John Harris
Mayor of Oxford 1663/4
John Harris (1596–1674) was born at Burford, and apprenticed in Oxford as a tailor.
Harris’s first wife was Elizabeth, and they had the following children:
- Annisia or Annis (baptised at St Martin’s Church, Oxford on 12 April 1621)
- Jane (baptised at St Martin’s Church, Oxford on 7 July 1622)
- Frideswide (baptised at St Michael at the Northgate on 13 June 1624).
This suggests that the family moved from St Martin’s parish to St Michael’s in about 1623.
Harris’s wife Elizabeth was buried inside St Michael’s Church on 26 January 1629/30, and their daughter Jane on 27 July 1634.
Harris married his second wife, Anne, who was twelve years his junior, in about 1630. Anthony Wood mentions that Alderman Harris’s wife (presumably Anne) was the daughter of a Master of Arts of St John’s College named Lynck. They had the following children:
- Anna (baptised at St Michael at the Northgate on 26 December 1631)
- Unnamed stillborn son (buried at St Michael at the Northgate on 31 January 1633)
- Elizabeth (baptised at St Michael at the Northgate on14 June 1635)
- Jane (baptised at St Michael at the Northgate on 2 February 1636, buried there on 12 January 1637)
- Maria (baptised at St Michael at the Northgate on 25 November 1638)
- John I (baptised at St Michael at the Northgate on 30 November 1640, buried there 10 October 1642)
- John II (baptised at St Michael at the Northgate on 17 September 1644)
- Charles (baptised at St Michael at the Northgate on 27 February 1647/8).
Harris was admitted free on 17 September 1633 (for 20s. fees and 2s. 6d. for a bucket) because he had served a freeman of Oxford for six years, and would have finished his apprenticeship if his master had not left the city.
On 13 September 1639 Harris, who by then was Master of the Company of Tailors, was granted a Chamberlain'’s place for £10, and he was appointed a Bailiff in 1640 and senior of the two "Gentleman Bailiffs" in September 1642.
On 2 September 1643 Mr John Harris of St Michael’s parish was given permission to hang out the sign of a Golden Lion at his home (16 Cornmarket). He was charged four shillings in St Michael’s parish at the time of the 1648 subsidy.
On 26 January 1657/8, William Driver of St Michael’s parish married Anne Harris of St Margaret’s Westminster at St Michael’s Church (the parishes appear to have been transposed), and their daughter Elizabeth appears to have gone to live with Harris.
On 14 January 1659 Harris was fined a shilling for coming to a Council meeting without his gown.
Harris’s wife Anne was a sponsor at the baptism of Anne Wood, third child of Christopher Wood (brother of the diarist Anthony Wood), born on 27 December 1661.
On 16 January 1663 Harris was chosen by scrutiny to be one of the eight Mayor’s Assistants, and on 14 September 1663 he was elected Mayor, winning 469 votes against his opponent’s 405. He selected Thomas Eustace to have a chamberlain’s place as the Mayor’s Child, and Owen Warland junior to be Mayor’s Chamberlain.
In 1665 Harris paid tax on seven hearths in St Michael’s parish (in a house on the north side of Market Street, according to Salter). He was assessed as follows for poll tax in that parish in March 1667:
- For himself: £2 1s. 0d. (£1 for his title, poll tax of one shilling, and £1 tax on his money, which must have been assessed at £100)
- For his wife: poll tax of one shilling
- For his granddaughter Elizabeth Driver: poll tax of one shilling
- For his servant Jane Newman: three shillings (i.e. one shilling in the pound on her yearly wages of £2 10s., plus poll tax of a shilling)
On 9 September 1667 Harris was elected an Alderman for the North-West ward, paying £10 and taking three oaths and subscribing the declaration, also taking his oath as Alderman and giving the macebearer a purse and a piece of gold to put in it.
In the year 1668/9 Harris was reimbursed by £17 13s. 4d. for entertaining the Lord Lieutenant and his Deputy, and by £15 19s 0d for new liveries for the City waits.
On 25 November 1672 Harris’s son John (who was an apothecary and appears in Alumni Oxonienses as a matriculated tradesman) was buried at St Michael’s Church, aged 28.
Peshall mentions a portrait of Alderman Harris that used to hang in a meeting room in the old Guildhall.
