James Pike (1811–1879)
Mayor of Oxford 1855/6
James Pike was born in Oxford on 3 July 1811 and baptised at St Thomas’s Church on 26 July. He was the son of John Pike and Maria Viner, who were married at Hungerford in Berkshire on 21 February 1799).
Three of James's older siblings were born also in Oxford: John Pike (baptised at St Peter-le-Bailey Church on 6 May 1801 and buried at St Thomas's Church on 11 March 1803); John Pike baptised at St Thomas's Church on 5 September 1804 and buried there on 7 September), and Miltadah Pike (baptised at St Thomas's Church on 16 September 1808).
On 1 July 1834 at Hungerford, Berkshire James Pike, described as being of St Thomas's parish in Oxford, married Sarah Purdue of Hungerford. He brought his wife back to Oxford, but they had only been married for just over a year when she died there at the age of 23. She was buried at the Oxford Wesleyan Chapel on 22 December 1835, and was described in the register as being “the wife of James Pike, of Walton Place, St Thomas” (now the south-west end of Walton Street)
On 24 February 1838 at St Ann's Church, Dublin, James Pike married his second wife Mary Anne Burnett, daughter of the late Richard Burnett, Esq. of Dublin, and their marriage was announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 3 March 1838. They had nine children:
- Marion Pike (born at St Anne’s in Dublin on 25 November 1838 and baptised at
St Thomas’s Church, Oxford on 6 June 1839) - James Burnett Pike (born in Oxford and baptised at St Thomas’s Church on 12 January 1842)
- Elizabeth Maria Pike (born in Oxford in 1843/4 but birth registration not found and
baptised at St Paul’s Church on 25 March 1844) - Charles Frederick Pike (born in Oxford in 1845/6 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 6 March 1846)
- Florence Matilda Pike (born in Oxford in late 1847 and baptised at the Wesley Chapel in New Inn Hall Street on 22 December)
- Kathleen Sophia Pike (born in Oxford in late 1849 and baptised at the Wesley Chapel in New Inn Hall Street on 3 April 1850)
- Edith Pike (born in Oxford in late 1851 and baptised at the Wesley Chapel in New Inn Hall Street on 15 December)
- [Richard] Walter Pike (born in Oxford in 1853 and baptised at the Wesley Chapel in New Inn Hall Street on 8 September)
- Ella Clarinda Pike (appears to have been born in Oxford in 1859 but the birth of the Ella Maria Pike registered there in the fourth quarter of 1859 was later than the baptism of Ella Clarinda Pike at the Wesley Chapel in New Inn Hall Street on 1 July 1859).
It appears that the couple began their marriage in Dublin, where their first child was born, but a few months later James returned to Oxford with his wife and baby daughter. Their first four children were baptised into the Church of England: the first two at St Thomas's Church (when they were probably living still living in Worcester Street), and then from 1844 at St Paul's Church (when they had moved to Worcester Street). From 1847, however, his children were baptised at the Wesley Chapel in New Inn Hall Street (on the site of the present Wesleyan Memorial Church).
Pike was described as a hop merchant in the parish register at his daughter’s baptism in June 1839, and as a “Hop, & Lead, & Window Glass Merchant, Cut Glass Manufacturer, & Staffordshire & China Warehouse” of George Street, Oxford in Hobson’s Commercial Directory for 1839.
At the time of the 1841 census Pike was living at Worcester Street with a servant and a clerk and his wife and daughter were away, possibly in Ireland. In the later censuses, Pike’s address was given specifically as Worcester House, 1 Worcester Street.
On 1 November 1849 Pike was returned as city councillor for the North Ward with no opposition.
The 1851 census shows James Pike (39), described as a hop merchant, living at Worcester Street with five of his children: Marion (12), James (9), Charles (5), Florence (3), and Kathleen (1). His wife and his daughter Elizabeth (7) were away from home, possibly in Ireland, but he had five servants (a nurse, cook, housemaid, and two nursemaids) to help him.
Gardner’s Oxford Directory of 1852 listed James Pike & Co. of Worcester Street as a Hop Merchant and a Window Glass & Lead Manufacturer.
In 1855 Pike was elected Mayor of Oxford for 1855/6. He was not only the first Oxford Mayor ever chosen directly from the common councillors, but as a Wesleyan he was also the first nonconformist Mayor. He acknowledged the “peculiar honour” of his appointment, but claimed that although he preferred another system, he did not consider himself a dissenter from the Establishment.
