People of Headington: Lord Nuffield (William Morris)
William Morris, Lord Nuffield (1877–1963) is always regarded as a Cowley lad; but in fact his parents were married in Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, and after a few years in Worcester he spent his childhood in Headington, as his father was bailiff at Wood Farm from c.1881 to c.1891.
The land of Brasenose Farm was also farmed by the Pethers by 1891, and in the census that year the Morris family is shownas living at “Brasenose Lane” in Headington Quarry, probably in a cottage near Brasenose Farmhouse (below).
Richard Pether and his brother Henry originally held Bartlemas Farm, but by 1851 Richard had the lease of Wood Farm, which was owned by Magdalen College. He thus came to live within the boundary of the newly-established parish of Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry. At the time of the 1861 census he employed twelve men and eleven boys to look after the 207 acres of Wood Farm; ten years later, his land had increased to 295 acres; and twenty years later to 370 acres, worked by 17 men, three women, and six boys. This growth is partly explained by the fact that Richard, much to the disgust of the people of Quarry, had been encroaching on the Open Magdalens.
On 7 November 1876, at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, Richard Pether’s daughter Emily Ann married Frederick Morris, who originated from Witney but was currently working at Hallow in Worcestershire as a clothier’s assistant. On the same day Emily’s sister Kate Pether married Vincent Ball, a farmer and miller from Wytham who was a widower.
Frederick took Emily back to Hallow, and and on 10 October 1877 Emily gave birth to their first child, whom they named William Richard after his two grandfathers: he of course was the future Lord Nuffield. By the time of the 1881 census, William Morris had two younger sisters, and the family can be seen living at Spring Cottage, Corner Gardens, Hallow, with Frederic now working as a draper’s clerk.
Soon after the 1881 census, the family of five came back to Emily’s father at Wood Farm for support, and Richard Pether – who at 64 had been a widower for ten years – made Frederick his farm bailiff. They were living in Brasenose Lane at the time of the 1891 census, but shortly afterwards the family moved to 16 James Street in East Oxford; William took a job in a bicycle shop; by 1893 with £4 capital he set up a bicycle business at home; and the rest is history.
With no surviving son to take over the farm, Richard Pether moved away from Wood Farm in 1895, when he was 80, and went to live at Unity House in Larkins Lane, Old Headington with his two unmarried daughters, Annie and Elizabeth (Bessy). He died in 1902 (the year his grandson produced his first motorcycle), and was buried with his wife and four young sons in the graveyard of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry. The Pether family continued to own Unity House, and Mrs Emily Ann Yockney, Lord Nuffield’s sister, lived there with her family until 1912.
William Morris’s father Frederick died in 1916, and his mother Emily Ann Morris in 1934.
Nuffield’s connection with Headington as an adult relates to the enormous gifts he gave towards medical research and hospitals, and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre bears his name. He and his wife (who died respectively on 22 August 1963 and 20 May 1959) also have a plaque (below) in Oxford Crematorium in Bayswater Road.
The Pether family grave is situated immediately in front of the C. S. Lewis signpost at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry. Here lie Lord Nuffield’s grandfather, Richard Pether (who died in 1902, aged 87) and his grandmother Ann Ursula (who died in 1871, aged 51). Also buried in the grave are three of their children: their son Richard (who died in 1867, aged 11, at Mr Hurst’s School in Littlemore); and their two youngest daughters, who never married but cared for their father Richard in his old age and outlived him.
Next to this grave are three child-sized graves whose inscriptions are now illegible: they must belong to Richard and Ann Pether’s other three boys, who all died in the 1850s before their first birthday: Walter, an earlier Richard, and Henry. Their eldest daughter, Ann Ursula Pether (baptised on 3 January 1846) was buried at Cowley St. James on 16 April 1846.
This cartoon, entitled THE HORN OF PLENTY: “SAY WHEN!”, was published in Punch on 2 December 1936. Underneath is written “With Mr. Punch’s congratulations to Lord Nuffield, who has increased his enormous gift to Oxford University for Medical Research by another £750,000.”
There is a
much fuller entry on Lord Nuffield in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ODNB online is available free to many public library users, including those in Oxfordshire:
enter L followed by your card number in the “Library Card Login” box
Wikipedia: William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield
Pether
family tree: drawn up by Irene Lowe of Australia, who is descended
from Richard
Pether’s older brother William (one of the first emigrants to
Western Australia
in 1838) and his wife Irene
Morris family tree: brief details from The Complete Peerage
