Why is oxfordshire known as oxon

This featured in the 60's song "Itchycoo Park" by Small Faces. Click here to read the lyrics. The first colleges of Oxford were built in the 13th century, but it wasn't until that women were admitted to the university, when they were awarded degrees, and when the last of the all-male colleges opened their doors to women.

Legend has it that Oxford was started by a beautiful and pious young princess named Frideswide. When her dream of becoming a nun was threatened by a king who wanted to marry her, Frideswide ran away to Oxford. The king followed her, but when he reached the town boundaries, he was struck blind.

After begging her forgiveness and reluctantly agreeing to give her freedom from marrying him, his sight was amazingly restored. Frideswide went on to set up a nunnery on the site of what is now Christ Church cathedral.

The earliest built colleges were set up around the nunnery as learning places for monastic scholars. Hitler was intending to use Oxford as his capital if he conquered England which is one of the reasons it was not bombed. Oxford's Ashmolean Museum was the first museum in the world to be opened to the public when it was officially opened in according to the Guinness Book of Records. The University of Cambridge was actually founded by Oxford scholars who fled the first of many 'Town versus Gown' riots that erupted in Oxford in following the murder of a local woman by students.

As you walk around the Colleges, be sure to look up once in a while. All over Oxford's buildings are gargoyles technically 'grotesques' as these don't spout water - some in the shape of faces, some animals, some entire people. The keenest of eyes will spot the funnier ones - the one picking his nose, the one going to the bathroom At the bottom of the stairs in the Great Hall at Christ Church, there are the words 'no peel' burned into a door.

This 'graffiti' dates back to the 17th century when the college doctor prescribed potato peels as a means of warding off the Black Death. After many breakfasts and dinners of plates of potato peels, the students finally protested, and the dreaded diet was dropped.

Sadly, the above legend is not true. I recently learned the truth from a porter at the college - it is, in fact, the oldest form of graffiti on record the words were nailed into the door and was a protest against the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel who was in office 30 August — 29 June Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, was a real girl named Alice Liddell.

Lewis Carroll , who taught at the College. Dodgson spent much time with Alice and her family, and immortalized her in his books. The staircase leading up to the hall was actually used in several scenes in the films. The University of Oxford is first mentioned in the 12th century although the exact date of its foundation is unknown. The University expanded rapidly from when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris and the returning students settled in Oxford.

However, in a student fled the city after apparently murdering his mistress, and the townsfolk retaliated by hanging two students.

The ensuing riots resulted in some academics fleeing to nearby Cambridge and establishing the University of Cambridge. Oxford is a collegiate university, made up of 38 colleges and six permanent private halls. Most of the colleges are open to the public, but visitors should check opening times. As the colleges are in use by students, visitors are asked to respect the areas marked as private. The historic centre of Oxford is small enough to explore on foot and within easy walking distance of the bus and rail stations.

There are many ways to discover this beautiful city: open bus tours, walking tours, river cruises and you can even hire a punt or a rowing boat from Folly Bridge, Magdalen Bridge or Cherwell Boathouse. In the late Saxon period pottery made in Stamford Lincs.

Cloth and leather played an important part in the town's economy. Flax-retting and leather-working were apparently carried on in the Grandpont area c. Supplying the needs of local consumers, however, played an increasingly important part in Oxford's economy in the 12th and 13th centuries. The royal palace and the castle created business for builders and for victuallers. Royal visits, of course, cost the town money; the mayor and bailiffs spent c. In , while the king was at Woodstock, 42 tuns of wine were taken from Oxford merchants for his use, and in 10 tuns were taken for the king when he spent Christmas in Oxford.

Far more important than such intermittent sources of income was the rapidly increasing academic community. Until the later Middle Ages most students lived in lodgings or academic halls, yielding substantial rents, providing a body of consumers for Oxford tradesmen, particularly victuallers, and attracting to the town specialist craftsmen such as bookbinders. Although the number of men engaged in 'service trades' such as victualling probably increased greatly in the 13th century, the cloth and leather industries remained prominent; occupational surnames recorded in fn.

The university's influence accounted for surnames denoting 3 bookbinders, 2 copyists, a limner, and a parchment-maker. No reference was made to many trades, notably fulling, gloving, and drapery, which are known to have been practised in Oxford in the 13th century. Jews had settled in Oxford by , and by the town was one of those in which a Jews' archa or chest for the safe-keeping of their chirographs had been established.

His initial contribution to the tallage of was the second largest in England, and on his death in his widow paid relief of 5, marks. Jacob of Oxford, grandson of Simeon of Oxford, in conjunction with his brothers in other parts of the country, carried on a large business; his debtors included men from Lincolnshire and Norfolk as well as local landowners and burgesses. Most of his extensive property in Oxford, London, and York was seized by Queen Eleanor on his death in Until the mid 14th century there were frequent references to Oxford merchants, particularly those concerned with cloth and wine.

A merchant returning to Oxford from London figured in a reported miracle of St. Frideswide c. Ives Hunts. Frideswide's, attracted merchants from all over England.

Foreign merchants came regularly to Oxford: French merchants were expected to be there in , cloth was taken there from merchants from Douai in , and Flemish merchants were exempted from Oxford murage in Many Oxford merchants dealt in both cloth and wine. John of Coleshill, who sold cloth at Northampton fair in , supplied wine to Henry III at Woodstock in and at Winchester fair in ; he imported his wine through Southampton. Ives fair in ; he was also proctor of the Friars Minor, who obtained for him a grant of exemption from tallage for life.

