John Davenant
Mayor of Oxford 1621/2
John Davenant (or Davnet/Devnet) (1565–1622) was the first child of the merchant vinter John Davenant and Judith Sparke. He grew up in London, and was educated at Merchant Taylors' School.
In about 1593 he married Jane Sheppard (known as Jennett). She was baptised at St Margaret’s, Westminster in 1568, the daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Sheppard. Their first six children were born in London, but not all of them survived.
In about 1600 Davenant and his wife moved to Oxford, where he took over the wine tavern at 3 Cornmarket. This tavern had twenty rooms, and was owned by New College.
Oon 4 June 1604 Davenant was awarded his freedom, a bailiff’s place on the council, and one of the three city licences to sell wine. He appears to have had at least ten children, some possibly born earlier in London, as only four appear in the baptismal registers of St Martin’s Church:
- Two daughters (later Mrs Bridges and Mrs Sherburne)
- Jane ("third daughter", later Mrs Hallam, baptised at St Martin’s Church on 11 Feburary 1601)
- Robert ("eldest son", baptised at St Martin’s Church on 14 April 1604)
- Alice (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 30 December 1604)
- William ("second son", baptised at St Martin’s Church on 3 March 1605/6)
- Nicholas ("third son", later an attorney according to Wood)
- John (named on monument as being Sir William Davenant’s brother)
- Thomas (named on monument as being Sir William Davenant’s brother)
- Elizabeth (later Mrs Bristow)
Anthony Wood says of Davenant:
John Davenant was a sufficient vintner, kept the tavern now known by the name of the Crowne, … was mayor of the said city in the year 1621, … was a very grave and discreet citizen (yet an admirer of plays and play-makers, especially Shakespeare, who frequented his house in his journies between Warwickshire and London), was of a melancholic disposition, and was seldome or never known to laugh.
A rumour sprang up that Davenant’s son William (probably born in 1605/6) was in fact the child of Shakespeare. Thomas Hearne states that it was an Oxford tradition that "Mr Shakespear was his father and gave him his name". Young William certainly grew up to be a playwright and poet, and Aubrey had this to say of the family:
His [Sir William Davenant’s] father was John Davenant, a Vintner there, a very grave and discreet Citizen; his mother was a very beautifull woman, and of a very good witt, and of conversation extremely agreable. They had three sons, viz. 1, Robert, 2, William, and 3, Nicholas (an attorney): and two handsome daughters, one married to Gabriel Bridges (B.D., fellow of C.C. Coll, beneficed in the Vale of White Horse), another to Dr. (William) Sherburne (minister of Pembridge in Hereford, and a canon of that church). Mr William Shakespeare was wont to goe into Warwickshire once a yeare, and did commonly in his journey lye at this house in Oxon. where he was exceedingly respected. [I have heard parson Robert (Davenant) say that Mr. W. Shakespeare haz given him a hundred kisses.] Now Sir William would sometimes, when he was pleasant over a glass of wine with his most intimate friends — e.g. Sam. Butler (author of Hudebras) &c — say, that it seemed to him that he writt with the very spirit that Shakespeare, and seemed contented enough to be thought his son. (He would tell them the story as above, in which way his mother had a very light report.)
On 11 December 1618 Davenant’s eldest son, Robert, was matriculated at the University of Oxford from St John’s College at the age of 15.
John Davenant remained a bailiff until 10 May 1619, when he was elected on to the Mayor’s Council. In September 1621 he was elected Mayor, "the presenters for the sayd Mr Davenante beinge by him nominated to be Mr Alderman Harris and Mr Alderman Wright, of whome this howse well liketh of". Davenant nominated Alexander Hill as his Chamberlain. He selected the young baker Roger Griffin as his Child.
Davenant’s wife Jane died during his mayoral term and was buried at St Martin’s Church on 5 April 1622. In his will John Davenant desired that he should be buried "as nere my wife as the place will give leave where she lyeth". He only had to wait 18 days, for on 23 April 1622, Davenant himself was buried with her, having completed only half his year as Mayor.. When St Martin's church was demolished in 1896, their bones were transferred with the rest to an unknown communal grave in Holywell Cemetery.
Davenant’s servant, Thomas Hallam (or Hellam or Hollome or Hallum) was admitted free the following August, and married Jane, the third of Davenant’s daughters.
Davenant’s will, proved on 21 October 1622, directed that the inn be kept open for the better relief of his children, that his two youngest daughters should "keep the bar by turns", and that his son William should be "put to prentice to some good merchant or other tradesman". In fact William became a student at Lincoln College, Oxford around this time, but his daughter Mrs Jane Hallam held on to the inn until 1665.
Davenant Road in North Oxford is named after this Mayor.
3 Cornmarket and the Painted Room
The early inn on this site was originally known as Pate’s Inn and then Somenour’s Inn. it was rebuilt in about 1500 as the Bull Inn, and at some point before 1555 was divided into two, the southern part being the present 3 Cornmarket. The original timber-framed building hides behind the present eighteenth-century front. Upstairs are wall paintings dating from between 1564 and 1581 when John Tatleton (whose initials were found over a fireplace in the back room) leased the house.
Early in the seventeenth century, around the time that Davenant moved in, oak panelling was installed to hide the old-fashioned wall-paintings. The panelling was in turn was covered with canvas and paper, and the paintings were not rediscovered until 1927. The frieze that runs along the top of the north wall and finishes beside the chimney breast on the east wall reads: "And last of the rest be thou / gods servant for that hold i best / In the mornynge earlye / serve god Devoutlye / Fear god above allthynge." Over the chimney breast are the large letters "IHS", which are either an iota, eta, and sigma (the first three letters for Jesus in the Greek alphabet) or an abbreviation for the Latin Iesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus, Saviour of Mankind).
Davenant’s inn later became known as the Crown Tavern (not to be confused with the present Crown Inn on the other side of Cornmarket) and is now a shop with offices above.
A tablet to the Davenants (below) was removed from St Martin’s Church at Carfax prior to its demolition and put up in the new City Church, All Saints (now Lincoln College Library). It was presumably put up by Sir William Davenant in 1715, and as well as commemorating his own son, daughter, and granddaughter also remembers his parents John and Jane, his brother Thomas, and his sisters Jane Hallam and Elizabeth Bristow.
To the Memory of
John D'avenant, Father
Jane D'avenant, Mother
John D'avenant, Brother
Wm: D'avenant, Eldest son
Tho: Hallam, Brother
Jane Hallam, Sister
Eliz: Swift, Grandaughter
Eliz: Bristow, Sister
of Sir William Davenant
Mary Swift Daughter
Obit Feb. 4 1715
Davenant’s son Robert was awarded his doctorate in Divinity on 2 August 1660, and ended up as Vicar of West Kington in Wiltshire. He married Jane, the daughter of John Harward, the Vicar of Wanborough, Wiltshire.
See also:
- PCC Will PROB 11/140 (Will of John Davenant, Major of Oxford, proved 21 October 1622)
- W.H. Hutton, "Shakespeare and Oxford" (extract from the Catalogue of the Shakespeare Exhibition, Bodlein Library, Oxford, 1916)
- Will of John Davenant, printed in H. Phillips, Outlines of Life of Shakespeare, I.46–8
- Painted room at 3 Cornmarket Street (at one of its special openings, e.g. Heritage Open Days in September)
- Wood’s City of Oxford, Vol. III, pp. 172–3 (further genealogy of the Davenant family)
- John Aubrey’s "Brief Life" of Sir William Davenant (Bodl. Oxf., MS Aubry 6, fols. 46–47v
- Entry on Sir William Davenant in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography