Charles James Sadler
Mayor of Oxford 1836/7, 1849/50, 1854/5, and 1860/1
Charles James Sadler (1792–1872) was born in St Clement’s, Oxford on 26 November 1792.
He was the youngest son of Thomas and Eleanor Sadler, who had four children baptised in St Clement’s Church: Elizabeth (18 October 1782), Henry (17 October 1784), Eleanor (19 March 1790), and finally Charles James himself (21 December 1792).
Sadler’s parents must have moved into Oxford city proper soon after his birth, as In the Universal British Directory of 1794/5, his father Thomas Sadler is listed as a pastry-cook and confectioner there. His business was in All Saints parish, but by 1814 he must have moved to 104 High Street in St Mary the Virgin parish, as an Oriel College plan of 1814 names Sadler as the occupant there.
Sadler’s mother Eleanor appears to have died when he was 15, as a lady of that name was buried at All Saints Church on 25 September 1807.
Sadler joined his father to work in his shop at 104 High Street (left), and in September 1815, when he married Jane Neadle of Piccadilly (born 26 May 1792) at St James’s, London, he is described as a “confectioner of Oxford”.
Their only child Charles James Sadler junior was born on 26 February 1817 and baptised at All Saints Church on 14 March 1817.
Sadler’s father appears to have retired to Rose Hill, as he is probably the Thomas Blakeney Sadler who died at his house at Rose Hill (“Cowley”) at the age of 72 and was buried at All Saints Church on 12 April 1829.
The entry for the shop under “Confectioners & Pastrycooks” in Pigot’s Directory for 1830 reads: “Sadler Charles James, High st”.
Sadler because a Councillor in the old Corporation in 1823, and was elected Senior Chamberlain in 1825 and Junior Bailiff in 1828.
After the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, Sadler was elected councillor for the South Ward on 26 December 1835 and six days later was elected an Alderman for six years. He led the more moderate reformers following that Act, and in 1836 was elected Mayor of Oxford (for 1836/7), although he was attacked by the Liberals for allowing himself to be nominated for the Mayoralty by the Conservatives.
Sadler became Chair of the Paving Commission in the late 1830s.
By the time of the 1841 census, Sadler (aged 48) had moved away from his shop, although he is still described as a confectioner, and was living in Broad Street with his wife Jane, his daughter Mary, and two servants.
On 30 December 1841 Sadler was granted a lease by the council of the high corner tenement (built in 1813) on the corner of Turl Street and Broad Street (right). He remained at this house (which was in St Michael’s parish) for over thirty years until his death.
Sadler’s High Street shop was initially taken over by his son Charles and his son’s wife Elizabeth, who are living there at the time of the 1841 census, along with six male servants (who presumably include shop assistants) and one female servant. They had two daughters: Amelia Elizabeth was born on 30 July 1841 and baptised at St Mary the Virgin Church on 7 September, but died at the age of 7 weeks and was buried there on 19 September 1841; and Emily Jane, (although described in the register as the daughter of a confectioner in the High Street and of St Mary the Virgin parish) was baptised at St Martin’s Church on 17 April 1844. It appears, however, that soon after Emily’s birth he gave up his father’s business and moved out of Oxford, and by 1846 the old confectioner’s shop was a bookshop.
Sadler opposed the adoption for Oxford of the Health of Towns Act 1848, disliking the idea of local autonomy being threatened by “foreigners”.
In 1849 Sadler was elected Mayor a second term (for 1849/50). In a debate in the town council in 1850 he alleged that many clergy were teaching Roman doctrines while being paid by the Established Church.
The support of Sadler in an election was said to control 300 votes, and he was described as “autocrat of the street commissioners, the city estates committee, the market, the city charities, and the gas works”.
The 1851 census shows Sadler, described as an Alderman and Magistrate, aged 58 and living at the top of Turl Street with his wife Jane and one servant. In Gardner’s Directory of 1852 he is listed as “Charles James Esq., Turl-st” in the Gentry list.
