Oxford History: Mayors & Lord Mayors

Home

---

MAYORS:

1205–1348
1348–1485
1485–1603
1603–1714
1714–1835
1836–1962

LORD MAYORS:

1962–today

---

RELATED TOPICS:

City government
City Church
The Town Hall
Sources used

---

Contact/Search

---

James Jenkin in c.1881 (Picture Oxon 0655068)

James Jenkin was born at Longwall Street, Oxford on 6 November 1827 and baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church, Oxford on 23 December. Around the time of his birth his family name was always recorded as Jenkins, but it had settled to Jenkin by the middle of the century.

He was the only son of the High Street tailor Gabriel Jenkin, who was described as being of Kenwyn, Truro, Cornwall when he married James's mother at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 5 April 1825 . His mother Ann Smith had been baptised at the same church on 4 January 1809, and was the daughter of James Smith and his wife Mary Bunce.

James's five sisters were also baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church: Mary Anne (1825) Harriet (1831), Eliza (1833), Emma Adelaide (1835) and Fanny (1838).

James’s father Gabriel Jenkin died at the age of 39 (before the baptism of his youngest child, Fanny) and was buried at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 1 April 1838. He was described as then being of King Street, which is the part of the present Merton Street that runs up to the High: he may have had a shop on the site of the present Ruskin School of Drawing, and possibly took over the business of another tailor, Richard Dry.

By 1839 James's maternal grandmother Mrs Mary Smith was the publican at the Flying Horse, which was on the site of the present Eastgate Hotel at 73 High Street in St Peter-in-the-East parish. At the time of the 1841 census, James and his five young sisters were living at the pub with their grandmother and their widowed mother Ann Jenkin, who was a dressmaker.

In 1844 James's mother Ann had a son, Lester Jenkin, born in the High Street (presumably at the Flying Horse). As St Peter-in-the-East Church was then closed, he was baptised on 18 September 1844 at St John the Baptist Church (Merton College Chapel), wth his mother described as “single woman”. By 1846 she had moved to The Plain in St Clement's. Lester died there that year, and was described as “Lester Jenkin alias Hoare” when he was buried in St Clement's churchyard on 18 October 1846.

By the time of the 1851 census Ann was living at Pembroke Street in St Ebbe's as the common-law wife of John Lester Hoare (40), an upholsterer born in Dublin. She called herself Ann Hoare, and they had two more children children, Lester Harry Hoare (4) and Alfred Edward Hoare (2), and James's grandmother Mary Smith was living with them. When Mary's sons were baptised (Lester at St Clement's Church on 29 November 1846 and Alfred at St Ebbe's Church on 31 January 1849), his parents were recorded in the two parish registers as if they were married.

On 30 September 1851 at St Pancras Church in London, James's mother Ann Jenkin née Smith (described as living in Chatton Street, London) married her common-law husband, the upholsterer John Lester Hoare (described as being a widower of Aldenham Street, London).

Meanwhile in 1851 James Jenkin (23) was still living in the parish of St Peter-in-the-East with his sister Harriet (20). They were described as a schoolmaster and schoolmistress and had three schoolboys aged 13 and 14 boarding with them.

On 26 April 1859 at St Peter-in-the-East Church, James Jenkin married Caroline Hounslow. Born on 7 February 1834. she was the daughter of John Hounslow, who was a grocer and wine merchant at 67 & 68 High Street (right). William Tuckwell in his Reminiscences of Oxford described John Hounslow as “the Radical grocer in High Street”.

Jenkin moved in upstairs at No. 67/68 High Street with his wife and parents-in-law. He and Caroline had the following seven children there:

• George James Jenkin (baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 7 June 1861; died on 6 Febury 1862 aged nine months)
• Harriet Emily Jenkin (born on 10 May 1862 and baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 18 June)
• Walter Hounslow Jenkin (born on 15 September 1863 and baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 24 September; died aged two weeks on 30 September 1863)
• Herbert Jenkin (born on 13 April 1865 and baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 18 April)
• Sarah (baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 18 November 1866)
• Kate Jenkin (baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 4 August 1869)
• Caroline Jenkin (baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 25 March 1873).

At the time of the 1861 census James Jenkin was still a teacher living with his wife and their housemaid over No. 67/68. The following advertisement that he placed in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 20 July 1861 shows that he taught at the Middle School in Holywell (Boys accepted as choristers at St John the Baptist Church were offered £6 a year or a free education here.)

On 24 February 1866 John Hounslow announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal that he was handing the business over to his son-in-law James Jenkin. In the following year Jenkin was listed in directories as a wine merchant here as well as a grocer.

James Jenkin's father-in-law John Hounslow, now described as a gentleman, died at 67 High Street at the age of 76 on 31 March 1871. His effects came to under £6,000, and his executors were his son John Wells Hounslow (a grocer in Reading), John William Mawer (a men's mercer of 4 High Street, Oxford), and James Jenkin himself.

By the time of the 1871 census James Jenkin (43). described as a grocer employing three men and one boy, had moved into the premises above No. 68 with his wife Caroline (37) and their four surviving children: Harriet (8), Herbert (5), Sarah (4), and Kate (1), and a grocer’s shopman and two servants also lived with them. Their youngest child Caroline was born in 1873.

On 21 September 1869 James Jenkin announced that he had also taken over the grocery business of Walter C. Williams at 72 High Street.

On 12 September 1872 Jenkins was elected an Oxford City Councillor for the East Ward, and was re-elected in November 1973. In 1874 he was appointed Chairman of the Oxford Board of Guardians (a post he was to hold for 24 years until his death). In 1877 he was appointed Sheriff of Oxford.

In 1881 James Jenkin was living over No. 68 with his wife and their five children. His only son Herbert (15) was still at school, and also living in the house was Jenkin’s half-brother, Alfred Edward Hoare, described as a grocer’s assistant.

In 1881 Jenkin was elected Mayor of Oxford for 1881/2.

By 1891 Jenkin was described as a wine merchant as well as a grocer. He and Caroline were still living over the shop, and had two children at home: Herbert  (25), described as a grocer’s assistant, and Caroline (18), who was still at school .The family now had just a 16-year-old servant.

In October 1894 Jenkin was presented with a purse of £70 and an illuminated address in recognition of the valuable public service he had rendered to the city, which was signed by 112 people including Lord Valentia, the Dean of Christ Church, the Vice-Chancellor of the University.

Because he was an Alderman when the new Town Hall was opened in 1897, James Jenkin’s head is carved in stone in the Council Chamber corridor (right).