Richard Ferdinand Cox
Mayor of Oxford 1826/7
Richard Ferdinand Cox (b.1786) was the son of the banker Richard Cox (who was himself Mayor in 1799, 1812, and 1823) and his wife Mary. He was baptised on 1 October 1786 at All Saints Church, where his two older sisters and four younger siblings were also baptised.
Cox joined his father in business as a linen draper in All Saints parish at 134 High Street (left). By 1790 Cox & Co were bankers as well as drapers.
In April 1801 Sir John Treacher was granted a licence of alienation to assign Richard Ferdinand Cox a cellar under the Town Hall.
In 1807 Cox and his father went into partnership with the cousins James and Robert Morrell to form the bank Cox, Morrell & Co., and in 1813 Cox is described simply as a banker
On 24 August 1812 Cox married Sarah Folker (daughter of the former Mayor William Folker) at St Michael’s Church, and on 31 July 1813 they baptised their daughter, Louisa Sarah, at All Saints Church. There is no record there of any other baptisms.
Cox joined his father on the council in 1810. He was elected Senior Chamberlain in 1813, Senior Bailiff in 1818, and Mayor in 1826.
To finance their investments and purchases of land, all the partners in Cox, Morrell & Co borrowed from the bank’s joint funds. In 1831, probably when the accounts were made up, the Morrells discovered that Richard Ferdinand Cox had not only borrowed £14,000, but had contravened their express wishes by lending very large sums of money to a Witney carrier called Richard Parker. Richard Cox senior fled a bankrupt to Calais, while Richard Ferdinand Cox was expelled from the partnership and took his shares in the bank premises and profits in compensation.
On 2 October 1841 Richard Ferdinand and his brother Charles Henry (a graduate of Christ Church) released to the Morrells various property that had been their father’s as final compensation.
A Sarah Cox of St Aldate’s parish who died at the age of 69 and was buried at All Saints Church on 6 March 1857 could be Cox’s wife.
See also:
- Richard Cox, Mayor in 1799, 1812, and 1813 (Cox’s father)
- Brigid Allen, Morrells of Oxford. The Family and their Brewery 1743–1993 (Oxfordshire Books, 1994), pp. 38–9