Frederick Ferris Vincent
Mayor of Oxford 1921/2
Frederick Ferris Vincent (1862–1946) was the son of William Allder Vincent and Charlotte Raikes, and grandson of Joseph Vincent, founder of the Oxford family printing business. The Vincents were an old Oxford family, and Cyril’s great-grandfather was headmaster at Christ Church Cathedral School c.1800
Fredericks father, William Vincent, was born in St Aldate’s parish in 1818 and his mother, Charlotte Raikes, in St Martin’s, London in 1819. Their first child, Emma, was born in St Giles in 1845, then came Cyril, born in Summertown in 1846 and William, born in Summertown in 1840. The family were still living in Summertown at the time of the 1851 census, when Cyril’s father is described as a bookseller’s managing clerk, but by 1861 had moved to Kings Norton in Birmingham, and Frederick was born at Balsall Heath in 1862.
Frederick was educated at Christ Church Cathedral School in Oxford, where his great-grandfather had been headmaster seventy years before. As a young man, Vincent was a keen rower and organized the City bump races.
At the time of the 1881 census Frederick was a young man of 18, apprenticed as a printer to his father (who is described as a newspaper proprietor). He lived over the shop at 90 High Street with his parents, his brother Edward (aged 20 and an Oxford undergraduate), and and his sister Selina (24). His other brother Cyril (who was himself Mayor in 1915) had already married and moved to the Cowley Road, but still worked in the family business.
At the time of the 1891 census Frederick (28) is described as a newspaper reporter and was living with his widowed father, a female cousin, and one servant at 90 High Street. Later that year he married Mary Elizabeth Britten (the sister of Sir Edgar Britten, Commodore of the Cunard Line), who was born in Fulham in 1867. They lived initially in the Woodstock Road and had six children: Edgar (born 1892), Basil (1893), Lorna (7 July 1895), (Frederick) Norman Allder (1898), Phyllis (born 1900), and Dorrie.
The 1901 census shows Vicent and his wife and five of his children living at 208 Woodstock Road, together with his mother-in-law, a domestic servant, and a 15-year-old page-boy.
Vincent was elected as councillor for the North Ward in 1906. By 1914 he was living at 1 Polstead Road.
Vincent was appointed Sheriff of Oxford in 1918 and Mayor in 1921. During his Mayoralty, the Rotary Club of Oxford was founded, and he was appointed its first President. He was also President of the Oxford Chamber of Trade and a Justice of the Peace.
Vincent was a Freemason. He served as Master of the Alfred and Annesley Lodge, First Principal of the Alfred Chapter and St Mary’s Chapter, Master of Alfred Mark Lodge, Alfred Mark Manners' Lodge, and the Rose Croix Chapter. He also served a term as Grand Warden of Oxfordshire and Grand Standard Bearer of England.
Vincent continued to serve as a councillor until 1927. He died in 1946 at his home at 339 Banbury Road on 22 April 1946, aged 83. His funeral was at St Michael and All Angels in Summertown, and he was buried in Holywell Cemetery. He was survived by his son Norman and three daughters: Miss Phyllis Vincent (d.1964), Mrs Needham, and Mrs Vincent.
See also:
- Cyril Mosson Vincent (Mayor 1915), his older brother
- Oxford Magazine 1921–2, p. 83: "New Mayor" (very short description)
- Oxford Times 26 April 1946, p. 8c (obituary)
- 1871 Census: [Kings Norton, Worcesteshire]
- 1881 Census: Oxford (St Mary Virgin), 1501/66
- 1891 Census: Oxford (St Mary Virgin), 1167/78
- 1901 Census: Oxford (St Giles), 1380/138