Thomas Cossam
Mayor of Oxford 1604/5
Thomas Cossam (or Cosame/Cosham/Cossham/Cossom) (c.1540–c.1608) was an Oxford shoemaker. He was the apprentice of William Allder and was admitted free as a Hanaster in the mayoral year 1562–3.
Cossam had the following children:
- Joan (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 25 August 1565)
- William (batpised at St Martin’s Church on 5 April 1569)
- Margaret (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 24 July 1574)
- Susanne (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 13 April 1577, buried there on 25 October 1577)
- Alice (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 1 January 1578/9)
- Thomas (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 1 August 1581)
- Grace (baptised at St Martin’s Church in 1584)
- William (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 4 October 1587, buried there on 15 October 1587 )
- Edmund ("son of Thomas", buried at St Martin’s Church on 20 August 1588 )
On 3 February 1571 Cossam was granted a messuage in St Martin’s (on the site of the present 141 High Street), by Rauf Pette of Adderbury, together with five acres behind Osney Bridge and Bulstake. On 7 June the same year he sold both the messuage and land to the City for £50, and was granted a lease for 21 years.
In September 1572 Cossam paid a tax (or "seasement") of three shillings to the Churchwardens of St Martin’s.
On 3 November 1575 he was committed to prison with five other Oxford shoemakers:
Yt ys ordered and agreed att thys Counsell that … Thomas Cossam … shoemakers of thys Citie, be commytted to the pryson of Bochardo as by the comandement of thys howse, and theire to remayne untyll they humblye submytt themselves and confesse theire great contumacye and dysobedyens wch they have commytted agaynst Mr Mayor and the state of thys Cytie.
On 29 September 1576 Cossam was elected on to the Common Council, and in 1581 was elected a Chamberlain
In October 1583 Cossam was granted a new lease by the Council of his house and grounds for 60 years at a rent of £3 11s 8d. In that year his daughter Joan married Richard Moseden at St Martin’s Church.
In 1584 he was appointed a Bailiff and a Taster of Flesh and Fish, and in 1585 a Searcher of Leather.
In 1591 a Thomas Cossam was buried at St Martin’s Church. As Cossam’s son of that name survived to adulthood, this may have been Cossam’s father.
In 1593 Cossam’s apprentice, Thomas Marchaunt, was admitted as a freeman.
In 1594 Cossam was chosen as one of the Keepers of the five keys, and in September 1597 one of the Thirteen Associates.
On 31 October 1597 Cossam’s wife was buried at St Martin’s Church, and in 1598 his daughter Margaret married John Posterne there.
In January 1603 Cossam was elected an Alderman, and in September that year he was elected Mayor. In the August of his year of office, James I, together with the Queen and the young Prince, visited Oxford. Cossam rode out at the head of a procession to meet them, dressed in a scarlet gown, velvet coat, and velvet hose, with four footmen to attend him and with his footcloth; behhind him came the Aldermen (similarly dressed). Then came the mayor’s council (with scarlet gowns, satin doublets, and velvet hose and tippets) and the two Bailiffs for the year (similarly dressed, each of them with a white rod in his hand). These all rode "two and two", each of them providing one footman "in comely sort". Next came everyone who had ever been bailiff of chamberlain, in garded coats and in doublets, "with comely hose handsomly booted and spurred". At the end of the procession rode 60 councillors and commoners ("in blacke coats, all of them layd on with velvit lace in blacke doublets and comely hose handsomely booted and spurred").
By 1604 Cossam’s son Thomas, now 23, must have married, and Richard, the son of Thomas Cossam the younger, was baptised and buried on the same day (8 February 1604/5) at St Martin’s Church.
On 1 August 1605 "Thomas Cossam, eldest son of Thomas Cossam, cordwainer" was admitted free "by his father’s copy".
A surviving Memorandum shows that Thomas Cossam alderman had not goods or chattels whereby the second payment of the second subsidy of three subsidies granted 3 Jac. I (1604–6) could be levied.
In 1606 Cossam was granted a lease by the council of two tenements in St Martin’s for £3 6s 8d.
In September 1608 Cossam resigned his place as Alderman.