Richard Wootten
Mayor of Oxford 1815/16 and 1834/5
Richard Wootten (1765–1848) was the son and grandson of two other Richard Woottens who served on Oxford city council in the eighteenth century. His grandfather, Richard Wootten senior (c.1709–1782), was a tailor and son of William Wootten, an Oxford hempdresser. He came on to the council in 1763 and rose to Senior Bailiff; remaining on the council in 1782. He lived in Cornmarket.
Wootten’s father, Richard Wootten junior (1734–1770), the son of Richard Wootten senior, was also a tailor and had a shop opposite Balliol. He married Miss Elizabeth West of St Mary Magdalen parish at St Michael-at-the-Northgate Church in 1763 and came on to the council in 1765. The couple had three sons: Thomas West Wootten (born 28 December 1763 and baptised at St Michael’s Church on 24 January 1764); Richard Wootten himself (born 30 August and baptised 13 September 1765) and John Clarke Wootten (born in January and baptised on 25 February 1768).
Young Richard’s father died at the age of 36 and was buried in the chancel of St Michael’s Church on 10 March 1770; and his mother died at the age of 31, and was buried with her husband on 12 November 1773. Richard was thus left an orphan at the age of eight, and he was apprenticed by his grandfather to Thomas Castle, a mercer, in May 1780. Three years later his grandfather died at the age of 75 and was buried in St Michael’s churchyard on 12 December 1783.
Soon after he had reached the end of his apprenticeship, young Richard put an advertisement in Jackson’s Oxford Journal (22 March 1788) to say he was "fitting up a commodious shop near Carfax", and the next month put in a notice to say that he had opened there as a linen draper. In May 1788 he took on his first apprentice, John Smith.
Two years later he got married. Jackson’s Oxford Journal for 9 January 1790 announced the marriage of Richard Wootten, "Oxford mercer and haberdasher", and Miss Dickinson, daughter of William Dickinson Esq of Twycross in Leicestershire. Richard and his wife Ann baptised twelve children at St Martin’s Church at Carfax:
- Richard (5 March 1791);
- William (8 September 1792, died aged one);
- John (6 September 1793, died aged two);
- Rebecca (16 February 1797);
- Mary Spicer (19 May 1798);
- John (4 October 1799);
- a second William (20 July 1801);
- Charles (18 March 1803);
- Elizabeth (11 January 1805, died aged six months);
- twins George and Thomas (9 July 1806);
- a second Elizabeth (7 August 1811).
Wootten was appointed cloth searcher in September 1792 and came on to the common council in 1794, paying £3 10s and 3s 4d for not being constable. He was elected Senior Bailiff in 1811.
In February 1793 Wootten took on William Steel as his apprentice, in December 1795 Charles Moore, and November 1798 John Newell.
Wootten’s son John (born in 1799) matriculated at Lincoln College in March 1816, and migrated to Balliol College, obtaining a First in Mathematics and Physics. He was elected Physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1830.
Wootten’s shop in the High Street is still listed in 1823 in Pigot’s directory for Oxford. By that time he was a banker as well as a mercer, and developing some land in St Ebbe’s that he had leased from the council since 1809. Eventually he specialized in banking, and at some point also took over Wootten’s Brewery in St Clement’s. (This was in Little Brewery Street off Cherwell Street, and was swallowed by Hall’s in 1896. A certain William Wootten, brewer of Oxford, had apprenticed his son, a different Richard Wootten who would have been born in about 1760, to the cordwainer James Clements on 1 May 1775, and it seems likely that the Richard Wootten who was Mayor inherited the brewery from this side of the family.)
By 31 October 1818, the family had moved to Iffley. On that day William Undershell (a tanner of Bermondsey) married Wootten’s daughter, Mary Spicer Wootten of Iffley (who who was not yet 21) at Iffley Church, and their marriage was proclaimed in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 7 November. Their son, William Undershell junior, was born in 1820 in London and baptised at St Martin’s Church in Oxford on 25 April 1820, followed by daughters Georgiana and Mary.
Wootten’s home (above) was originally called Rose Hill House, but later became known as Wootten. In his day it was considered to be part of the hamlet of Rose Hill, but is now deemed to be in Iffley proper: it stands next to Beechwood above Iffley Turn. It still has large grounds, but lost some of its land when Wootten Drive was created in 1978.