In November 1851 Sadler urged the council to provide “a public reading room or library for the mass of the people … instead of driving them to the public house”. In October 1852 ratepayers voted in favour of a free city library by 596 to 72, and the library opened on 1 June 1854 beneath the old Town Hall. It was open from 9am to 11pm in summer and 9am to 10pm in winter, and attracted 650 visitors on its first day. Sadler praised its “solid advantages to the Middle and Working classes of this City”.
In 1854 Sadler was elected Mayor of Oxford a third time (for 1854/5), and in 1860 a fourth time (for 1860/1). In the 1861 census he is described as “Mayor, Alderman & Magistrate”.
Sadler’s wife died at the age of 76 in 1869, and she was buried at the Church of St Mary the Virgin. The parish register has a note in the margin reading “Aldn. Sadler’s wife buried in their old vault in the churchyard.” The 1871 census shows Sadler at Turl Street as a widower of 78, with his 27-year-old granddaughter Emily J. Sadler acting as his housekeeper, and with a cook and a housemaid. He is described as an Alderman and an agent to the gas company.
One year after the census, on 17 April 1872, Sadler himself died at the age of 79. His obituary includes the following:
One of our oldest and most prominent citizens — Alderman Charles James Sadler — passed away from us suddenly and tranquilly, at his residence in Turl-street, on Wednesday last, at the ripe age of 79 years…. Probably no man ever held so many public appointments in the City as he did, and to mark their sense of his services his fellow-citizens, a few years since, had his portrait painted. He presented it to the City, and it now hangs in the Council Chamber. Latterly he had been afflicted with total blindness, and could not, therefore, take so active a part in public affairs as he had been accustomed to do. Still he was constantly to be seen, guided by an attendant, walking about, and wearing the accustomed scarlet geranium in his button-hole (for he was a devoted lover of flowers) and his cheery “How are you,” when accosted by an acquaintance, made one completely forget his affliction.
When Sadler’s funeral took place at the church of St Mary the Virgin on 22 April 1872, the shops in the vicinity closed entirely or partially from 1pm. His funeral procession included the Mayor & Corporation, the City Magistrates, the Coroner of the Local Board, and a deputation from the Druids (”with which body the deceased was connected”), with the Macebearer in front carrying the mace covered with black crape. He was buried in a vault in the churchyard.
His obituary says, “His self-conceit was prodigious, and he would frequently say that he was never wrong.”
People now have lunch beside Sadler’s grave, which is behind the Church of St Mary the Virgin. The inscription reads:
Charles James SADLER Alderman of this City died April 17 1872 aged 79
Jane SADLER his wife died Feb 2 1869 aged 76
Amelia Elizth SADLER their grandchild died in infancy 1841
Sadler’s son
Sadler’s only surviving son Charles James Sadler (born 1817) ceased to be a shopkeeper and moved away from Oxford with his wife and daughter, possibly as early as the 1840s. The 1881 census shows him at the age of 64 living at 41 Wilson Road, Camberwell, Surrey. He is described as working for the Civil Service as Senior Examiner in the Exchequer & Audit Department. Living with him are his wife Elizabeth (64) and their unmarried daughter Emily Jane (37), and they have one general servant.
See also:
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 9 September 1815: Announcement of Sadler’s marriage
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 20 April 1872, p. 5e (obituary)
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 27 April 1872, p. 5c (funeral)
- Portrait of Charles James Sadler in c.1840 by Sir William Boxall, in the Council Chamber of the Town Hall
- Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, Volume IV: The City of Oxford, opp. p. 22 (photograph of the portrait of Charles James Sadler)
- 1841 Census: Oxford (St Michael), 0891/14/20
- 1851 Census: Oxford (St Michael), 1728/529
- 1861 Census: Oxford (St Michael), 894/80
- 1871 Census: Oxford (St Michael), 1438/71