James Hughes
Mayor of Oxford 1864/5, 1869/70, 1883/4, 1884/5, 1886/7, and 1889/90
James Hughes (1817–1895) was the son of the farmer James Hughes of Charndon near Twyford in Buckinghamshire. He was born at Charndon on 9 November 1817. Although he was five times Mayor of Oxford, he is much more famous for being the co-founder of Oxford’s well-known high-class grocery business known as Grimbly Hughes.
The Grimbly Hughes business
In 1840 Hughes (aged 22) teamed up with another young bachelor, Owen Grimbly (aged 24) to found a grocery business in Oxford at 56 Cornmarket Street (just to the north of the Clarendon Hotel), and the 1841 census shows both Grimbly and Hughes living over their shop.
On 18 April 1850 Hughes married Mrs Jane Skinner at St Martin’s, his parish church at Carfax. Born in Lyme Regis, Jane was the daughter of a leather seller, John Wood, and was a widow with a five-year-old son (Henry J. Skinner). The couple had two sons: James Hughes junior was baptised at St Martin’s Church on 26 February 1851, and Herbert was born three years later.
The 1851 census shows that Owen Grimbly and James Hughes had become prosperous in their first ten years of trading. Grimbly, now 35, was married and living in Wolvercote: he and his wife and his 18-month-old niece were looked after by no fewer than five servants. James Hughes continued to live over the shop at 56 Cornmarket Street: he is described as the employer of thirteen men. He and his wife, the two children, and his wife’s sister Jane were looked after by a cook, housemaid and nursemaid. Also living with them over the shop were nine members of the business staff (namely five shopmen, two apprentices, a grocer’s porter, and a candle-pounder).
The Grimbly Hughes grocery shop suffered a fire in 1857. Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 7 November that year reports (p. 4f):
Messrs Grimbly, Hughes, and Dewe, in again expressing their gratitude to their Neighbours, Members of the University, and the Public generally, for the assistance rendered them in extinguishing the alarming Fire which occurred on their Premises on Friday, Oct. 30, beg to give notice that they have resumed their Family and Retail Business at No. 56 Corn Market, and the Wholesale at the Warehouse lately occupied by Messrs. Lowe and Heydon, No. 27 Saint Aldate’s (opposite Christ Church).
By the time of the 1861 census, Hughes and his family no longer lived over the shop but had moved to Park Town. His stepson Henry (16), although at home at the time of the census, is described a midshipman with the merchant navy. His own children, James (1) and Herbert (7) were still at school. The family had a cook and a housemaid.
In 1863 there was another massive fire on the west side of Cornmarket, and this time the Grimbly Hughes shop was almost completely destroyed. The front page of Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 16 September that year reads:
THE GREAT FIRE AT OXFORD
Messrs Grimbly, Hughes, and Dewe, with feelings of the deepest gratitude, earnestly return thanks to their numerous friends and inhabitants of the City for the great assistance rendered by them in removing Stock and endeavouring to extinguish the fire, which consumed a great part of their Premises on the morning of Sunday last.
The shop was rebuilt with a Venetian Gothic front, and luxurious mahogany and marble counters were installed. An advertisement on the front page of Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 22 October 1864 announced that the brand-new shop at 55 and 56 Cornmarket would be opening on the following Saturday.
In 1863 Hughes, then living in Park Town, had a fine new house called Woodlawn (designed by William Wilkinson) built for himself on the corner of Norham Road and Banbury Road, and was to live there for the rest of his life. In 1871 he and his family were looked after there by a cook, an upper general servant, a housemaid, and a coachman, and his son James (20) is described as a law student. By the time of the 1881 census Hughes (63) and his wife Jane (66) lived alone in this large house with just a parlourmaid and housemaid.
Above: Hughes’s house Woodlawn, now the Cotswold Lodge Hotel at 66A Banbury Road
Hughes died at Woodlawn on 12 September 1895 at the age of 77, having "succumbed to general bodily ailments, dropsy being the most serious of his complaints". His funeral was held four days later at St Martin’s at Carfax (which was both his former parish church and the City Church), and he was buried at Rose Hill cemetery. A memorial to him was placed in St Martin's Church (then the city church), and later moved to the south wall of All Saints Church.
The Grimbly Hughes shop was taken over by Jackson’s of Piccadilly in 1959. When 56 Cornmarket was demolished in 1961 it moved to Queen Street, but it only survived for another two years.
Civic appointments
Hughes was appointed a member of the Oxford Corporation in 1859, and in his 36 years of public service was one of the four Liberal leaders who dominated the council and was elected Mayor six times. At the end of his first mayoralty in 1864/5, he was elected an Alderman by the Conservative and Liberal members of the council. He was elected Mayor a second time in 1869/70: according to his obituary, this was in view of the Royal Agricultural Show being held in Oxford the following year. .
At the time of the School Board elections of 1871, Hughes was a "Birmingham League" candidate, who supported the idea that local authorities should provide schools free of religious dogma supported by rates and taxes. He was elected Chairman of the Local Board in 1871, a post he held until 1882.
During his third mayoralty in 1883/4, Hughes presented the council with the gold mayoral chain and pendant that is still used today. He was able to wear it himself for another three years, as he was again elected mayor in 1884/5, 1886/7, and 1889/90.
In 1884 Hughes was largely instrumental in obtaining a special Act of Parliament for improving the Oxford water supply. During his fifth mayoralty, on 21 October 1887, he opened a new aqueduct for Oxford, giving a luncheon afterwards at the Town Hall.
When Oxford Corporation was reconstituted in 1889 and members of the University took part in the management of city affairs as members of the Corporation for the first time, Hughes was returned as head of the poll in the North ward, and was unanimously elected the first Mayor of the new body. During this, his sixth and last mayoralty, he proposed the consolidation of the city loans and thus saved Oxford a considerable sum of money each year. As a mark of their gratitude, the citizens presented him with an oil painting of himself by William Carter, and he handed this picture over to the Corporation: it still hangs in the Council Chamber today.
Hughes also held many other appointments: his obituary states that "his disposition was decidedly autocratic and he loved power for its own sake". He served the in the office of Chief Magistrate six times, and was Chairman of the Charity Trustees and of the Gas Company, and a member of the governing body of the Radcliffe Infirmary and of the High School for Boys (of which he was also a benefactor).
The mayoral chain presented by Hughes
Above: The pendant on the gold mayoral chain donated by Hughes reads on the back: "Presented to the Corporation of the City of Oxford by Alderman James Hughes, Justice of the Peace in his third mayoralty 1883 & 4." The text is partly obscured by the strong hook that ensures the pendant remains attached to the chain.
Below: The chain is still worn by the Lord Mayor. It has the letters of oxenford alternating with enamelled roses, and the pendant has the Oxford coat-of-arms on the front.
See also:
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 14 September 1895, p. 8c (obituary)
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 21 September 1895, p. 5g (report of funeral)
- The Times, 21 1887, p. 5d: "Oxford Water Supply"
- Portrait of James Hughes in 1890 by William Carter, in the Council Chamber of the Town Hall
- 1841 Census: Oxford (St Martin), 891/13/8
- 1851 Census: Oxford (St Martin), 1728/118
- 1861 Census: Oxford (St Giles), 892/33
- 1871 Census: Oxford (St Paul), 1436/105
- 1881 Census: Oxford (St Giles), 1500/8