Robert Brocks
Mayor of Oxford 1726/7
Robert Brocks (Brox, Brooks or Brock) (d.1734) was an Oxford tailor. He took on ten apprentices between 1697 and 1731, namely Hamlet Crapper (August 1697), Richard Haddock (transferred from Thomas Parker in March 1704/5), Giles Jenkins (May 1707), Henry Wallington (transferred from John Drewett in October 1710), John Betteris (January 1713), William Jordan (March 1715), Richard Breese (May 1720), Francis Woodward (April 1724), and Richard Wright (June 1732, transferred to John Townsend on Brocks’s death).
Brocks was first elected on to the Common Council in September 1705. In October 1711 he was elected Senior Chamberlain, and in September 1715 Senior Bailiff.
In 1715 Brocks is listed as having a council lease costing 4d for a tenement in the North East ward, and in March 1716 he was granted a lease of the house in which he lived (part of Dr Walker’s lease) for 40 years for a fine of £6 10s; and the piece of ground recently purchased by him from Mr Grubb was added to the lease.
In March 1723 Brocks was elected one of the eight Assistants, and it was expected (wrongly) that he would be elected as Mayor the next year: Thomas Hearne remarked, "It was exspected 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." Hearne also reports that Brocks stood against Robert Vicaris in the next mayoral election in 1725.
In September 1726 Brocks was eventually chosen Mayor, nominating Francis Kibblewhite as his Child.
Brocks died in August 1734.
See also:
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entries numbered 17, 106, 419, 479, 759, 839, 1051, 1196, 1487
- PCC Will PROB 11/670 (Will of Robert Brocks, Tailor of Oxford, proved 28 April 1735)