Richard Holloway
Mayor of Oxford 1777/8
Richard Holloway (d. 1783) was an upholsterer. He was admitted as a Freeman of Oxford on 22 February 1759, and took on William Smith as his apprentice in September 1761. On 17 November 1763 it was announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal that Holloway had decided to remain in Oxford, rather than go back to the shop in London where he had served his apprenticeship.
On 20 February 1764 it was announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal that Smith (who would then have been about 19) had run away from Holloway, suspected of thefts. Holloway took on three more apprentices: James Halse in 1767, James Adams in 1774, and George Parsons in 1781.
On 30 September 1760 Holloway became a Chamberlain and was nominated by the Mayor, Thomas Munday, as his Child. He was sworn in on 30 October, and paid a fine for not being constable. On 19 September 1763 he was elected Junior Bailiff.
On 20 October 1770 he published a notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal denying the charge (contained in an anonymous paper on the door of St Mary’s Church) that he had embezzled the land tax collected for 1765.
In the following years there were numerous advertisements in Jackson’s Oxford Journal for sales of contents of houses to be conducted by Holloway.
On 6 November 1775 Holloway was chosen as one of the Mayor’s Assistants, and on 15 September 1777 was elected Mayor, taking up the post on 30 September and nominating Thomas Wynne as his Child
After his term of office he returned to the post of Mayor’s Assistant, and died (after a lingering illness, according to Jackson’s Oxford Journal) on 20 September 1783. He was buried in the Church of St Mary the Virgin, and appears to have left behind no family. There was a sale of his stock was sold, and James Halse took over his shop. .
There is a memorial to Richard Holloway (left), fixed high on the wall of what is now the shop of the Church of St Mary the Virgin. It reads:
Sacred to the Memory of
Richard Holloway Gent
One of the Assistants of the City
Who served the Office of Mayor
In the Year of our Lord 1777
With reputation to himself,
And Satisfaction to his Fellow Citizens
He departed this Life
September the 20th 1783
See also:
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entries numbered 2229, 2341, 2506, and 2666
- PCC Will PROB 11/1109 (Will of Richard Holloway, Upholder of Oxford, proved 24 October 1783)