Oxford History: Mayors & Lord Mayors

 

 

James Pears came to Oxford as the protégé of the London architect Henry Keene, who in June 1869 was living in Oxford at 65 St Giles' (left), in the parish of St Mary Magdalen.

 

On 18 October 1768 at Hurstbourne Priors in Hampshire, James Pears (aged 28) married Elizabeth Beale. Pears was then living in St Peter-le-Bailey parish in Oxford and Elizabeth at Hurstbourne Priors.

 

By the time of the 1772 Survey of Oxford, Pears himself was listed as the occupant of Keene's house at 65 St Giles'. (Keene had other property, and his main residence was now 13 Golden Square, London, although he died at his country house at Drayton Green, Ealing on 8 January 1776.)

Jackson's Oxford Journal of 13 March 1773 advertised for sale a house in St Giles' that had been built by the timber merchant George Poulton in 1764, namely  60 St Giles' (on the site of the present Pusey House):

A Freehold, Modern, New, and well-built HOUSE, with a brick and sashed Front, and stone Coins, nearly facing St John’s College in Oxford, the Property and in the Occupation of Mr. George Poulton, Timber Merchant, who is moving into Surrey: Containing three upper Lodging Rooms, with two Closets; five good bed Chambers, two neat Parlours, and a Study, fitted out with Wainscot, Paper Hangings, Marble and other Chimney-Pieces, and Fixtures; also a Kitchen, Pantry, three good Cellars, Brewhouse, a tiled Shed and other Conveniences; with a large Yard and Garden, fit for a genteel private Family, or may easily be rendered convenient for carrying on branches of Business.

In 1773 Pears and his wife Elizabeth moved up the street to 60 St Giles', which was also in St Mary Magdalen parish. They had no children yet, and Elizabeth ran an embroidery business of her own at this house, employing staff from London. She placed the following advertisement in Jackson's Oxford Journal of 1 July 1775:

Pears purchased his freedom of the City of Oxford on 26 July 1776, when he was described as a “carpenter, joiner, builder, surveyor & admeasurer”. He was now working for the architect James Wyatt as well as for Henry Keene, and in the 1770s he designed and built the interior behind Wyatt’s façade for the Library at Oriel College.

Also in the 1770s James Pears built the Radcliffe Observatory (right). The foundation stone was laid in 1772, but the building was delayed and although the building was roofed in 1778 it was not completed until 1794. It is Grade I listed (list entry 1047070)

The original architect was Henry Keene, but in 1773 he was told not to proceed any further, and when he died in 1776 his son Theodosius Keene was told to finish the building under the direction of the architect James Wyatt,

Pears worked with both architects, but under Wyatt he had a free rein and was left to work out many of the details of his designs for himself. Penry Williams writes, “The arrangement was one which suited Wyatt's natural indolence well, and which was repeated many time in his career, making it difficult to decide how much credit should be given to architect or builder”.

The base of the globe on the top of the building includes in the inscription: “James Pears, Esq., Mayor of Oxford, builder; John Hudson, clerk of the works”. John Hudson, a younger builder, became Pears's business partner around this time.

In September 1777 Pears was elected as one of the 24 members of the Common Council of Oxford.

In 1777 New College asked Wyatt for advice as to how they could make more book space in their library, and he did a rough sketch showing how windows could be blocked. Williams writes that “the surviving set of crude preliminary designs for the room showing rectangular rather than apsed ends, and particularly comic busts on brackets over the two doors, must be by James Pears”. In June 1780 the lower library was ordered “to be fitted up according to a plan delivered in by Mr Pears”. Pears also removed partitions in the Warden's Lodgings to make one rectangular room stretching from the Warden's staircase to the corner of the quad.

In June 1778 Pears took on Thomas Smallbones as an apprentice carpenter.

James Pears and his wife Elizabeth had two sons, the first born ten years after their marriage:

• James Pears junior (born in Oxford on 23 June 1778 and privately baptised by St Mary Magdalen Church the same day)
• William Beale Pears (baptised on 8 August 1780 at St Mary Magdalen Church with his middle name
  recorded as Bayel; died on 10 April 1793 aged 13 years and buried at Iffley Church on 17 April).

