John Austin
Mayor of Oxford 1742/3, 1761/2, and 1771/2
John Austin or Austen (c.1706–1775) was the son of Jarvis Austin, a maltster of Cirencester, Gloucestershire. His father was already dead when on 1 November 1720 he was apprenticed for seven years to the Oxford mercer Henry Wise (who had himself already been Mayor twice and would serve a third term in 1730). Austin’s older brother James was already in Oxford, apprenticed to a chandler.
Austin was chosen Mayor’s Child by the new Mayor, Sir Oliver Greenway, in September 1729, and paid 3s. 4d. for not serving as Constable. He took up his place as Chamberlain immediately, and was appointed a Cloth Searcher, an appropriate duty for a mercer.
Austin and his first wife Ann baptised five children in five years at St Martin’s Church at Carfax: Mary Ann (1731), Anna (1732), William (1733), Elizabeth (1734), and John William in 1736. Both William and Elizabeth were buried within a month of their baptisms, and in 1738 Austin’s wife also died.
In September 1736 Austin was appointed Junior Bailiff, and in April 1741 was elected one of the Mayor’s eight Assistants. In September 1742 he was chosen as Mayor, choosing Thomas Day as his Child. In the January of his term of office he took on an apprentice, John Smith.
Austin married a second wife, also called Ann, in the early 1740s and they baptised Elizabeth in 1744 and Jarvis (presumably named after his grandfather) in 1745, On 7 November 1747 the second Ann also died.
On 1 June 1752 Austin took on as an apprentice his only surviving son, John William.
After serving eighteen years as Mayor’s Assistant, in 1761 Austin was appointed Mayor for a second term, choosing Henry Smith as his Child.
On 27 January 1763 Austin was chosen Alderman, and was also made a Justice of the Peace.
On 2 December 1764 Austin’s eldest surviving son, John William, who was living in Cirencester, married a Miss Masters there.
In September 1771 the Mayor who had been elected chose to pay a fine of £50 rather than serve, and Alderman Austin was elected to serve a third term, selecting Adam Couldrey as his Chamberlain.
Parson Woodforde records many purchases at Austin’s shop when he was an undergraduate: for instance six plain white handkerchiefs at three shillings each in 1760, and two cravats "upon tick" and four pairs of ribbed thread stocking at five shillings a pair in 1761. In 1763, when he purchases 4½ yards of fine muslin at six shillings a yard to make nine cravats, he notes that he owes Austin nearly £27. In September 1763, after buying two pairs of black silk stockings for £1 12s, a piece of woven silk for breeches at £1 6s, and a pair of common black worsted stockings for five shillings, he notes "I owe the Alderman now in the whole just 30.0.0".
Then on 27 January 1764 Woodforde wrote:
Alderman Austin the Mercer sent me a Letter this Evening, to desire me to pay him 5.5.0 that I was indepted to poor Layng late of this College, he having administered to the Will. It was out of my Power to pay him at present, but as soon as I am able I intend to pay it.
Woodforde continued to make purchases at Austin’s shop on subsequent visits to Oxford. On 28 April 1767 he wrote, "I paid Mr Austin my Mercer this Evening 16.4.0. I am now entirely clear with him." The bill started to mount up again, however: in September 1769 he bought a gown of crape, five six handkerchiefs at 4s 6d each, and one of linen; in October 1771 a piece of Holland, two pairs of silk stockings, nine coloured and six white handkerchiefs; and in October 1773 a dozen purple handkerchiefs at three shillings each. Only after Austin’s death in May 1775 did Woodforde finally settle his bill: on 3 January 1776 he wrote, "Paid Mr Austins Executors Clarke & Castle a Bill of 14: 16: 9."
Austin was buried at St Martin’s Church at Carfax on 18 May 1775. and a memorial tablet was put up with the following words:
Near this Place
Resteth the Remains
of John Austin, Esq.,
Alderman and three times Mayor of this City,
Who departed this Life
the 14 day of May, 1775,
Aged 69.
Also of Ann his first Wife
Who departed this life
Dec. 19, 1738
And Ann his second Wife
Who departed this Life
Nov. 7, 1747.
When St Martin’s Church was demolished in 1896, the tablet (left) was refixed on the west wall of the new City Church, All Saints, above the gallery, and the bones of Austen and his two wives were transferred with most of the other burials to an unknown communal grave in Holywell Cemetery.
See also:
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entries numbered 1071, 1803, and 2054
- PCC Will PROB 11/1010 (Will of John Austin, Alderman of Oxford, proved 22 August 1775)