No. 46: Former house/dental surgery
No. 46 Broad Street was the twelfth house from the right of the group of thirteen houses dating from the first half of the seventeenth century that were demolished to make way for the New Bodleian Library (now the Weston Library) in 1937.
The house was in St Mary Magdalen parish.
This house belonged to the city from 1569 to the 1930s, and detailed records remain of the early leases of this large building:
- 1591: William Clarke, labourer
- (14 Jac. I): Richard Duckett
- 1637: Timothy Carter, gent.
(occupied by Elias Archer and Henry East) - 1647: Bartholomew Finch, cook
- 1677/8: Francis and Abraham Finch
(occupied by Richard Hedges, cook) - 1691: Abraham Finch cook
(occupied by Elizabeth Hedges) - 1705: Elizabeth Finch
- 1717 and 1731: George Major of the University, yeoman
- 1745 and 1759: Mathew Kerry of “Wightham” [Wytham], Berks, carpenter
The 1772 Survey of Oxford gave the measurement of the frontage of this house as 7 yards 0 feet 3 inches and stated that it was occupied by Mrs Jones, and a lease to Elizabeth Jones is duly recorded in 1773.
Alderman William Fletcher, mercer and banker, lived here from 1787 until his death on 27 December 1826 at the age of 87 and was granted leases in 1787, 1801, and 1815. He served as Mayor of Oxford in 1796/7 and again in 1809/10, He also owned 47 Broad Street next door, which he let out.
No. 46 then passed jointly to the banker Thomas Robinson (Fletcher's son-in-law) and the bookseller Joseph E. Parker, but they did not live here and the city records state that it was occupied by Thomas Roberts who is probably the man of that name who was married to Thomas Robinson's daughter Catharine Frances Robinson. She died on 2 October 1830 and her husband on 1 December 1836
A forthcoming auction of this house, which Alderman Fletcher had leased from the City Council for forty years from Lady Day 1829, was advertised in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 25 February 1832.
By 1836 No. 46 was occupied by the accountant James Hunt. When it was advertised as coming up for auction in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 4 March that year it was described as follows:
All that excellent DWELLING HOUSE, in Broad-street, Oxford, in the occupation of Mr James Hunt, containing a large entrance hall, two parlours, detached kitchen, with room over, large back kitchen, with laundry over, paved court yard, out-houses, garden, &c.; spacious dining room and bed room, with gallery leading to the room over the kitchen, on the first floor; three principal bed rooms, and two servants’ ditto over the same; excellent cellaring, and other conveniences. These Premises are held by lease under the Corporation of Oxford, for forty years, from Lady-day, 1829.—Out-goings, £1 4s.
The 1841 census shows James Hunt living here with eight children and two female servants. He was granted a lease in 1843, and was still here in 1846.
On 25 August 1849 the dental surgeon Edmund Bevers announced that he had moved into this house. He is listed here in the 1851 census as a 39 year-old widower with three tiny children. His wife must have died very recently, because the baby, Harcourt Bevers, was only six weeks old. In 1854 he married his first wife's sister, Alice Coggan. He was on holiday at the time of the 1861 census and only his four children were at home, plus an assistant dentist and three servants. Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) had his tooth filled here by Bevers.
The 1871 census shows Bevers still living here with his second wife Alice and two of his children.
On 27 January 1872 Jackson's Oxford Journal advertised a forthcoming auction of this house, describing it as follows:
All the desirable RESIDENCE, being No. 46, Broad-street, Oxford, containing entrance hall and staircase, two sitting rooms, two drawing rooms, with beautifully carved ceilings, and carved woodwork; six bed rooms, kitchen, scullery, and offices, all well arranged, and in excellent repair, with garden extending to the gardens belonging to the President and Fellows of Trinity College. The Property is let on a repairing Lease to a highly respectable tenant, at the low rent of £80 per annum, whose term expires at Midsummer, 1873, and is held by Lease from the City of Oxford for a term of 40 years from last April. The Gas and Water is laid on throughout. It is pleasantly situate in the Broad-street, opposite the Museum and Theatre, and will always command a respectable tenant at a fair rent.
Bevers continued to live at this house, and died here on 14 February 1880. His widow was here at the time of the 1881 census with her own three children and two of the grown-up children by Edmund’s first marriage (Winifred and Harcourt, the latter now a dental surgeon here himself), and her older widowed sister Eliza Newman, plus two servants.
At the time of the 1891 census Edmund Bevers' son Edmund Augustine Bevers (41), described as a surgeon & dentist, was living here with his wife Helen Jane Bevers and their three children and his sister-in-law, plus three servants (a nursemaid, cook, and pageboy). Bevers was still here with his wife and children at the time of the 1901 census, now described as a surgeon and employer. At the time of the 1911 census the Bevers family were away and the thirteen-roomed house was occupied by their butler and his wife.
The 1921 census shows two dental surgeon living at No. 46: Benjamin Edgar James (49) with his wife Maud in four rooms, and George Samuel Stoke (51) and his wife Margaret in three rooms.
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Occupants of 46 Broad Street listed in directories |
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1836–1846 |
James Hunt, Accountant |
1852–1921 |
Bevers family, Dentists and Surgeons 1852–1880: Edmund Bevers, Surgeon dentist 1893–1921: Edmund Augustine Bevers, MRS, Physician and Surgeon-dentist |
1921–1927 |
James Benjamin Edgar, Dental Surgeon |
1928–1935 |
Ernest William Cooke, Dental Surgeon |
Demolished with twelve neighbouring
houses in 1937 |
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See the bound typescript in the Bodleian Library entitled “The
Demolished Houses
of Broad Street and the Freeborn Family”
(1943), attributed to Emily Sarah Freeborn,
and the webpage by Alan Simpson which reproduces some of the material in it.