Just two days before his elder son was baptised, Pears was (according to Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 20 June 1778) drawn by lot to serve on the militia.

In 1780 Pears was selected as one of the two Chamberlains by the Mayor of Oxford, and his fellow carpenter Vincent Shortland was also appointed one of the three Viewers of Nuisances.

In November 1780 Pears took on as his apprentice Francis Godfrey (who had originally been apprenticed to Richard Rouse).

By 1783, Pears was described in Bailey’s Western & Midland Directory as a “surveyor and builder” rather than a carpenter.

In September 1785 Pears was elected Junior Bailiff for the forthcoming council year.

In 1786 Pears removed the medieval roof of New College Hall, and replaced it using pitch pine timbers and Westmorland slate, for which he charged £578 7s. 9d.

In October 1786 the council decided to enclose the butter bench at Carfax, and Pears was asked to provide an estimate for enclosing it with a dwarf wall and iron “pallisadoes”.

On 12 May 1787 Jackson's Oxford Journal announced that the west side of Turl Street had been sold to Mr Pears, builder.

In May 1788 he took on Thomas Edwards as his apprentice, and in January 1789 Richard Swallow.

On 20 May 1788 James Wyatt's plan to “new roof” the chapel at New College was accepted, and Pears was appointed to supervise the execution of his plans. Pears's accounts show that the roof was reconstructed between 1 August 1788 and 29 January 1789, and then work started on the “new Groin ceiling”, for which the last payment was made on 27 June 1790. All this work was removed by nineteenth-century restorers.

In 1789 Pears rebuilt the roof of New College hall using pitch-pine timbers and Westmorland slate, and also designed its plaster ceiling, charging the college £578. In the same year he submitted an estimate to St John’s College for a new Presidential pew with a curved front for its chapel, access to which was to be gained by “a new Wainscott Stair Case with Moulded Noseings and Cutt Bracketts, Mahogany handrail with Ramps and Twists and 2 Curtail Steps”. This was either not erected, or removed in 1843. He also carried out extensive repairs to St John’s chapel in 1790/1.

Around this time Pears had individual portraits of himself, his wife and each of his sons painted by John Russell (1745–1806), Britain’s leading pastellist. This catalogue shows the portraits of James Pears and his wife Elizabeth at the bottom of p. 2 and of his young sons James and William down the left-hand side of p. 4 3.

In 1791–4 Pears undertook extensive repairs and alterations to St John's College under Wyatt.

In 1792 Pears carried out the plans of James Wyatt on the chapel and hall at Magdalen College, and a memorandum dated 10 November 1792 survives expressing the architect's satisfaction with his work.

On 9 November 1792 his mother-in-law Elizabeth Beale died and a week later was the first to be buried in the Pears family vault inside Iffley Church.

On 30 September 1792 when Pears was unanimously elected one of the Mayor’s eight Assistants he was described as “an eminent Builder of this Place”, and was henceforth often described as James Pears, Esq.

On 10 April 1793 his younger son died at the age of nearly 13, and he was buried in the vault inside Iffley Church with his grandmother. Jackson's Oxford Journal of 13 April 1793 reported:

On Wednesday in the Afternoon died, at the Age of twelve Years, Master William Beale Pears, younger son of Mr. James Pears, of this City, Builder, after a lingering Illness of several Years, which might be said to have eluded the Power of Medicine.

On 16 September 1793 Pears (described as “an eminent Builder of this Place”) was unanimously elected Mayor of Oxford (for 1793/4), and he chose Joseph Walker as his Child. He continued to serve as a Mayor's Assistant after his term of office..

In 1794 Pears began to build the Grade I listed Holmes Buildings for St John’s College to accommodate four fellows. It is possible he designed them himself, as no architect is mentioned. He took on two more apprentices in the mid-1790s: Thomas Edwards on 5 June 1795 and Richard Swallow on 4 April 1796.

Pears was still described as being of St Mary Magdalen parish (so must still have been at 60 St Giles's Street) when on 28 July 1795 his elder son James, aged 17 was matriculated at the University of Oxford by New College.

