Thomas Wyatt (1777–1845)
Mayor of Oxford 1830/1
Thomas Wyatt was born in Oxford on 14 March 1777 and was baptised at St Aldate's Church on 16 March. He was the son of John Wyatt and Mary Treadwell, who were married at St Aldate's Church on 14 January 1775. His two sisters both died in infancy: Sarah Wyatt (baptised at that church on 29 September 1778 and buried there on 7 December 1780) and Mary Wyatt (baptised at that church on 31 May and buried there on 14 December 1780).
Thomas's father John Wyatt, who was a bargemaster, died when his son was only ten, and was buried at St Aldate’s Church on 22 April 1787.
On his thirteenth birthday (14 March 1790) Thomas Wyatt was apprenticed to the builder John Johnson. He was admitted free on 18 September 1801.
On 23 February 1802 at St Martin’s Church, Oxford, Thomas Wyatt (24), who was described in the marriage notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal as a builder of St Aldate, married Martha Ensworth, third daughter of the wine merchant Thomas Ensworth (and sister of the future mayor, of the same name). They had three sons:
- Thomas Wyatt junior (born in St Ebbe's on 9 April 1803 and baptised at St Aldate’s Church on 3 July)
- Charles Wyatt (born in St Ebbe's on 25 November 1807 and baptised at St Aldate’s Church on 22 June 1808)
- Henry Wyatt (born in St Ebbe's on 25 February 1811 and baptised at St Aldate’s Church on 24 March)
- Frederick John Wyatt (born in Holywell on 2 September 1817 and baptised at St Cross Church on 5 October);
died aged 14 months and buried in St Cross churchyard on 22 October 1818)
On 30 September 1803 Thomas Wyatt was elected on to the city council.
His mother, described as “Mary Wyatt the elder”, died at the age of 70 and was buried at St Aldate’s Church on 30 October 1803.
On 30 September 1805 Wyatt was elected Junior Chamberlain for the forthcoming council year, and on 5 October 1808 was elected Surveyor to the Commissioners of the Paving Act.
On 29 March 1809 the council employed him to do the timber work on the city reservoir in the Town Hall Yard. On 18 September 1809 he was elected as Junior Bailiff for the forthcoming council year.
On 18 August 1825 his eldest son Thomas Wyatt junior was admitted free, followed on 30 July 1832 by his third son Henry Wyatt.
On 10 August 1830 “Thomas Wyatt, builder” was unanimously chosen to be one of the Mayor’s eight Assistants, and at the next council meeting on 20 September was elected Mayor of Oxford (for 1830/1). On 30 September 1830 he was also elected a Commissioner of Sewers, and on 23 December, and at his fifth council on 23 December a Member of the Market Committee.
In March 1831 Wyatt called a town meeting in support of parliamentary reform, stating at the meeting that he had “long considered a Reform of Parliament as just and necessary”, and in April an Oxford Reform Committee was formed under him.
On 28 July 1831 Wyatt was the last Mayor to perambulate the old city boundary before St Clement's was taken into the city. He entertained the Corporation and about one hundred of his friends with supper in the Town Hall at 10pm that day. Details of his perambulation are here.
The coronation of William IV took place near the end of Wyatt's term of office on 8 September 1831, but he did not attend the coronation feast in the Mayor of Oxford’s traditional role as butler, as these services were dispensed with for this Coronation.
At the end of September 1831, Wyatt expressly declined to become a candidate for Aldermanship. (Notwithstanding this, the Freemen of Oxford who were assembled in the Town Hall yard called out, “Wyatt, Wyatt”— “send out the Mayor” — we’ll have Wyatt” but his brother-in-law Thomas Ensworth was elected.
After the passing of the Municipal Corporation Act of 1835, Wyatt was elected councillor for the new West Ward on 26 December 1835 and six days later was elected an Alderman for six years.
Wyatt was listed in Robson’s Commercial Directory of 1839 as a timber merchant at Friars Wharf in St Ebbe’s.
The 1841 census shows Thomas Wyatt living at Friars Wharf, St Ebbe’s with his wife Martha and three servants. He was described as independent and had probably retired from work.
In November 1841 he tendered his resignation as Alderman, and he resigned completely from the council in 1842.
