William Ives
Mayor of Oxford 1738/9, 1749/50, and 1763/4
William Ives (1709–1764) was the son of Oxford University apothecary William Ives and his wife Elizabeth Pearson. His parents were both described as being of St Martin’s parish when they married at Christ Church Cathedral on 15 September 1696. They had the following children:
- Ann (baptised at the Church of St Mary the Virgin on 8 August 1697)
- Joseph (born on 6 July 1698, baptised at the Church of St Mary the Virgin on 14 July 1698)
- Elizabeth (born on 24 December 1699, baptised at the Church of St Mary the Virgin later the same month)
- Esther (born on 22 February 1700/1, baptised at the Church of St Mary the Virgin on 9 March 1700/1)
- Mary (born on 25 October 1702, baptised at the Church of St Mary the Virgin on 28 October 1702, buried there on 1 December 1703)
- William I (born 15 October 1704, baptised at the Church of St Mary the Virgin on 16 October 1704, buried there on 2 May 1708)
- Sarah (born 16 January 1705/6, baptised at the Church of St Mary the Virgin on 17 January 1705/6, buried there on 24 May 1708)
- William II (baptised at the Church of St Mary the Virgin on 12 August 1709)
- John (baptised at the Church of St Mary the Virgin on 11 September 1711).
Ives was apprenticed to Christopher Matthews, a grocer, for seven years from 25 March 1724/5.
Ives was selected as the Mayor’s Child by William Applebee on 16 January 1732. On 11 May 1733 he took up a Chamberlain’s place and in October that year he was also appointed one of the two Cloth Searchers. In 1734 he was elected Junior Bailiff, and in 1736 one of the Mayor’s Assistants. In September 1738 he started his first term of office as Mayor, choosing Thomas Wise as his Child and Edward Brown as his Chamberlain.
Ives’s mother Elizabeth was buried at St Mary the Virgin on 2 January 1732/2, and his father William on 28 December 1738. There is a monument high on the south wall of the tower leading to the nave commemorating his parents and their nine children ("quattuor fratres et quinque sorores").
In 1744 Ives first took up the post of Keykeeper, and in September 1749 he was elected Mayor a second time, with William Teazler as his Chamberlain.
In 1748 a certain Samuel Chettle "much affronted and abused Mr. Will. Ives, one of the City justices and also a member of the house", and was disqualified from acting as a counsel in the city courts until he publicly asked Mr Ives’s pardon. Notwithstanding this, on 26 October 1754 there was an announcement in Jackson’s Oxford Journal that Ives & Chettoe, mercers and drapers, had entered into partnership. (It seems likely that Chettle and Chettoe were one and the same person.)
In 1755 Ives was made an Alderman; in 1757 a Barge Commissioner; and at some point around this time a Commissioner of Sewers.
Ives held various property in the city: for instance in 1751 he was given a lease of a property in St Ebbe’s (late Elizabeth Wisdom’s); in 1752 he was granted permission to build a vault or vaults under the south end of the Town Hall (then in process of being built), and also a lease of property (late Richard Blencoe’s) in St Michael’s parish; and in 1759 a lease of a shop in St Michael’s.
Ives, who started out as a grocer and ended up as a mercer, was also involved in the brewing trade. On 16 June 1759 an announcement appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal to the effect that William Ives and Thomas Stevens, brewers and maltsters, denied the rumours that Ives was leaving the partnership. On 28 August 1762, however, the same newspaper announced that the partnership in a brewery at Littlegate between Alderman Ives and Thomas Stevens was to be dissolved, and that Ives would continue alone.
In 1762 Ives accompanied the Mayor to the Coronation of King George III in London.
In September 1763 Ives began his third term as Mayor, with William Tomkins as his Child and William Loder as his Chamberlain. He died during his term of office on 18 January 1764 and was buried at the Church of St Mary the Virgin five days later.
Left: Diamond-shaped stone dedicated to William Ives in the floor of the nave of the Church of St Mary the Virgin. It reads simply: "W.I. 1764".
Ives’s obituary in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 21 January 1764 reads:
On Wednesday died, from a sudden Attack of the Gout in his Stomach, William Ives, Esq; our present Mayor; who was also Senior Alderman, Father of the City, and one of the Commissioners of the Sewers. A gentleman who had twice before served the Office of Mayor for this City with becoming Dignity; and who, as a Civil Magistrate, as active, prudent, and impartial; as a private Friend, cheerful, open, and generous: Hence his publick, as well as social Virtues, will render him deservedly regretted.—It is somewhat remarkable, that this is the only Gentleman who has died in the Mayoralty for this City, since the latter End of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, which is upwards of One Hundred and Sixty Years.
In April 1765 a sale of Ives’s goods took place at his house in Littlegate in St Ebbe’s parish, while his estates in Oxford and Binsey were sold at the Wheatsheaf & Anchor in St Aldate’s. His widow, Mrs Mary Ives of Pennyfarthing (now Pembroke) Street, was his executrix, and debtors were asked to pay his surviving partner Chettoe.
A notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 16 April 1774 states that Christopher Taylor, the illegitimate son of Avis Taylor (the former servant to late Alderman Ives), who had been bound to a cotton cap maker in Worcestershire, should apply to a Shrewsbury lawyer "to hear something to his advantage". It seems possible that Ives was the father of this child.
Mary, "widow of the late Alderman Ives", was buried with him at St Mary the Virgin Church on 21 March 1783. They do not appear to have had any children.
See also:
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entry numbered 1262
- PCC Will PROB 11/896 (Will of William Ives, Mercer and Alderman of Oxford, proved 10 February 1764)