On 24 September 1827, Wootten married a second time: his bride was Miss Elizabeth Smith of St Peter-in-the-East.
Wootten was appointed Mayor a second time in October 1834, and this term lasted 15 months because he was the last Mayor to serve before the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 instituted a new system and a new Mayor on 1 January 1836. William Tuckwell in his Reminiscences of Oxford (1901) describes him thus:
"The Mayor of Oxford was an old Mr. Wootten, brewer, banker, and farmer, dressed always in blue brass-buttoned coat, cords, top-boots, and powdered hair. He was told that he must pay his respects to the Queen [Queen Adelaide, who visited Oxford in 1835]; so he drove to the Angel in his wonderful one-horse-chaise, a vehicle in which Mr and Mrs Bubb might have made their historic jaunt to Brighton, and was introduced to her Majesty by the Chamberlain, Lord Howe. She held out her hand to be kissed: the Mayor shook it heartily, with the salutation: "How d'ye do, marm; how’s the king?"
Wootten retired from the council on 1 January 1836. The 1841 census shows Wootten in his 70s, still living at his house in Iffley, with his wife Elizabeth and daughter Elizabeth (in her late 20s). Also living with them are his grandson William Undershell junior, a banker’s clerk of 21, and his two granddaughters Georgiana and Mary Undershell: they were born in London, and may have moved in with the Woottens after the death of their mother.
Wootten was soon to go into partnership with his young grandson William Undershell (1819–1887), who first adopted the name Wootten-Undershell and then Wootten-Wootten.
Wootten’s third wife Elizabeth died at Iffley at the age of 68 and was buried in her family’s church at St Peter-in-the-East on 19 September 1843.
Wootten himself lived to the age of 83, having been predeceased by his three wives and nine of his twelve children. His death in September 1848 was announced only briefly in Jackson’s Oxford Journal: "On Saturday the 9th inst. at Rose Hill, Iffley, aged 83, Richard Wootten, Esq. banker of this city." He was buried at Iffley Church on 19 September 1848.
Wootten's children
Nine of Wootten's twelve children survived to adulthood:
- Richard Wootten (born 1791) lived at Headington Hill (probably at the house now called Pullen’s Gate). He died a bachelor at the age of 77 and was buried at Iffley Church on 22 March 1867
- Rebecca Wootten (Mrs Cole, born 1797), was still alive in 1848
- John Wootten (born 1799) became a doctor at 40/41 Broad Street. He died a bachelor at the age of 47 on 26 August 1847 and was buried at Iffley Church
- Mary Spicer Wootten (Mrs Undershell, born 1798), presumably died before 1841;
- William Wootten (born in 1801) died aged 20 in 1821;
- Charles Wootten(born 1803) died aged 25 in 1828;
- George Wootten (born 1806) died aged 21 in 1828;
- Thomas Wootten (born 1806) died aged 25 in 1832;
- Elizabeth Wootten (born 1811) was still alive in 1848.
In his will, Wootten left his property in the parish of Launton and his house in Oxford’s High Street to his only surviving son Richard Wootten, and his property at Iffley to his unmarried daughter Elizabeth Wootten.
Wootten’s grandson William Undershell (later Wootten-Wootten) (1819–1887) became a prosperous banker, and bought Headington House.
Listing of Wootten’s bank in directories:
- Pigot’s Directory of 1823: Tubb, Wootten, & Tubb in St Aldate’s
- Robson’s Commercial Directory of 1839: Wootten, Tubb & Co at 2 St Aldate’s (Tubb was probably the William Tubb who was Mayor in 1814)
- Gardner’s Directory for 1852: Messrs Undershell, Wootten & Co. (drawing on Masterman, Peters & Co., London) at 3 St Aldate’s
- Post Office Directory of 1854: Richard Wootten, banker, St Clements
- Malcolm Graham, Oxford City Apprentices 1697–1800, entries numbered 2524, 2635, 2850, 3001, 3069, and 3155
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 16 September 1848, p. 4b (brief death notice)
- PCC Will PROB 11/1113 (Will of Richard Wootten, Gentleman of Oxford, proved 7 January 1784) (his grandfather)
- PCC Will (Will of Richard Wootten of Oxford, proved 20 March 1849)
- PCC Will PROB 11/2090 (Will of Richard Wootten dated 28 October 1847 and proved at London 20 March 1849)
- 1841 Census: Oxford (Iffley), 877/04/10