Robert Pike (1803–1885)
Mayor of Oxford 1872/3
Robert Pike was born at Chudleigh, Devon in 1803.
Pike became an accountant and had settled in Oxford by 1832, when Jackson’s Oxford Journal described him as being “of this city” at the time of his marriage to Marianne Osborne, the third daughter of Mr John Osborne, late of Leigh in Essex, at St Mary’s Church, Cheltenham. They had two children:
- Frederick Robert Pike (born in Oxford in 1833 and baptised at St Cross Church on 12 May)
- Emily Mary Pike (born in Oxford in 1839 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 24 July)
The couple lived initially in the parish of St Cross, but by 1839 Pike was listed as an accountant at 4 St John Street in St Mary Magdalen parish. The 1841 census shows him living there with his wife Marianne and their daughter: Frederick was probably away at school.
On 24 December 1841 Pike announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal that he was expanding to work as a house agent and auctioneer as well as an accountant:
Robert Pike, Accountant,
RESPECTFULLY announces to the public that in consequence of the demise of his highly-esteemed and much lamented friend, Mr. James Giles, jun. he purposes uniting with his present occupation that of AUCTIONEER, APPRAISER, and HOUSE AGENT, and begs to solicit a share of public patronage, which it will be his most anxious desire to merit by observing the strictest punctuality and attention.
4, St. John-street, Oxford, Dec. 23, 1841.
By 1846 Pike had moved to 2 St Aldate’s Street (just to the north of the Town Hall in St Martin’s parish) and was listed as an auctioneer at that address in Hunt’s Directory that year. He can be seen with his wife at 2 St Aldate's Street in the 1851 census, duly described as both an auctioneer and estate agent. They had two servants and a student lodger from Christ Church, and both the children were away from home: Frederick was a merchant’s clerk living with a solicitor in Covent Garden, but Emily is hard to find.
Soon after the 1851 census his son Frederick Robert Pike emigrated to New York.
In 1859 Robert Pike was elected to represent the West Ward on the city council.
At the time of the 1861 census Robert Pike (57) and his wife Marianne (52) were still living at 2 St Aldate’s Street with their daughter Emily, (21). Edward Seligman, a Cologne-born spirit merchant who became a naturalized Briton, was paying the family a visit and later that year he married their daughter:
- On 1 August 1861 at St John’s Church, Paddington, Emily Mary Pike married Edward Seligman.
In 1865 Robert Pike retired to Grosvenor Lodge, 5 Norham Gardens (right). He was the first occupier of this house, which was designed by William Wilkinson. He and his wife had four servants here in 1871, including a 17-year-old page boy.
At the time of that census his son Frederick was paying a visit from the States and was staying with them in this house with his wife Emma and five of their American-born children: Frederick (7), Mary (6), Eleanor (4), Emily (2), and Mabel (six months). They had four servants: a cook, two housemaids, and a page boy.
His American grandson Frederick Grosvenor Pike died at this house at the age of eight on 6 November 1871.
In c.1872 his son returned permanently from the USA and joined the family business.
In 1872 Robert Pike was elected Mayor of Oxford for 1872/3 and hence became a Justice of the Peace.
On 8 January 1876 Robert Pike and his son announced that the business they had run together under the name of Pike & Son at 21 New Inn Hall Street (the present 1 St Michael's Street) had been dissolved by mutual consent and would in future be carried on by Frederick alone. There were two separate notices: one from Robert Pike announcing his retirement from business and thanking his customers, stating that henceforth the business would be carried on by his son, and another from Frederick, stating that on 25 March 1876 he intended to move into more commodious offices then in the course of erection in Magdalen Street [No. 15].
In 1877 Pike resigned as a councillor when he was made an Alderman.
The 1881 census shows Alderman Pike at the age of 78) at his home at 5 Norham Gardens with his wife Marianne (71) and three servants. His “occupation” was described as “Bank shares”.
Pike resigned as an Alderman in 1882 because of ill-health.
† Robert Pike died at the age of 81 on 3 May 1885 at Norham Gardens. His funeral was on 6 May at St Giles’s Church, followed by interment at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery. The following report appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 9 May 1885:
DEATH OF MR. ROBERT PIKE.—We have to announce the death, after a somewhat protracted illness, of Mr. Robert Pike, who died on Sunday last at his residence, Grosvenor Lodge, Norham Gardens, at the advanced age of 81. Mr. Pike had seen a good deal of public life, he having been elected to the Town Council to represent the West Ward as long ago as 1859, and he continued to sit for that Ward until the year 1877, when he was made an Alderman, on the resignation of the late Mr. Grubb. He served the office of Mayor of the City in 1872, and was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1874. He resigned the office of Alderman two or three years since on account of failing health. The funeral took place on Wednesday, at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery, Walton-street, and was of a very private character.
His widow Marianne died in Brighton at the age of 78 on 15 March 1888, and was presumably buried there.
Their son Frederick Robert Pike (1833–1921)
On 24 May 1859 at the Presbyterian Church in 42nd Street, New York City, Frederick Robert Pike married Emma Jeanetta Monroe, who was born in Camanche Town, Iowa in c.1839) and they had seven children. The first two were born in Detroit, Michigan: Maud Marion Pike (1862) and Frederick Grosvenor Pike (1864), and the next three in New York: Mary Ann Florence Pike (1865), Eleanor Osborne Pike (1867), and Emily Seligman Pike (1868). Their next daughter, Mabel Davis Pike, was born in Bloomfield, New Jersey in c.1871, and their seventh child appears to be Edward Harry Pike.
Frederick had moved with his family back to Oxford in c.1872 and joined his father's auctioneer's business at 1 St Michael's Street, taking it over in 1876. He soon moved newly built premises at 15 Magdalen Street. On 21 February 1880 he announced that he had gone into partnership with John William Messenger, an architect and surveyor from London, and that hereafter his firm would be known as Pike & Messenger, and as well as the auctioneering business they wold now prepare plans and undertake surveys and general architectural work. .
At the time of the 1881 census Frederick, described as a house agent, was living with his family at 30 Trebovir Road, Kensington with three servants. In 1883, however, he was still based at Magdalen Street in Oxford.
In late 1887 his partnership with Messenger was dissolved.
In 1891 Frederick was living off his own means and boarding in Ladbroke Grove, London while his wife Emma was living at Brompton with four of their daughters: Eleanor Osborne Pike (24); Emily Osborne Pike (23), who was an artist; Louisa Vincent Pike (21); and Mabel Davis Pike (20).
By 1901 he was a widower of 68 of no occupation boarding in Lambeth Bridge Road.
In 1901 Frederick Pike, who now described himself as a widower, was boarding at 165 Vauxhall Bridge Road.
In 1911 he was living in a single room at 38 Cambridge Street, London, and he recorded that two of his seven children were now dead.
Frederick Robert Pike died at the age of 87 in London and was buried in Camden on 26 April 1921. .
See also:
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 9 May 1885, p. 5d (obituary)
- 1841 Census: Oxford (St Mary Magdalen), 891/11/17
- 1851 Census: Oxford (St Martin), 1728/114
- 1861 Census: Oxford (St Martin), 893/6
- 1871 Census: Oxford (St Paul), 1436/88
- 1881 Census: Oxford (St Giles), 1499/137
