Richard Dry
Mayor of Oxford 1843/4
Richard Dry (1773–1848) was the fourth son of William Dry, a tailor of St Peter-in-the-East, and his wife Mary Higgins, who married at St Cross Church on 7 February 1766. Their eldest son, William, born c.1767, does not appear to have been baptised there, but the next seven children were: Thomas (4 July 1769), Mary (9 December 1770), John (23 March 1772), Richard himself (30 November 1773), twins Edward and Samuel (31 March 1776, buried the same year) and Ann (28 November 1777). They also had a daughter called Elizabeth born in c.1779.
Richard was admitted free on 18 January 1802.
Richard Dry's mother died at the age of 70 on 16 July 1807 and was buried at St Peter-in-the-East Church three days later, described as "wife of Mr Dry, tailor"; and his aunt Miss Mary Dry died on 25 April 1808 and was buried with her sister-in-law.
Dry was elected Warden of the Tailors' Company on 27 June 1808. It was probably about this time that he took over his father's business in partnership with his older brother William, who lived in St Mary Hall Lane (now Oriel Street). William died at the age of 50 (will proved 1819), and was buried at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 19 June 1817. Richard inserted a notice in Jackson's Oxford Journal for 18 October 1817 to say that following the death of his brother, he had taken his nephew, also William Dry, into partnership.
On 10 January 1814, when he was 40, Dry (described as being of St Peter in the East parish) married Mary Deane at her home parish of Drayton St Leonard. They had seven children:
- 1814: Mary Elizabeth Dry (at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 28 December 1814, died on 20 June 1829, aged 14)
- 1816: Richard Deane Dry (at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 14 August 1816)
- 1818: Emma Dry (at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 18 April 1818, died 9 August 1818, aged 5 months)
- 1820: Susanna Emma Dry (at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 12 January 1920)
- 1821: William John Dry (at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 23 May 1821)
- 1823: Anne Charlotte Dry (at St Peter-in-the-East Church 9 May 1823)
- 1825: Matilda Dry (at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 5 January 1825)
Dry's father William died at the age of 77 on 29 May 1819 and was buried with his wife on 3 June that year.
Dry was elected on to the old Corporation in 1822, following his brother Thomas who had become a councillor in 1818. He was elected Junior Chamberlain in 1824 and Junior Bailiff in 1829.
Pigot’s Directory for 1823 lists "R. & W. Dry" as tailors in the High Street. As the family home and business was in St Peter-in-the-East parish, it would have been at the east end. It is variously described as being in the High Street or in King Street (the part of Merton Street that runs southwards from the High), which suggests it may be on the corner where the Ruskin School of Drawing is now.
After the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, Dry was elected as a Conservative councillor for the East Ward on 26 December 1835. In 1843 he was elected Mayor of Oxford (for 1843/4), and also served as an Alderman.
In the 1841 census, when Dry was about 67, he is listed as "independent", indicating that he had retired. He and his wife still had three children living at home (Richard, Matilda, and Anne), and the family was looked after by three servants. Their address is given as "King Street", which was the old name for the part of Merton Street that runs southwards from the High.
Dry's spinster sister Mary died on 19 March 1844 at the age of 73: Jackson's Oxford Journal says she died at her house in the High Street, while the burial register states she was from Merton Street.
Dry died on 30 November 1848 at the age of 74 in his house in Merton Street and was buried in the churchyard of St Peter-in-the-East on 7 December 1848 with his daughter Elizabeth..
The 1851 census shows Dry's widow Mary living at 13 Merton Street. Aged 61, she is described as a fundholder. Living with her are three of her unmarried grown-up children: Richard (34 and also described as a fundholder); Emma (31), and Matilda (26). They have two servants.
Matilda died aged 32 on 14 April 1856, and her mother Mary died at the age of 71 on 12 April 1861. Both were buried in the churchyard of St Peter-in-the-East in the same tomb as Richard Dry.
Dry's surviving children
- Richard Deane Dry (born 1816) died on 26 February 1901, aged 84
- Susannah Emma Dry (born 1820), Dry's eldest surviving daughter, married the Revd William Dry of Brasenose College at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 10 May 1854. He was likely to be related to Susannah, as he was the eldest son of William Dry and his wife Ann Sirman (married at St Mary the Virgin Church on 6 September 1821), and had been matriculated at the University of Oxford on 9 June 1841, aged 18. He was Rector of Whitchurch, Herefordshire from 1862 to 1880. He died on 8 January 1886.
- William John Dry (1821–1877), Dry's second son, was matriculated at the University of Oxford at the age of 17 on 30 January 1839 from Wadham College. He obtained his BA in 1843 and MA in 1945, and was Vicar of Weston-on-the Green from 1854 until his death on 30 April 1877.
- Anne Charlotte Dry (born 1823) married the Revd G. Purdue, Curate of Wantage, at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 28 January 1851
- Miss Elizabeth Dry died at the age of 82 on 12 January 1861 and was buried with her parents.
The other Richard Dry
- There is a second Richard Dry in Oxford around this period, who was a wine merchant of 37 Pembroke Street. He may be the son of Dry's older brother Thomas of Pembroke Yard. This Richard married Charlotte Cecil, a solicitor's daughter of Beaumont Street, on 21 July 1832. He was elected as councillor for the West Ward in 1840, but resigned at the end of his first year. According to Jackson's Oxford Journal of 29 March 1851, he moved all over the south-east and ended up an insolvent debtor.
See also:
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 15 January 1814: Announcement of Dry’s marriage
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 2 December 1848, p. 3b: Report of Dry’s death
- Inscriptions on the gravestones of St Peter-in-the-East Church (now the library of St Edmund Hall): these include Richard Dry himself, his wife, and his children Emma, Mary Elizabeth, Matilda, and Richard Deane; Richard’s brother Thomas and his wife and daughter (both named Temperance); and Richard’s father and mother, his Aunt Mary, and his sisters Mary and Elizabeth
- PCC Will PROB 11/2087 (Will of Richard Dry, Gentleman of Saint Peter in the East, Oxford, proved 1 February 1849)
- 1841 Census: Oxford (St Peter-in-the-East), 891/16/15