Richard Tawney II, Mayor of Oxford

Richard Tawney II

Mayor of Oxford 1764/5, 1778/9, and 1790/1

Richard Tawney II (1721–1791) was the son of Richard Tawney I (Mayor in 1748) and his second wife Elizabeth Rowles, and grew up in Binsey. He was the elder brother of Edward Tawney (Mayor in 1772, 1784, and 1797).

Tawney followed his father into the brewing trade. On 30 September 1757 he was appointed Mayor’s Child by John Phillips, and took up his place as Chamberlain a year later. On 17 September 1759 he was elected Senior Bailiff.

On 27 January 1764 Tawney was appointed one of the eight Assistants, and on 1 October 1764 he was elected Mayor for the first time (for 1764/5), nominating John Dewe as his Child.

In 1766 the City got into such debt that they tried to sell its two parliamentary seats. As a result, the Mayor and ten councillors (including Richard Tawney) were committed to Newgate Prison in London for four days: they were discharged with a reprimand from the Speaker of the House of Commons on 10 February 1768.

In 1770 Tawney was made Governor of the Radcliffe Infirmary, and in 1771 was appointed on to the committee of six people to act with the university committee in purchasing houses and settling a new market in Oxford. By 1772 he was Treasurer of the council.

On 26 May 1775 Tawney was sworn in as Alderman, paying the macebearer a Jacobus piece of gold and the Treasurer £10 according to custom and £10 in lieu of entertainment.

On 30 September 1778 Tawney started his second term as Mayor (for 1778/9), nominating Thomas Wynne as his Child.

Tawney resumed his duties as Keykeeper after his mayoralty, and in November 1779 was charged with overseeing the building of a pound adjoining Tidmarsh Lane.

Between October 1784 and September 1786, Tawney was knighted.

On 15 June 1787 a piece of land in Shoe Lane that was used as a dungheap, and the drain from his garden into the lane, was reserved to Tawney; and on 2 June 1789 a Balliol College lease relating to 33–35 Queen Street states that his property was just to the north of this group of shops.

On 30 September 1790 Tawney was elected Mayor for a third time (for 1790/1), choosing William Benwell as his Chamberlain and William Tubb as his Child.

Sir Richard Tawney died in 1791 at the age of 72, just after completing his term of office. He was buried in Binsey Church on 11 October that year, and is commemorated in that church together with his father and brother.

Sir Richard does not appear to have married or had children.