John Treacher II
Mayor of Oxford 1784/5
The brewer, Sir John Treacher (c.1740–1807) was the son of Thomas Treacher, a gentleman of Pyrton in Oxfordshire. His father was already dead when on 25 March 1754 he was taken on as an apprentice by another John Treacher (probably a relative, who was himself Mayor in 1741, 1754, and 1763)
John Treacher the younger was sworn in as Mayor’s Child by John Knibb on 13 October 1773 and immediately took up his place as Chamberlain. He was chosen senior bailiff in September 1778.
When John Treacher the elder died on 22 March 1780 it appears that young John inherited the brewing business together with John Treacher’s son, the Revd. Thomas Treacher. On 6 September 1789 young John took on John Evetts as an apprentice brewer. When the Revd Treacher died leaving no issue in 1786, young John took the brewery over completely.
Treacher was elected one of the Mayor’s eight Assistants in April 1784, and Mayor the following September. (Two Mayors had died in office in the year 1783/4, which explains why he attained the position so quickly.) He named James Tagg as his Chamberlain and William Folker as his Child . During his year of office Treacher was elected an Alderman, paying the macebearer the usual "Jacobus piece of gold and £10 according to custom and £10 in lieu of entertainment".
In 1785 during his term as Mayor, King George III and Queen Charlotte and their six children paid an official visit to Oxford, and he was knighted in the Council Chamber by the King.
After his term of office as Mayor, Sir John continued to serve as an Alderman. On 3 January 1786 he gave 500 loaves to be distributed among needy Freemen and their widows.
In February 1787 he was given permission "to take down at his expense and make such alterations as he shall think proper in the houses and buildings in the parish of St. Thomas, alias St. Nicholas, now in the occupation of Ralph Stevens and Elizabeth Morgan".
On 3 February 1789 his mother died at Shabbington, Buckinghamshire, and on 6 September that year he took on as an apprentice brewer John Evetts, the son of a Grandpont bargeman.
In 1791 Sir John was elected one of the Market Committee. In April 1795 he was granted a new lease of a vault under the Town Hall for a fine of £3, which he assigned to Richard Cox, banker in April 1801.
In1798 he resigned from being an Alderman and a Commissioner of Sewers or Barges through ill health.
Jackson's Oxford Journal for 24 January 1807 announced that Treacher died at the age of 67 on 17 January 1807 and that on 22 January he was buried in his family vault at Stoke Talmage Church (which was often used by the people of Pyrton in preference to their own parish church). He is described in the parish register as "Sir John Treacher, Knight, from Oxford".
See also:
- John Treacher I (Mayor 1741, 1754, and 1763)
- Portrait of Sir John Treacher by Margaret Fletcher in the Assembly Room of the Town Hall (shown above)
- MS Wills Oxon W. Bd. Aff. 220.119; 109.120; 247/4/14; 276/3/95 (Will of Sir John Treacher)
- Inland Revenue death duties IR 36/399 (13 August 1807)
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 24 January 1807 (death notice)
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entries numbered 2092 and 2668
- Financial papers relating to Sir John Treacher’s Brewery in Oxford for the years 1764–1825: Oxfordshire Record Office (B15/1/F1); catalogue in NRA (39772 Hall’s)