On 18 January 1794 the following auction advertisement for Woodperry House, a Georgian villa in the parish of Stanton St John, appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal:

An ELIGIBLE ESTATE, held under NEW COLLEGE, in OXFORD, near a Turnpike Road, in a fine Sporting part of the County, within four Miles of the CITY of OXFORD; consisting of a Modern Built MANSION, called WOODPERRY HOUSE, a Stone Structure, erected on an excellent Plan, with uniform Wings, attached to the DWELLING by COLONADES, containing DOMESTICK OFFICES of every Description, COACH HOUSES, and STABLING; a FORE COURT enclosed by IRON PALISADES, extensive PLEASURE and KITCHEN GARDENS walled round, tastefully laid out and fully cropped, and Eleven ACRES of very rich PASTURE GROUND, immediately adjoining.

Woodperry House, (below), was built between 1728 and 1731 (probably by William Townesend the elder) for the London banker John Morse in part Palladian, part Baroque style. (The porch and north and south wings designed by Frederick Codd were added later in 1879/80.) It is Grade I listed.

It appears that Pears bought Woodperry House (below) at the 1794 sale, and certainly by 1798 he was living there (holding on to 60 St Giles's Street in Oxford and renting it out).

When Pears moved to Woodperry House his married son James Pears junior and his wife also lived there with him: their eldest daughter Elizabeth was baptised at Stanton St John in 1798, and in September 1801 James Pears junior gave it as his address when he paid game duty.

Pears continued to serve on the council as Mayor’s Assistant even after he moved out of Oxford. He died at Woodperry House at the age of 63 on 3 December 1803 and was buried five days later in the family vault inside Iffley Church with his mother-in-law, his younger son William, and his infant grandson James. In the register he was described as being “late of Oxford”. Jackson’s Oxford Journal for 10 December 1803 published the following death announcement:

On Saturday last died, after a lingering illness, at Woodperry House, in this county, James Pears, Esq. aged 63, one of the Assistants of the Corporation of this city, and who served the office of Mayor in 1793.

The inscription below from Iffley Church gives the wrong date for Pears’s death (1 January 1804 instead of 3 December 1803: possibly it was confused with that of his grandson, who died on 1 January 1801):

The plaque reads:

UNDERNEATH THIS CHURCH LIE THE REMAINS OF

JAMES PEARS OF WOODPERRY HOUSE IN THIS COUNTY ESQUIRE WHO DIED JANUARY 1ST 1804
[SHOULD READ DECEMBER 3RD 1803] AGED 64 YEARS

ELIZABETH HIS WIFE, WHO DIED JANUARY 15TH 1816 AGED 73 YEARS

ELIZABETH BEALE, MOTHER OF THE ABOVE ELIZABETH PEARS, WHO DIED NOV. 9TH 1792 AGED 78 YEARS

WILLIAM BEALE PEARS, YOUNGER SON OF THE ABOVE JAMES AND ELIZABETH PEARS WHO DIED APRIL 10TH 1793 AGED 13 YEARS

JAMES GEORGE PEARS, SON OF THE REV. JAMES PEARS AND GRANDSON OF THE AFORENAMED JAMES AND ELIZABETH PEARS, WHO DIED JANY. 1ST 1801 AGED 1 YEAR.

Under his will his widow Elizabeth Pears received £1,000, plus for her lifetime his freehold property in St Mary Magdalen parish, Oxford (60 St Giles' Street, then in the occupation of Mrs Blandy) and all his leasehold estates. (The property would then pass to his only surviving child James.)

His widow Elizabeth Pears and his business partner John Hudson put a notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 21 April 1804 announcing that the partnership between James Pears and John Hudson had been dissolved on the former's death, and that in future Hudson would run the business on his own. Mrs Pears must have have moved to New Inn Hall Street, as an advertisement in Jackson's Oxford Journal of 4 July 1812 advertised the furniture there for sale and stating that Mrs Pears was leaving, and then on 26 September her former dwelling there was advertised to let.. She went to live in Surrey, probably with her son James Pears junior, who was serving as a curate at Pirbright, and died in Guildford after a lingering illness at the age of 74 on 15 January 1816. She was buried in the family vault inside Iffley Church with her mother, husband, son, and grandson a week later.