Alderman Harris died at the age of 80 and was buried inside St Michael-at-the-Northgate Church on 17 August 1674. The oval grey memorial of marble and alabaster shown below can still be seen on the wall of that church:
HSE
Ioannes Harris Civitatis huius
Aldermannus et Expraetor dignissimus,
Religioni, Regi, ac Patriae,
Pessimis etiam temporibus fidus
Natus Burfordiae Anno 1594
Denatus Oxoniæ 1674 Aetat: 80.
Utriusque loci pauperibus ad octingentas libras liberalis
Qua Munificentia tanta
Monumentum sibi posuit marmore omni perenni[u]s
Lege bone Civis, et imitari aude
Binas duxit uxores, Elizabetham et Annam
ac natas quaru: Eliz: peperit Annisiam, Ianam et jam Frideswidam. Anna (et sola adhuc in vivis)
defunct Annam, Elizabetham, Ianam, Mariam,
Ioannem primum, et secundum,
et CAROLUM
Qui Maerens potuit Anno 1675
Here lies buried John Harris,
Alderman and most worth former Mayor of this City,
faithful to his religion, his king, and his native land, even in the worst of times.
He was born at Burford in the year 1594 and died in Oxford at the age of 80 in 1674.
He was liberal to the poor of each of these towns to the extent of £800.
By such outstanding munificence he set up a monument to himself more lasting than all marble.
Read, good Citizen, and dare to imitate
He took two wives, Elizabeth and Anna, of whom Elizabeth bore Annis, Jane, and then Frideswide. Anna (now still alive and desolate) bore Anna, Elizabeth, Jane, Maria, the first and second John, and Charles, who in grief set up this monument in the year 1675.
Harris’s wife Anne died at the age of 78 and was buried in the middle aisle of the church on 6 September 1685. Her memorial plaque (above left) reads:
To the memory of Mrs Ann Harris, widdow & relict of that worthy benefactor John Harris late Alderman of the City of Oxford. She departed this life on the 4th of September 1685 in ye 79th yeare of her age and lies buried by her husband neare this place.
There is a very similar memorial in the church (shown above right) to her daughter-in-law Mrs Alice Harris, wife of Charles. It reads:
Neare to this place lyeth the body of Alice, the wife of Mr Charles Harris son of Alderman John Harris. She was eldest daughter to Alderman William Wright by Christian his first wife daughter to John Smith Esq. heretofore Mayor of the City of Oxon, and departed this life December 31 1693 haveing prepared her selfe for a Resurrection to a better by Faith and dayly Repentance. Her knowne Humility, Meeknesse, Patience, Charity and Devotion are her best & most lasting Monument. To the remembrance whereof this was erected by her Deare and Mournfull husband.
By his will of 1672, Harris left land at Garsington to the City to provide pensions of £4 a year for four poor freeman aged over 50. (two to be members of the Tailors' Company, and one to be from St Michael’s and another from St Peter-in-the East parish). They were required to attend the City Church (St Martin’s at Carfax) wearing special gowns with badges bearing the arms of the tailors' company.
He also gave a benefaction of £200, to be used for interest-free loans of £10 each to twenty Oxford tradesmen to be repaid by £1 yearly (six to be members of the Tailors' Company, and two to be from St Michael’s and another two from St Peter-in-the East parish). Harris’s eldest son Charles was to administer these payments, and the charity still existed as late as 1884.
In memory of his father, Charles was given a bailiff’s place on the council on 25 August 1674. He rose to the position of one of the Mayor’s eight Assistants, but according to Wood resigned in April 1682 when the council refused to give a piece of land for him to found a hospital. By his will of 1713 he gave the council lands in Lenborough in Buckinghamshire) and a house in All Saints parish to provide £30 a year to Balliol College and pensions of £4 each to four freemen, who were also required to attend St Martin’s in gowns and badges. Charles’s wife Alice died on 31 December 1693 and was buried in the chancel of St Michael’s church, and he was also buried there on 5 August 1713.
See also:
- PCC Will PROB 11/346 (Will of John Harris, Gentleman of Oxford, proved 18 November 1674)
- Victoria County History of Oxfordshire: Volume IV: Oxford, facing p. 157: photograph of the silver badge worn by the pensioners of John Harris’s charity. (Original badges can also be seen in the Town Hall plate room)