Thomas Randall
Mayor of Oxford 1859/60
Thomas Randall (1805–1887) came from a family with roots in All Saints parish, Oxford. He was the son of another Thomas (who had been baptised there in 1774 and was a mercer who came on to the council in 1807) and his wife Ann (née Spearing).
Thomas junior was born on 5 September 1805 and baptised at All Saints Church two days later. He had two younger sisters: Lucy (baptised in 1807, died in infancy) and Mary (1810).
Young Thomas Randall attended New College School, and it seems likely that he was then apprenticed to his uncle Josiah, who was listed as a hatter in Cornmarket Street in Pigot’s 1823 directory, but who died at the end of 1824.
Randall married his first wife, Elizabeth Higgins Randall, eldest daughter of the late Josiah Randall of Cornmarket, and thus his cousin, at St Mary Magdalen Church on 27 September 1827. After eighteen months of marriage, she died at the age of 25 and was buried at All Saints on 27 March 1829.
Pigot’s 1830 Directory lists Thomas Randall as a hatter in the High Street, and Robson’s Commercial Directory of 1839 shows that the shop was at 22 High Street (right).
On 31 July 1830, again at St Mary Magdalen church, Randall married his second wife, Elizabeth Frances Cecil (the daughter of Mr Cecil, solicitor of Beaumont Street).
The couple had two children:
- Eliza Cecil Randall (baptised at All Saints Church on 2 January 1837)
- Thomas Randall (baptised at All Saints Church on 6 October 1840).
Randall came on to the old Corporation in 1833, and on to the new Corporation in 1838, representing the Central ward.
The 1841 and 1851 censuses show the family living at 22 High Street (left), with Randall described as a hatter and hosier.
Randall’s parents Thomas and Ann both died at the age of 72, and were buried at All Saints Church on 10 February and 11 October 1847 respectively: they appear to have been living in Reading.
In 1848, an undergraduate called Edward Napleton Jennings was arrested as a bankrupt, with debts of well over £2,000. When asked why he had allowed Jennings to run up a debt of £70 without knowing his address or contacting his father, Randall replied that any Oxford trader who did this would be boycotted and thus forced to shut up shop. In 1848 Randall published a pamphlet, Oxford tradesmen versus the insolvent Jennings: a verbatim copy of the schedule of Edward Napleton Jennings: Discharged under the Insolvent Act, December 31st, 1847.
In 1859 Randall was elected Mayor of Oxford (for 1859/60), and when writing about the speech of the Vice-Chancellor at the Mayor’s banquet, G. V. Cox added:
I may be allowed to append to this the (to me) interesting fact that the Mayor of Oxford on this occasion was my old friend (and pupil at New College School for eight years) Thomas Randall. How well he was fitted for the important position I was well aware; how admirably he discharged its duties the University as well as the City loudly expressed at a subsequent dinner, given in commemoration of the Mayoralty. Discipuli palmae sunt praemia vera magistri.
By 1861, the year in which he was elected an Alderman, Randall and his family had come up in the world: they had moved to Grandpont House in St Aldate’s, and had three servants. The 1861 census describes Randall as a "Magistrate and Hatter", while his only son Thomas, aged 20, is described as having "no occupation": he was probably ill, and a few months later he was dead. He was buried at All Saints Church on 2 August that year.
On 22 October 1864 Randall took out an advertisement in Jackson’s Oxford Journal announcing his retirement, and introducing his customers to his successor at his shop, Mr Prior.
On 27 December 1865 at St Aldate’s Church Randall’s only surviving child, Eliza, married John Stainer (who had then just taken his BA and D.Mus. degree at St Edmund Hall and was organist to the University of Oxford).
Left Randall and his second wife, Elizabeth Frances Cecil
Below: Randall’s daughter Eliza (Lady Stainer), 1836–1916
Left: Randall’s son Thomas (1840–1861)
William Tuckwell recalls the tale of how back in 1843 a gallant Oxford crew of seven had beaten a Cambridge eight at Henley, and their winning boat was moored as a trophy in Christ Church Meadow "until in 1867, rotten and decayed, it was bought by jolly Tom Randall, mercer, alderman, scholar, its sound parts fashioned into a chair, and presented as the President’s throne to the University barge".
In 1871 Randall is described as a "magistrate and alderman", and in 1881 as a retired hatter: he was still living at Grandpont House in St Aldate’s with his wife Elizabeth, and three servants (a cook, parlourmaid, and housemaid). He retired as an alderman in November 1886, when he was 81 years old, the last surviving member of the old pre-1836 Corporation. He died at home at the age of 82 on 16 September 1887 and his funeral was held at All Saints Church four days later.
In his will, Randall left £50 for St Aldate’s Boys' School, £50 for the Girls' School, and £25 for the Infants' School. In his sermon at St Aldate’s Church on 25 September 1887, Canon Christopher mentioned "the very great loss which our school children and the poor and afflicted" of that parish had suffered by the death of Randall, "who gave time as well as money in seeking to do them good", recalling how he regularly sent cases of biscuits over to the school so that the infants could have a mid-morning snack.
Randall’s second wife Elizabeth lived to be 85 and was buried with him on 23 February 1895.
Randall’s son-in-law John Stainer was to become famous for his oratorio The Crucifixion and was given a knighthood. He and Eliza had seven children.
See also:
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 7 August 1830: Announcement of Randall’s second marriage
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 17 September 1887, p. 8a: Randall’s obituary
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 1 October 1887, p. 5f: Randall’s funeral
- Oxford Magazine 1887–8, p. 9: Randall’s obituary
- 1841 Census: Oxford (All Saints), 891/02/10
- 1851 Census: Oxford (All Saints), 1728/79
- 1861 Census: Oxford (St Aldate), 893/39
- 1871 Census: Oxford (St Aldate), 1437/9
- 1881 Census: Oxford (St Aldate), 1501/48
- Online family history of the Stainer and Randall family by David Pennant