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Pears’s only surviving child James Pears junior (1778–1853)

James Pears junior was appointed Curate of Holton in 1801, and was admitted free on 2 July 1802. He obtained his BCL from St Mary Hall in 1810, and was appointed curate of Pirbright in Surrey in 1814. After a period as classical master at Sandhurst (then in Great Marlow), in March 1823 he was jointly appointed Master of Bath Grammar School and Rector of Charlecombe in Somerset, two posts he held for thirty years until his death.

On 1 November 1797 at St Mary's Church, Lambeth, Surrey, James Pears junior married Mary Radcliffe, and they had the following children:

• Elizabeth Winch Pears (born on 11 August 1798 and baptised at Stanton St John on 4 October)
  Married the Revd Edward Wilson in Bath on 15 April 1833, died at Wilcot, Wiltshire in 1842
• James George Pears (born in Oxford on 12 January 1800 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church
  on 11 February; died on 1 January 1801 aged nearly one and buried in the family vault in Iffley Church five days later)
• James Robert Pears (born at Woodperry House in 1801 and baptised at Stanton St John on 26 November)
  Fellow of Magdalen College. The Revd James Robert Pears died at Woodcote House, Windlesham at the age of 63 on 22 August 1865
• Mary Anne Pears (birth not found, but included by her grandfather in his will of 27 October 1803)
• William Henry Pears (born at Hurley, Berkshire in 1806 and baptised there on 11 April)
  Died at Madras, India at the age of 18 and buried at Masulipatam on 1 June 1824
• Sir Thomas Townsend Pears (born in Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire in 1809 and baptised there on 20 June):
  Army officer in the East India Company, Died in 1892 (see ODNB)
• Maria Cecilia Knollis Pears (born at Bray, Berkshire on 11 September 1810 and baptised there on 18 December)
• Arnold Christian Pears (born at Bray, Berkshire on 26 December 1811 and baptised there on 28 January 1812)
  Lieutenant-Colonel in the Artillery. Died in 1891
• Edmund Ward Pears (born at Pirbright, Surrey in 1814 and baptised there on 23 June)
  Rector of St Peter, Dorchester. Died in 1878
• Steuart Adolphus Pears (born at Windlesham, Surrey in 1815 and baptised there on 4 July):
  Headmaster of Repton School. Died in 1875 (see ODNB)

James Pears junior's wife Mary died in Bath at the age of 61 on 19 June 1838 and was buried at Weston-super-Mare on 27 June.

James Pears junior died in Wilcot, Wiltshire at the age of 74 on 21 January 1853 and was buried there on 27 January.

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See also:

• PCC Will PROB 1408/104 (Will of James Pears, Gentleman of Stanton Saint John, Oxfordshire, proved on 26 April 1804) and transcript
• Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entries numbered 2591, 2613, 2831, and 2895
• Hampshire Record Office 83M76/PI4/58: Marriage bond dated 17 October 1768 of James Pears of Oxford, carpenter and joiner, and Elizabeth Beale of Hurstbourne Priors
• Geoffrey Tyack, “The making of the Radcliffe Observatory”, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. X (2000)
• National Archives C112/178: Mansell v. Pears: Four leases from New College, Oxford, to James Pears and
  Mrs E. Pears, parish of Stanton St John, Oxon (1801–1808)

George Williamson, John Russell, R.A. (London: G. Bell, 1894), which is available in Sackler Library, Oxford (928.9 Rus.W.), has the following information about pastel portraits by John Russell of the Pears family:

• Mrs James Pears, née Elisabeth Beale (oval, then in the possession of Archdeacon Wilson of Rochdale), p. 172 (not reproduced);
• James Pears Jr as a child (61 x 46cm, then in the possession of Archdeacon Wilson of Rochdale), p. 158 (not reproduced);
• James Pears Jr as a child (61 x 46cm oval, then in the possession of Major T. C. Pears), p. 158 (reproduced opposite p. 38)
• William Beale Pears as a child in a red coat (61 x 46cm, oval, then in the possession of Major T. C. Pears), p. 158 (not reproduced).