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 the St Clement’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) went back to Witney to marry Hannah Maria Townsend at St Mary’s Church in 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. But by 1849, when the Oxford Canal Company leased the Talbot Inn at Eynsham to him, he is described as a brewer.
At the time of the 1851 census, when he was 40, Hanley is living at 20 Queen Street in Oxford (in the parish of St Peter-le-Bailey) where he had a retail wine and spirits business. He was then 40 and living with his second wife, Maria (aged 23 and born in Oxford) and their one-month-old daughter Maria. At this time, he had only one employee.
In 1859 Hanley leased both the Barge Inn and Bell Inn at Cassington.
At the time of the 1861 census, when he was 50, Hanley was still living in Queen Street. His second wife Maria had evidently died, as he is described as a widower. His business had grown, and he was now a brewer and wine merchant employing six men. He has his five youngest children living with him, all born since the last census: Julia (8), Charles (7), Mary Ann (5), Edward (4), and George (2). A hop traveller and his wife are staying as visitors, and they are all looked after by a housekeeper, a house servant, and a nursemaid.
Hanley first came on to the Town Council as a Liberal for the South Ward in 1862, and was elected Sheriff of Oxford in 1869. In 1870 he was elected Mayor of Oxford by a large majority. He was the first Roman Catholic to hold the position, and the only complaint came from the Wesleyan John Towle.
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 described as employing one 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 are probably away at school.
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 on 12 November 1878 at the age of 69 at home at Beech Lawn. 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