James Adams (1760–1829)
Mayor of Oxford 1804/5 and 1819/20
James Adams was born in Oxford in 1760, the son of Thomas Adams, a cook of the University of Oxford. His father was already dead when on 6 June 1774 James was apprenticed for seven years to Richard Holloway, an Oxford upholsterer.
On 12 February 1782 at Chipping Norton, James Adams, described as being of St Mary the Virgin parish in Oxford, married Sarah Day of Tything, Over Norton.
James Adams inserted a notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 6 April 1782 where he described himself as an “upholder, appraiser, and auctioneer” and stated that he had taken on the shop and business of Alderman Philip Ward in Oxford’s High Street, opposite All Souls College in the parish of St Mary the Virgin (probably 90 High Street, left).
On 12 April 1782 James Adams was admitted free, and in September that year he sold off Alderman Ward’s furniture and stock.
James Adams was selected as Mayor’s Child by the new Mayor, William Fletcher, on 30 September 1782, and he immediately took up his Chamberlain’s place on the Council. On 9 October that year he took on Daniel Evans as an apprentice (a man who was to achieve fame as a builder rather than an upholsterer).
Diamond-shaped floor stone in St Mary-the-Virgin
Church in memory
of the first Sarah who died
aged 18 months in July 1789
Adams and his wife Sarah had the following children:
- Charles James Adams (born on 10 April 1786 and baptised on 18 April at St Mary-the-Virgin Church)
- Sarah Adams I (born on 10 January 1787 and baptised on 15 January at St Mary-the-Virgin Church; died aged 18 months in July 1789)
- Harriet Adams (born on 14 March 1790 and baptised on 16 March at St Mary-the-Virgin Church)
- Sarah Adams II (born on 25 March 1792 and baptised on 1 April at St Mary-the-Virgin Church)
- Eliza Adams (born on 14 March 1797 and baptised on 20 March at St Mary-the-Virgin Church; died aged two weeks)
- Elizabeth Adams (born on 7 December 1798 and baptised on 16 December at St Mary-the-Virgin Church;
died aged two months).
Adams took on John Horn as an apprentice in 1789 and William Strainge in 1795.
On 14 September 1795 Adams was elected Senior Bailiff for the forthcoming council year, and then sat on the Council as a Bailiff until on 12 December 1803 he was elected one of the Eight Assistants.
On 17 September 1804 he was elected Mayor of Oxford (for 1804/5). On 19 August 1805 near the end of his term of office he rode the franchise. He then continued to serve on the council as one of the eight Assistants.
On 18 April 1815 at St Mary-the-Virgin Church his eldest daughter Harriet Adams married Charles Thorpe, Esq. of Buckland, but less than two years later on 28 January 1817 she died at the age of 27 after a short but severe illness.
On 27 December 1817 Jackson's Oxford Journal reported that a large body of the freemen of the city presented him with a silver-gilt cup costing 50 guineas inscribed:
Presented to James Adams, Esq. by the independent Freemen of the City of Oxford, to testify their personal attachment to him, and to commemorate their gratitude for his constant exertions to maintain the rights and privileges of his fellow citizens, Dec. 22, 1817.
