Daniel Hanley
Mayor of Oxford 1870/1
Daniel Hanley (1811–1878) was the son of Charles and Sarah Hanley. He was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Witney on 16 June 1811.
The family appears to have converted to Roman Catholicism by 1813, as on 17 July that year his brother James was baptised at St Ignatius’s Chapel in St Clement’s, Oxford. (This chapel had been built by the Jesuit mission who had moved from Waterperry in 1793, and remained the only Roman Catholic Church in Oxford until 1875.)
Six years later on 1 October 1819, Daniel was baptised a second time at the age of eight, this time as a Roman Catholic, along with his sisters Anne and Elizabeth. The entry in the baptismal register of St Ignatius’s Chapel reads:
Baptisati sunt sub conditione Octris 1 – 1819, Anna Hanley, Daniel Hanley et Elizabetha Hanley liberi legitimi Caroli Hanley et uxoris ejus Sarae.
On 26 April 1836 Hanley (described as being of Oxford) married Hannah Maria Townsend at St Mary’s Church in Witney with a Church of England ceremony.
In 1842 and 1849 Daniel Hanley is listed in directories as a draper and tea merchant at 10 Castle Street, Oxford. In Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 3 April 1847, he is described as a “tailor, mercer, &c.” in a court case.
Hanley’s first wife Hannah must have died young, and in the 1840s he married his second wife, Maria, who was 17 years his junior and was born in Oxford, and they had seven children:
- Theresa Hanley (born c.1850)
- Maria Hanley (born 1851)
- Julia Hanley (born c.1852)
- Charles Hanley (born c.1853)
- Mary Ann Hanley (born c.1855)
- Edward Hanley (born c.1856)
- George Hanley (born c.1858)
It looks as though he started a new career at the time of his second marriage, as in 1849, when the Oxford Canal Company leased the Talbot Inn at Eynsham to him, he is described as a brewer; and in the list of people licensed to sell wine “within the University of Oxford and the precincts thereof” published in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 29 March 1851, he is described as a wine merchant of St Peter-le-Bailey parish. The newspaper of 11 October that year reported that “James Shoesmith was charged with stealing, in January last, three coats, the property of Mr. Daniel Hanley, of Queen-street”.
At the time of the 1851 census, when he was 40, Hanley and his new family are living at 20 Queen Street in Oxford (in the parish of St Peter-le-Bailey, on the left-hand side of the present British Home Stores building). He described as a wine merchant employing one man, and they have a servant and a nursemaid.
Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 11 April 1857 reports that “Mr. Daniel Hanley, wine merchant, was authorised to open the King’s Arms public House, at Summer Town, till next transfer day, June 27.” In 1859 Hanley leased both the Barge Inn and Bell Inn at Cassington, and on 30 March 1861 it was reported in the paper that “The licence of the Wheatsheaf and Anchor Inn, St. Aldate’s, was endorsed to Mr. Daniel Hanley, wine and spirit merchant and brewer, of this city.”
By the time of the 1861 census, Hanley was still living in Queen Street, and his second wife Maria had evidently died, as he is described as a widower and has a housekeeper, as well as a house servant and a nursemaid. His business had grown, and he was now a brewer and wine merchant employing six men. A hop traveller and his wife are staying as visitors.
Hanley first came on to the Town Council as a Liberal for the South Ward in 1862, and was elected Sheriff of Oxford for 1869/70. In 1870 he was elected Mayor of Oxford (for 1870/1) by a large majority. He was the first Roman Catholic to hold the position, and the only complaint came from the Wesleyan John Towle.
In the list of licences published between 1862 and 1871, Hanley is listed twice: first at the Wheatsheaf & Anchor, and then as a wine merchant in St Peter-le-Bailey.
On 2 May 1866 Hanley married his third wife, the widow Mrs Eleanor Hopkins (nee Tilbury), at Hampstead, London. The 1871 census (taken during his mayoral year), shows them living at Beech Lawn, a large house at the entrance to Park Town in St Paul’s parish. His prosperity is reflected in the fact that he is now the employer of a traveller, two clerks, and twelve men. His daughter Julia, aged 18, and his son (aged 17 and described as assisting in his father’s business) are living with them: the younger children were probably away at school.
On 10 June 1871 Jackson’s Oxford Journal advertised an auction of the late Mr King’s property at Iffley, including “a 10-Quarter malt-house in the occupation of Daniel Hanley, Esq.”
Hanley served on the Market, Police, Finance, City Buildings, Cattle Market, Port Meadow, School, and Charity Committees of the Council. From 1871 he was one of the members returned to the Council by the Local Board. He was created an Alderman on 27 April 1872.
The Return of the Owners of Land of 1873 shows that Hanley owned over 62 acres of land with a gross estimated rental of £464. On 1 July that year he took out a lease on a house and premises in High Street, Thame at a quarterly rent of £4 10s. 0d.
Hanley died at home on 12 November 1878. The notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 16 November 1878 reads simply:
Nov. 12, at Beech Lawn, Daniel Hanley, aged 69. R.I.P.
A requiem high mass was held at St Aloysius Church in the Woodstock Road, followed by burial at Abingdon conducted by Father Gray of St Aloysius. The cortège passed along St Giles, Cornmarket, and St Aldate’s, with most tradespeople on the route drawing their blinds or partially closing. Members of the Council took part in the procession from the Town Hall to the city boundary at Folly Bridge.
The brewery continued to flourish after his death. By 1887, when it opened a branch at 104 High Street in Thame, it was known as Hanley Brothers, and run by another Daniel Hanley (probably the founder’s nephew, who died in 1898). The brewery was eventually taken over by Halls (which was in turn taken over by Ind Coope).
Hanley left £500 in his will for a Witney Roman Catholic mission.
See also:
- Oxford Herald, 26 November 1836 (opposition of John Towle to election of Hanley as Mayor)
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 16 November 1878, p5e (obituary)
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 23 November 1878, p. 5e (funeral)
- Oxford Mail, 1 May 1973, p. 6 (article on Hanley, which confusingly merges the two Daniel Hanleys)
- New College Archives No. 246: Lease of 1 July 1873
- 1851 Census: Oxford (St Peter le Bailey), 1728/482
- 1861 Census: Oxford (St Peter le Bailey), 894/101
- 1871 Census: Oxford (St Paul), 1436/103