William Applebee I
Mayor of Oxford 1724/5 and 1732/3
William Applebee (or Appleby) (1668–1746) came from a family of chandlers in St Peter-in-the-East parish descended from Maurice Applebee, a yeoman of Grafton in Warwickshire who sent his two sons to be apprentices in Oxford:
- Thomas Applebee (the Mayor’s great-uncle) was apprenticed on 20 September 1614 to the chandler William Appleby (doubtless a relation), who had a shop on the north side of the High Street (pulled down when The Queen’s College was extended to the High Street). He was a privileged person of the University
- Edward Applebee (the Mayor’s grandfather) was apprenticed on 1 March 1626 to his older brother Thomas, taking up his freedom on 8 April 1633
- William Applebee (1634–1691, the Mayor’s father) took up his freedom on 19 September 1656 t. He rented two tenements in the High Street, on the site of the present Examination Schools.
Applebee’s father and his first wife Ann had the following children:
- Mary (baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 6 October 1664, buried there on 28 February 1667/8)
- Anne (baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on11 September 1665)
- Elizabeth (baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 14 August 1666)
- William I (baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 28 October 1667, buried there on 8 May 1668),
- William II (baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 26 December 1668)
- John (baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 30 January 1669/70).
The family was assessed for the bare minimum of poll tax in 1667, and their servant only earned 30s. when most servants appeared to earn £2.
Applebee’s mother Ann died when he was five and was buried at St Peter-in-the-East on 19 January 1673/4. His father married his second wife, Ann Day, in that church on 3 January 1674/5 and they had three more children:
- Martha (baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 22 August 1676)
- Edward (baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 25 August 1678)
- Jane (baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on29 January 1681/2).
In 1688 Applebee’s father was ordered by King and Council to be admitted as a Chamberlain on the Council. He died in 1691, bequeathing among other things to his 23-year-old son William:
all ye tools, utensills & instruments of trade in my workehouse, whensoever my wife shall leave of ye trade of making candles.
Applebee took over the business, taking on as apprentice chandlers Thomas Glover in 1697, Edmund Robins in 1701, and James Green in 1711.
Applebee was made Constable for the North East Ward in 1699 and a cloth searcher in 1701.
Applebee was chosen Junior Chamberlain on 30 September 1714, Senior Bailiff on 18 September 1721, and one of the Mayor’s eight Assistants pn 24 May 1723.
On 14 September 1724 Applebee was elected Mayor, choosing Robert Bossom as his Chamberlain. Thomas Hearne wrote, "He was absent at the Election, being gone to Straford upon Avon Fair. It was expected that one Brock, a Taylour in Jesus College Lane would have been the Man, he making great Interest for it, whereas Appleby seem'd not at all to stir."
Applebee took on Edward Seeley as his apprentice in 1723. He does not appear to have had any children of his own, and so in 1726 took on as his apprentice William Applebee (the son of Edward Applebee of London, a joiner, who was probably Applebee’s half-brother), and he eventually took over the business.
Applebee was elected Mayor for a second time for the year 1732/3, choosing Edward Holloway as his Chamberlain and William Ives as his Child. On 24 September 1723 he reported that a week or two before he had personally caught two freemen fishing at night in part of the freewater below Folly Bridge with a long draught net before the Mayor and the Bailiffs had had their fishing days.
Thomas Hearne describes the customary breakfast that Applebee gave at the end of his second term as Mayor:
On Monday, Oct. 7th, 1733 Mr Appleby, Mayor of Oxford for 1732, gave, as usuall, a breakfast to those of the Corporation, that for the ordinary sort at the Town Hall , but that for the better sort, viz. those for the Council Chamber was in the Refectory of Edmund Hall, being indeed a dinner rather than a breakfast, as beginning after the first was over about one Clock, and 'twas very handsome; after which towards four clock they retired and the new mayor for 1733, Mr Nibb, took place. In the evening at six Clock was an entertainment in the said Refectory of Edmund Hall for women, such as Mr Appleby had been pleased to invite, after Supper there was Musick and dancing in that Refectory till eleven clock and after.
Applebee was buried at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 9 July 1746.
See also:
- William Applebee II, Mayor 1767
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entries numbered 240, 742, 1206, 1336, and A48
- MS Wills Oxon w. 211.115; 114/3/38