Samuel Hutchins
Mayor of Oxford 1912/13
Samuel Hutchins was born on 5 July 1849 at Long Lawford, near Rugby, Warwickshire, and was educated at the Wesleyan School in Rugby.
On 12 April 1877 he married Miss Louisa Bloxham of Leamington at St Mary’s Church in Leamington. Immediately after his marriage he came to Oxford as a representative of Parnell & Sons, the Rugby builders who built Keble College from 1878.
Two years after his marriage Hutchins started a building business of his own in Oxford. The 1881 census shows him at the age of 31 living at Clifton Villa in Farndon Road with his wife and their two daughters, Fanny (3) and Florence (1) (plus a 14-year-old general servant). They went on to have another daughter and two sons.
By 1891 Hutchins was living at 17 Kingston Road and had two more children: Elizabeth (8) and Charles (2). The family were still at this house in 1901: Hutchins was now 50 and his wife 46, and they had a new baby: Robert (1).
Hutchins was elected as a Liberal Unionist for the North Ward in November 1893. He acted as Chairman of the Waterworks Committee, and served on the Highways & Lighting, Housing & Town-Planning, and Watch Committees. He was also a member of the Oxford Board of Guardians.
Hutchins was Sheriff of Oxford at the time of the great Oxford Pageant of 1906.
Hutchins was elected Mayor of Oxford in 1912, and acted as deputy Mayor for the two following years. At this time he was living at 157 Woodstock Road.
Hutchins was President of Cherwell Rifle Club, an Honorary Member of the Albion Lodge of Druids, and President of the SS Philip & James’s Horticultural Society.
See also:
- Oxford Journal Illustrated, 16 June 1915, p. 9 ("Who’s Who in Oxford", including photograph)
- 1881 Census: Oxford (St Giles), 1499/96
- 1891 Census: Oxford (St Giles), 1166/4
- 1901 Census: Oxford (SS Philip & James), 1381/76