Henry Toldervey
Mayor of Oxford 1613/14
Henry Toldervey (or Tolldeberrye, and many other variants) (d.1619) was a yeoman. He was admitted free as a Hanaster in the mayoral year 1572–3.
By 1562 Toldervey was the proprietor of a tennis court in St Peter-in-the-East parish. It lay in behind the Chapel at Smith Gate, to the south-west of Holywell Street.
Toldervey’s daughter Anne was baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 17 September 1577.
The Registrum Annalium Collegii Mertonensis records in detail a dispute between Toldervey and Merton College in 1579. The passage, which is in Latin throughout, begins:
Oppugnantur oppidani in secta de Canditch in Hallywel
Ante unum vel alterum annum vidua Tollerbee unacum filio Henrico Tollerbee eisdem aedibus iuxta Smithgate ex eius oriente parte cohabitantes, oppidanorum non dubium iussu, includunt et muro luteo cingunt aliquam partem terrae nostrae de Hallywel iacetem in fossa vocata Candish, quo tandem illam duarum acrarum placeam villae appropriare possent.
Toldervey and his mother Alice had appropriated land that belonged to Merton College by surrounding two acres in the Canditch in Holywell parish with a wall of clay. The dispute went to court, and Toldervey was found guilty: "predictus Henricus Tolderby alias Tolderley est culpablis de transgressionibus infraspectis".
In 1583 the city leased to Toldervey and his mother the thirteenth-century octagonal Chapel itself to use as a dwelling house. The shell of the chapel is now part of Hertford College, but the picture on the left shows it before its conversion.
Toldervey promised that within two years he would make the decayed chapel a house "with three flowers of good and substanciall tymber and cover the same with good slate or tyle with chymneys fitt for a dwelling house".
Henceforth Toldervey lived in St Peter-in-the-East parish.
Toldervey was first elected on to the Common Council on 4 October 1583, paying a 3s 3d fine for not having served as Constable. In September 1591 he was granted the position of Chamberlain and Bailiff for £6 13s 4d.
On 26 November 1593 Toldervey’s daughter Anne married Thomas French, M.A. at St Peter-in-the-East church.
On 8 July 1596 a Mrs Toldervey was buried at St Peter-in-the-East Church: this is probably Toldervey’s mother.
In September 1601 it was reported that Toldervey was to set out into the street the south wall of his tennis court by 2½ feet and the north wall by six inches, and to pay 6d a year to the Bailiffs as a languable.
In 1598 Toldervey was appointed Senior Bailiff, and in May 1602 he was elected on to the Mayor’s inner council, paying £5.
In October 1603 Toldervey was appointed a Keykeeper. On 18 May 1610 he was fined 4d for coming to a council meeting with his cloak instead of his gown.
In August 1612 Toldervey was appointed a deputy to Alderman Levinz, and in 1613 he was elected Mayor. He was allowed to nominate a member of the council to a bailiff’s place and selected Robert Myton, a decision "generallie well liked of and allowed".
In August 1614 Toldervey was granted a renewal for 40 years of the lease by the Council of the former chapel where he was still living for a fine of £10.
Toldervey was buried at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 5 May 1619. The lease of his house was renewed to his son-in-law Thomas French.
See also:
- MS Wills Oxon W. I. 106.167; 66/1/22: Will of Henry Toldervey, gentleman of St Peter-in-the East parish, proved in 1629 (ten years after his death.