., partly in that of Henry VIII., by
Wolsey, and partly at other dates, and affords examples of the various
styles which were contemporaneous with its erection. It is cruciform and
measures 154 feet from east to west, and 102 from north to south. A square
tower, containing ten bells, rises from its centre, and is surmounted by an
octagonal spire. A Saxon doorway pierces the cathedral, and various other
features of the Saxon style occur, and are occasionally modelled into the
later Norman. The nave has beautifully executed Saxon pillars. The choir is
ornamented with a Gothic roof of splendid tracery work, and the east window
is embellished with a representation of the nativity. The great window in
the northern transept is an ancient representation of the murder of Thomas a
Becket; in the western window are figures of St. Frideswida, St. Catherine,
&c.; the subject of the window of the north aisle is St. Peter conducted out
of prison by the angel, and was painted in 1700, by Isaac Oliver, in the
84th year of his age. There are several interesting monuments, particularly
a lofty shrine, surmounting a large altar-tomb, supposed to be that of St.
Frideswida, decorated with tabernacle work, and presenting a rich specimen
of the florid or perpendicular style; a monument of Lady Elizabeth Montacute,
in the costume of the 14th century, with enamel of gold and of various
colours; a monumental bust of Burton, the author of the " Anatomy of
Melancholy," with a short Latin inscription, composed by himself; and a
beautiful statue, by Chantrey, of Dr. Cyril Jackson, Dean of Christ Church,
who died in 1819. There is a finetoned organ, and service is held every
morning and evening. The value of the see, as reported by the commissioners
for enquiring into the value of ecclesiastical revenues, was £2,400 per
annum, but, under the ecclesiastical commission, the income has since been
commuted for the fixed sum of £5,000 per annum. The present bishop,
consecrated in 1845, is the Right Rev. Samuel Wilberforce, DD., FRS, FSA.,
FRAS., FGS., FRGS., and Chancellor of the Order of the Garter, who resides
at Cuddesdon Palace, in this county.
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