At the time of the 1861 census James (49) was at home at 1 Worcester Street with his wife Mary Ann (43) and six of their nine children: Marion (22), James (19), Elizabeth (17), Edith (9), Richard (7), and Ella (1). They now had four servants (a housekeeper/nurse, cook, housemaid, and nursemaid). The three missing children were all away at boarding school: Charles (15) at Westbury-on-Trym, and Florence (13) and Kathleen (12) at Cotham Park School in Westbury, Bristol.
Two of his children died in 1863:
- His youngest son, Richard Walter Pike died at Worcester Street at the age of ten on 8 October 1863 and his death was announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal two days later. His funeral was held at St Paul's Church on 12 October and he was buried in St Sepulchre's Cemetery
- His eldest daughter Marion Pike died at Worcester Street at the age of 24 in 1863. Her funeral was held at St Paul's Church on 23 January, and she was buried in St Sepulchre's Cemetery.
At the time of the 1871 census James (59), still described as a hop merchant, was home at Worcester House, 1 Worcester Place with his wife Mary Ann (53) and five of their children: Elizabeth (27), Florence (28), Kathleen (21), Edith (19), and Ella (11). They now just had two servants (a cook and a housemaid). His son James (29) is likely to be the Oxford-born commercial traveller James Pike who was married and was staying at a hotel in Newcastle under Lyme.
Five months after this census, on 29 September 1871, Pike’s second wife Mary Ann Pike died at the age of 54, and a death announcement was inserted in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 7 October 1871.
On 7 November 1871 his daughter Florence Matilda Pike died at home in Oxford at the age of 23 from an overdose of chlorodyne, a patent medicine whose principal ingredients were laudanum (an alcoholic solution of opium), tincture of cannabis, and chloroform, to which patients often became addicted. An inquest, reported in Jackson's Oxford Journal four days later stated that she had been taking chlorodine to alleviate acute pain from which she had suffered for some time in consequence of an “affection of the liver”. The chemist Thomas Thurland said that he had refused to let her have any more chlorodine on the previous Saturday without a prescription from Dr Giles or Dr Jenkins, as she had had three bottles between 22 and 28 October.
Pike is not listed in any Oxford directories after 1871, and it appears that he moved away from Oxford to Charlton in London after the death of his second wife and his daughter.
Two of his daughters were married in the 1870s:
- On 16 May 1877 at St Paul's Church, Old Charlton, London, his fourth daughter Kathleen Sophia Pike married Thomas Edward de Moleyns, B.A. (Oxon.), the elder son of the Revd W. B. de Moleyns, Vicar of Burrington, Somerset and Prebend of Wells Cathedral, and an announcement was inserted in Jackson's Oxford Journal
- On 19 August 1879 at St Stephen's Church, Lewisham, Kent his fifth daughter Edith Pike married Charles James Nicholson,
His second daughter Elizabeth Maria Pike died in the Woolwich area of London at the age of 34 near the beginning of 1878
† James Pike died at 19 Victoria Road, Charlton, London at the age of 67 on 7 March 1879. The announcement of his death in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 15 March 1879 stated: “March 7, at his residence, 19, Victoria-road, Charlton, James Pike (late of the City of Oxford, J.P.) in the 68th year of his life.” His effects came to under £3,000, and his executors were the Oxford confectioner James Boffin and Christopher Pike, a hop merchant of Southwark.
James Pike's surviving children
- James Burnett Pike (born 1842) is hard to locate after 1881.
- Charles Frederick Pike (born1845/6) died two years after his father at the age of 35 on 31 March 1881 at 5 St John's Road, Clapham Junction, London. He was buried at St Mary's Church, Battersea on 4 April.
- Kathleen Sophia Pike, Mrs Moleyns (born 1849) was boarding at Marylebone with her sister Ella in 1911. She died in Steyning, Sussex at the age of 84 near the beginning of 1934
- Edith Pike, Mrs Nicholson (born 1851) had three children, the first two born in Ireland and the third in Eastbourne:: Edith Margaret Nicholson (1880), Roy Charles Goldsmith Nicholson (1882), and Lionel Burnett Nicholson (1884). Her husband died at sea off Gambia at the age of 32 on 30 October 1883. In 1901 she was a widow of 43 working as a secretary and living at 97 St Luke's Road, Kensington with her son Lionel (17). who was a clerk, and died aged 50 in 1902.
- Ella Clarinda Pike (born 1859) was boarding at Marylebone with her sister Kathleen in 1881
See also:
- 1841 Census (St Thomas), 891/18/12
- 1851 Census (St Thomas), 1728/417
- 1861 Census (St Thomas), 896/49
- 1871 Census (St Thomas), 1441/26
