William Morrell
Mayor of Oxford 1677/8
William Morrell (or Morrall) (d.1679) was an Oxford vintner.
On 9 September 1659 it was agreed that Morrell should be admitted free for £10 provided that he entered into a bond of the City for £100 that he would pay £50 within one month of practising any other trade than that of vinter. Just a week later on 16 September, however, the council agreed that he should instead pay £20 and not give the aforementioned bond. He was duly admitted on 19 September 1659, paying officers' fees, 5s. for a bucket, and the £20
On 29 September 1659 the council granted a widow, Mrs Anne Turton, a licence by the city to sell wines for ten years at a rent of £10 per year. This licence had been fornerly held by Henry Southam, who had died on 16 March 1658/9.) Morrell married Mrs Turton soon afterwards in 1660 (also taking in her daughter Mary). On 14 September 1660 he requested that his new wife’s city wine licence be made over to him. Thereafter the couple jointly ran the Crown Tavern at 3 Cornmarket Street (the inn once held by John Davenant). Soon after he took over this tavern, Charles II was proclaimed King and Morrell provided the council with sack and claret to the value of £11 6s. 6d.
Morrell came straight into a Bailiff’s place on the council on 1 October 1660, paying £40 and 3s. 4d. for not being Constable.
On 25 October 1660 it was agreed that Morrell’s wine licence should be formally sealed, provided that he first sealed a bond for £200 for the payment of £10 a year in quarterly instalments for ten years from Michaelmas 1659 (provided that his wife, who is wrongly named as Amy rather than Ann, should live so long). This payment was to be made only so long as Morrell was allowed to draw wine in the City by virtue of the licence.
On 31 October 1661 the Mayor reported Morrell’s complaint that although he drew wine by virtue of a licence granted by the City, His Majesty’s Commissioners denied the City’s right to grant licences and demanded that he should take a licence from them. It was agreed that the Recorder would plead with the Commissioners and obtain the recognition of the City’s right with regard to this and the other two wine licences.
In 1665 Morrell is shown as paying tax on nine hearths in St Martin’s parish, and in March 1667 he was assessed as follows for poll tax at 3 Cornmarket:
- For himself: £2 1s. 0d. (£1 for his title, poll tax of one shilling, and £1 tax on his money)
- For his wife Mrs Anne Morrell.: poll tax of one shilling
- For his stepdaughter Mary Turton: poll tax of one shilling
- For his apprentices William Stirke, John Lyne, John Goody, and Robert Ward: poll tax of one shilling each
- For Joseph Hyne: poll tax of one shilling
- For his servants Dorothy Smart and Anne Drinkwater: three shillings each (i.e. one shilling in the pound on their yearly wages of £2, plus poll tax of a shilling)
This indicates that his personal wealth was £100, as the tax on personal estate was £1 per £100.
On 4 September 1668 Morrell was elected Senior Bailiff, and on 30 September 1670 a Keykeeper. On 15 September 1673 he was fined 1s. 6d. for not attending the Mayor in his gown in church, and warned that he must so attend in future.
On 15 August 1673 Morrell’s wine licence was renewed for a further 21 years for a fine of £50 and the rent of £10 a year. On 2 March 1674 two of his apprentices, John Goody and Robert Ward, were admitted free.
On 4 September 1677 Morrell was chosen as one of the Mayor’s eight Assistants, and less than a fortnight later was elected Mayor for the coming year. He chose Michael Cripps as his Child and Richrd Lumbley as his Chamberlain. The big social event of the year was the entertainment of the Duke of Buckingham on 2 November 1677, but, as Anthony Wood records in his diary, Morrell was "sick of the gout", and the deputy Mayor stood in for him. He was, however, well enough to ride the franchises on Thursday 15 August.
On 11 October 1678 Morrell was granted a new lease of his wine licence for 31 years without a fine, and was asked to accept this small kindness from the house as an acknowledgement of their gratitude for the great losses he had suffered during his mayoralty on their account.
Nine months later, on 24 August 1679, Morrell died. He was was buried at St Martin’s Church two days later, and is described in the burial register as being "of ye Crown Taverne sumtime Maior of this City". When St Martin's church was demolished in 1896, his bones were transferred with the rest to an unknown communal grave in Holywell Cemetery.
Mrs Anne Morrell continued to run the Crown Tavern: in the year 1681/2 the council paid her £2 17s. 4d. for wine and bottles on Guy Fawkes' Day and at the Lent Assizes, and £2 15s. for wine on 29 May and at the Summer Assizes.
A flat stone to Morrell and his wife was dug up during excavations of the church, and it shows that his wife died on 6 March 1695/6, and was buried with him at St Martin’s Church a week later. Her wine licence and the Crown Inn passed on to Mrs Joan Turton, the widow of William Turton, Mrs Morrell’s son by her earlier marriage.
See also:
- H. Salter, Surveys and Tokens, pp. 423–5, and token numbered 71 with "WILLIAM MORRELL AT YE" around an image of a crown on the obverse, and "CROWNE IN OXFORD" around the initials W.A.M.. on the reverse
- PCC Will PROB 11/360 (Will of William Morrell, Vintner of Oxford, proved 18 September 1679)
- PCC Will PROB 11/431 (Will of Anne Morrell or Morrall, Widow of Oxford, proved 2 April 1696)