Oliver Greenway
Mayor of Oxford 1717/18, 1721/2, and 1729/30
Oliver Greenway (or Greeneway/Greenaway) (d. 1740) was a tanner (at Littlegate, according to Thomas Hearne).
On 16 April 1702 Greenway married Mary Pinnell, the daughter of Alderman James Pinnell, at St Aldate’s Church. On 18 September 1702 Greenway was admitted free for £8 in money and 40s. in wine, official fees, and a leather jack, on condition he did not use any other trade than a tanner. His freedom was the gift of his father-in-law, who was Mayor elect, and as soon as he became Mayor in September Pinnell nominated Greenway as his child and gave him a Chamberlain’s place. In September 1704 Greenway was chosen as junior bailiff.
Greenway and his wife baptised seven children at St Aldate’s Church, none of whom surived to adulthood:
- Elizabeth (27 January 1703/4)
- John I (2 July 1705, buried two days later)
- James (28 January 1706/7, buried eight years later)
- John II (1 August 1708, buried seven months later)
- Martha (29 July 1709, buried the next months)
- Richard (25 May 1711, buried three years later)
- Robert (18 December 1712, buried eighteen months later).
Then, after a 13-year gap, a mysterious Oliver Greenway, son of Oliver, is baptised at St Aldate’s Church on 8 April 1725; and the baptism is also recorded at St Martin’s Church with the same date.
On 25 March 1716 Greenway took on as an apprentice Samuel Green (the son of John Green, deceased, late yeoman of Chilswell Farm).
In November 1716 Greenway was elected one of the Mayor’s eight Assistants. In September 1717 he was chosen Mayor, selecting Timothy Gabell as his Child and William West as his Chamberlain.
Greenway was appointed Mayor a second time in September 1721, this time selecting James Green as his Child and Richard Walker as his Chamberlain. During his mayoralty, on 30 July 1722, he was chosen to fill one of the Alderman’s places.
When George II was crowned on 4 October 1727, Greenway was knighted, despite only being one of the Mayor’s Assistants, causing Thomas Hearne to remark, "which thing of Knighting one of the Mayor of Oxford’s Attendants is perfectly new". As Sir Oliver Greenway he entered a third term as Mayor in 1729, choosing John Austin as his Child and George Wentworth as his Chamberlain.
Greenway died early in 1740, but his burial is not recorded in the register of St Aldate’s Church. His wife Mary died shortly afterwards and was buried there on 1 November 1740.
See also:
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entry numbered 958