In 1819 Adams was elected a second time as Mayor (for 1819/20). On Wednesday 2 February 1820 he proclaimed the accession of King George IV. Jackson's Oxford Journal reported three days later:
The Proclamation of the Accession of his present Majesty King George the Fourth, in this city, took place on Wednesday last. At twelve o'clock James Adams, Esq. the Mayor, mounted on a horse richly caparisoned, and preceded by the Town Clerk (Sir William Elias Taunton, Knight) and Macebearer (who were also on horseback), and followed by the Aldermen, Assistants, and a long train of Common Councilmen, on foot, all in the dress robes of their respective office, and wearing cocked hats, proceeded to Carfax, where first the Proclamation was read by the Town Clerk. The whole body then walked in r... order, and, accompanied by various flags and an excellent band of music, down the High-street until they reached St. Mary's Church. At this point the body halted; the Vice-Chancellor, the Lord Bishop of Oxford, the Noblemen, Heads of Houses, proctors, and Members of Convocation, being here assembled on a spacious platform in the front of the Church, for the purpose of attending the solemnity of proclaiming the King. The Members of the University were all in the full dresses of their respective stations, and the coup d'œil of the spectacle at this moment was most brilliant and imposing. The Proclamation was then read the second time, and at the conclusion, after reciprocal interchange of bows between the City Magistrates and the Academical Dignitaries, the procession passed on, and the Proclamation was afterwards read in those four different quarters which are distinguished as being the sites of the four ancient gates of the City. At the conclusion of each reading of the Proclamation, the Mayor waved his hat, and exclaimed, “Long live King George the IVth,” — and the air, upon every such repetition, resounded with loyal huzzas and enthusiastic plaudits; while the band of music, in harmony with those feelings, and with a most impressive effect, immediately struck up God Save the King. The novelty of the solemnity, and the associations connected with this great occasion, brought together an immense body of sympathizing spectators. The street was thronged with citizens and the younger Members of the University, — every window was occupied, and even the tops of the houses were made alive by various groupes, and studded with female beauty, and enlivened with the cheers of loyal affection. The weather also was very fine and propitious; — a circumstance that tended, in no common degree, to increase the general sense of pleasure, and render still more interesting and delightful the pageantry of the ceremonial. — A handsome collation was afterwards served up in the Council Chamber to all the Gentlemen of the City who formed the procession, under the hospitable superintendance of the Mayor; and the contents of several barrels of beer were distributed at Carfax to all those who chose to be partakers of them. — Under the same liberal auspices, a plentiful dinner was given to the prisoners in the city gaol (upwards of 30 in number), who expressed, in grateful terms, their sense of the kindness which had been manifested towards them on this memorable occasion.
He must have been expecting to serve as Butler at the King's Coronation scheduled for 1 August 1820 (and possibly acquiring the traditional knighthood), so must have been disappointed when the Coronation was postponed nearly a year to 19 July 1821. He was however selected to attend the ceremony with the new Mayor the following year in lieu of one of the Aldermen who declined the invitation.
On 2 December 1825 James Adams was elected an Alderman, and also a Commissioner of Sewers. By 1829 he was the Senior Member of the Corporation.
† Alderman James Adams died on 17 September 1829 at the age of about 70 and was buried at St Mary-the-Virgin Church on 26 September. The following obituary was published in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 19 September 1829:
On Thursday last died, after a lingering and most painful illness, aged 71, James Adams, Esq. one of the Aldermen, and senior Member of this Corporation. Mr. Adams was elected Bailiff of the City in 1795, and served the office of Mayor in the years 1804 and 1819, upholding the dignity of the office of Chief Magistrate, highly to the credit of himself and the City, and with the true spirit of liberality to his fellow-citizens. On the death of Sir Edward Hitchings in 1825, he was elected Alderman. So highly esteemed was Mr. Adams by his brother Freemen, that in December 1817, a valuable piece of plate was presented to him, bearing the following inscription:—:
“Presented to James Adams, Esq. by the independent Freemen of the City of Oxford, to testify their personal attachment to him, and to commemorate their gratitude for his constant exertions to maintain the rights and privileges of his fellow citizens.”
He left his house and premises to his wife Sarah Adams for her lifetime, and it was then to pass on to his son Charles. His daughter Sarah (Mrs Stevens) was then to receive £500.
His son Charles James Adams announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 10 October 1829 that he would be carrying on his father's business as a cabinet-maker, auctioneer, and appraiser.
His widow Sarah Adams remained in their High Street home where she died at the age of 83. She was buried with him on 20 April 1838.
James Adams’s two surviving children
- Robson’s Commercial Directory of 1839 lists his son Charles James Adams 1786) as an Upholsterer & Auctioneer at 90 High Street
- His daughter Sarah Adams (born 1792) married James Stevens.
See also:
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entries numbered 2506, 2732, 2864, and 3051
- PCC Will PROB 11/1770/405 (Will of James Adams, Alderman of Oxford, proved 20 May 1830)
