Daniel Shilfox
Mayor of Oxford 1740/1 and 1753/4
Daniel Shilfox (or Shillfox or Shellfox) (1689–1757) was baptised at Holywell Church on 2 February 1689/90. His father, John Shilfox (a tailor who also served on the council until 1735), had married Mary Herne at St Peter le Bailey on 4 August 1679, and they had six sons: the other five were John (baptised at Holywell Church in 1681), Jonathan (1683), David (1687), William (1693), and Alexander (1696).
Shilfox also became a tailor and took over his father’s apprentice, John Gom on 10 September 1716. He took on five other apprentices: Richard Ash (29 May 1717); John Cooper (2 February 1718/19); John James (29 May 1725); Henry Stubbs (18 January 1725/6); Edward Wells (11 June 1734).
On 1 April 1723 the council granted a lease of 47 Broad Street (in St Mary Magdalen parish) to Henry Wise and John Taylor, and the house is stated as being in the occupation of the tailor Daniel Shilfox. In 1730 Shilfox had a direct lease from the council of 53 Broad Street, six doors to the west: this is probably the "property against Balliol College" that he was still leasing in September 1741, and also the tenement in St Mary Magdalen for which he was paying £1 6s. 8d. in 1753. In that year he also leased two other tenements, one in St Michael’s and the other in St Peter-le-Bailey parish. He remained at 53 Broad Street, which was opposite the Sheldonian Theatre, until his retirement: on 18 May 1753 it was advertised as being available to rent.
Shilfox first came on to the council as one of the 24 on 30 September 1721. In 1728 he was chosen as Senior Chamberlain; in 1734 Senior Bailiff; and in 1739 one of the Mayor’s eight Assistants.
On 16 March 1739 it is reported:
Mr Daniel Shilfox is to have a lease of Stamper’s encroachment under the old rent and covenants and it is also agreed that he is to have liberty to carry out his building on a level an equal to the tenement lately built by James Collins, Joiner, which is to be included in the former lease.
On 30 September 1740 Shilfox started his first term as Mayor, choosing William Wickham as Mayor’s Child and Thomas Rawlins as Mayor’s Chamberlain. During his term of office, on 13 April 1741, Shilfox was elected one of the four Aldermen and a barge commissioner.
On 5 January 1747 it was agreed to put the city seal to a certificate to be returned to the Lord Chancellor certifying the election of Mr Ald. Shilfox to act as a commissioner under the Statute 21 Jac. I for making "the River Thames Navigable for Bargers Boats and Lighters from village of Burcott in the County of Oxford until the University and City of Oxford".
On 1 October 1753 Shilfox started his second term as Mayor, choosing John Breach as Mayor’s Chamberlain and Samuel Hicks as his child.
Shilfox died suddenly as he was passing through Newgate Market in London on 2 April 1757, when he was nearly 70. He was unmarried, and left his property to Mrs Elizabeth Shilfox, the widow of his brother Alexander. His obituary in Jackson’s Oxford Journal states, "For though he had no Issue, yet he had been a Father to the various Branches of his Family".
There was a second Daniel Shilfox in Oxford in the eighteenth century, not to be confused with the Mayor. This one was admitted free in July 1747; came on to the council in September 1752; had a wife Ann in 1755; was a tinplate worker who took on apprentices in 1752 and 1762; and died in 1773.
See also:
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entry numbered 664, 948, 993, 1245, 1261, 1600 (tailor) and 2018, 2236 (tinplate worker)
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 2 April 1757, p. 3 (notice of his death and short obituary)
- MS Wills Oxon 210.103; 152/2/7