Thomas Wyatt died in his home at St Ebbe’s at the age of 67 on 2 March 1845. His short obituary in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 8 March 1845, p. 3b read:
On Sunday last, at his residence in St. Ebbe's, in the 68th year of his age, Mr. Thomas Wyatt, builder and timber merchant. Mr. Wyatt was for many years a member of the old Corporation in this city, and served the office of Mayor in the year 1830. He was likewise elected a Town Councillor and Alderman on the passing of the Reform Bill, which offices he resigned about three years since. His loss will be long regretted by a numerous circle of relatives and acquaintances, by whom he was highly respected.
The burial of Thomas Wyatt of St Ebbe's took place in St Cross churchyard four days later on 6 March.
In Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 3 May 1845 Thomas Wyatt’s business premises were advertised to be let or sold. The advertisement (inserted by his son Thomas Wyatt junior, who was about to move the family business to the Steam Saw Mills then in the course of erection) described the property as:
valuable, extensive and well arranged freehold premises known as Friars Wharf (west of the Basin), the property of the late Mr Thomas Wyatt, comprising a spacious Wharf and Yard, with powerful Crane, convenient and substantially built Carpenters’ Workshops, Store Room, and Counting House: Timber, Deal, and Sawing Sheds; two very complete Dwelling Houses, Gardens, Labourer’s Cottage, and Offices.
His widow Martha Wyatt died at the age of 69 and was buried in St Cross churchyard on 29 April 1847, again described as being of St Ebbe's .
Thomas Wyatt's three surviving sons
Thomas Wyatt junior (born 1803)
Thomas became a surveyor, architect, and builder, but on 10 November 1846 he was listed as a bankrupt in the London Gazette: “Thomas Wyatt, builder, late of the City Saw Mills, Oxford, but now of Oxford-terrace, King's-road, Chelsea”. At the time of the 1851 census Thomas (47) was working as a surveyor and living at 359 The Strand, Middlesex with his wife Sarah and his children Mary (25), Elizabeth (20), Frederick (9), and Fanny (7).
In 1859 at Westminster his daughter Elizabeth Anne Wyatt married Alfred Williams, the architect who would design Harrods and Harvey Nichols in London.
At the time of the 1861 census Thomas Wyatt (57), described as a house surveyor, was living at 6 Maddox Street near Hanover Square with his Lechlade-born wife Sarah, his married daughter Mary Dickeson (35), who was working as a governess, and her son George Dickeson (10), his son Frederick Wyatt (19), who was a surveyor, and his daughter Fanny (17), also a governess, plus his 14-year-old granddaughter Mary Elizabeth Wyatt and one servant.
Charles Wyatt (born 1807)
Charles was a builder of St Mary Magdalen parish when on 29 March 1836 at Headington he married Elizabeth Jane Knowles, the daughter of Thomas Knowles. Elizabeth died at Friars Wharf, Oxford at the age of 27 on 19 January 1838. On 24 March 1846 at St James's Church, Westminster Charles married his second wife Emma Sandy, who was born in Henley-on-Thames and was the daughter of the butcher Frederic Robert Sandy: both Charles and Emma were described as being of St James's Place in Westminster. At the time of the 1851 census Charles (43), described as a builder, was living at Grays Hill, Rotherfield Grays, Oxfordshire with Emma and their children Frederick (3) and Louisa (1), plus their 14-year-old servant girl. In 1861 Charles (54) described himself as a retired cabinet maker and was living at Hart Street, Henley-on Thames and now had three children, the youngest being Bessie (6). In 1871 he described himself as a lodging house keeper and was living at Hart Street, Henley-on-Thames with Emma and their three children and servant, Frederick (23) was then an assistant chemist, but he died on 9 August the next year. Thomas Wyatt and his wife Emma were at the same address in 1881 with their daughter Louisa (31).
Charles Wyatt died in Henley at the age of 74 on 5 November 1881: see his grave.
Henry Wyatt (born 1811)
Henry Wyatt, a widowed carpenter aged 34, married Elizabeth Thorpe at All Souls, Marylebone, London on 21 September 1844. At the time of the 1851 census he and Elizabeth were living in Oxford at Friars Street, St Ebbe's, with their children Henry (5) and Martha (1). He died at Friars Street at the age of 42 and his burial on 23 June 1856 is recorded in the parish register of Holy Trinity Church, St Ebbe's/
See also:
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entry numbered 2907
- 1841 Census: Oxford (St Ebbe), 891/03/54