There were strong trading contacts with London in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Oxford complained that in spite of London's acceptance of the charter the mayor and sheriffs continued to disturb Oxford burgesses and make them pay heavy customs, and in the London husting confirmed its acceptance of the Oxford charter.

Most of the town's leaders in the early 14th century were probably merchants, although the trading interests of Robert Worminghall, apparently the wealthiest of them, are not known. William of Bicester and another Oxford burgess were among merchants summoned to London in to make ordinances for the staple, and in William was exporting wool through London.

The continuing wealth of Oxford's merchant class in the early 14th century is confirmed by a royal tallage of The individual taxpayers were assessed on goods worth c.

In people were assessed for the lay subsidy at a twentieth of movables worth a total of c. An apparent fall in overall wealth was common, however, and it seems likely that methods of assessment had changed and that neither tax gives a reliable indication of real wealth. The most significant change in Oxford seems to have been the death of the two Worminghalls, Philip in and Robert in ; fn. There was considerable turnover among leading families between and of the top 10 per cent of taxpayers the family names of fewer than two-thirds survived, and of the top 10 per cent of taxpayers in two-fifths were from families unrepresented in The town's decline in population and overall prosperity, revealed in abundant signs of physical contraction and decay, and by a dramatic fall in its taxable capacity compared with that of other towns, fn.

Oseney abbey's income from its Oxford property was falling steadily in the later 13th century, largely because of arrears. Nevertheless arrears of rent accumulated and many properties fell vacant. A sharp decline in the early 14th century coincided with, and was probably caused by, a time of high food prices which culminated in the European famine between and John's hospital. No Oseney rentals survive for the period between and the Black Death, but the hospital's rental increased again in the s and s, reaching c.

John's hospital, and St. Frideswide's priory all took action to recover arrears of rent between and Contemporaries were aware of a decline in the town's fortunes. In William of Bicester was accused by a butcher of carrying out his duties as mayor so badly that during his terms of office 9 years between and the town had declined faster than ever before. Oxford's decline probably began with changes in the organization of the cloth industry, which affected many other large cloth towns in the 13th century as entrepreneurs became increasingly aware of the advantages of rural cloth production.

There were similar workers in near-by villages such as Islip. The evidence of personal names suggests that cloth production was established in many Oxfordshire villages by Other factors, however, contributed to Oxford's decline and, equally important, to its failure to recover from the initial setback. Many of the advantages which had influenced its rise were gradually lost. To some extent its decline relative to other towns reflects a comparative decline in the wealth of its county, fn.

Its assessment for subsidy in , although exceeded by that of Bampton and its 10 hamlets, was at least treble those of Faringdon, Abingdon, Bicester, and Banbury. By , however, its assessment was not quite double that of Abingdon and not quite treble those of Burford, Henley, and Chipping Norton. Frideswide's and the other great fairs in the later Middle Ages. The cessation of close royal contact with the town and growing difficulties in navigation on the river Thames were probably also important.

The significance of river transport may have been exaggerated, fn. Nevertheless, enough traffic passed through Oxford to support several inns, and the university licensed carriers to many parts of the country. Another possibly ominous trend for the future of the town's economy was the transfer during the 12th and 13th centuries of a large proportion of Oxford's domestic property to religious houses, either by purchase, gift, or grants in return for corrodies.

By 11 religious houses held over properties in demesne and received rents from others; in ecclesiastical corporations held over 62 per cent of the rent-income of the town as assessed for tallage, and another 4 per cent was held by the university and colleges.

With the outbreak of the Hundred Years War Oxford's wine trade, which earlier seems to have been complementary to its trade in cloth and wool, was seriously damaged, fn.

Such a limited economy, while providing secure and profitable employment for a wide range of tradesmen, could hardly support as large a population as Oxford seems to have held in the earlier Middle Ages. If, as seems likely, the number of scholars fell during the later Middle Ages fn.

Moreover few of those engaged in such localized trade were wealthy compared with members of the merchant class which finally died out in the mid 14th century. The constitutional victories of gown over town, almost complete by the mid 14th century, meant the loss not only of much freedom and prestige, presumably discouraging settlement in the town by enterprising men, but of powers and privileges that had been important sources of revenue to the town.

If Oxford had been flourishing in the Black Death might have caused only a temporary setback, but it struck a town which had already lost or was losing many of its economic advantages.

Its immediate effect on the population was catastrophic, and its impact on the number of scholars in the university may also have been serious; fn.

The urban rents of Oseney abbey and St. John's hospital reached a low point in the early s, but Oseney's rent-income by the s seems to have been about the same as in the s; although the hospital's rental after never reached the level even of , which was lower than in the s, it reached c.

Rental evidence suggests continuing economic stagnation in the 15th century, if not further decline. John's hospital, later Magdalen College, seem to have fallen later, from c. Although Oseney's rental was raised slightly in the later 15th century, the amount actually paid fell, partly because of substantial temporary reductions allowed to tenants who had improved their properties.

Leading townsmen in the later Middle Ages seem not to have been much involved in external trade. The families of some of the wealthy earlyth-century merchants had died out by mid century, and those that survived were represented by mercers, drapers, brewers, and vintners rather than merchants; even William of Bicester's son-in-law, Richard Cary d.

In Oxford's representatives, having obtained exemption from all custom, were instructed to seek exemption from toll, murage, pavage, and similar exactions; fn. Although there is evidence of trading contacts with London, Southampton, and Bristol in the 15th century, few of the Oxford men involved seem to have been of the stature of some of the earlyth-century merchants like the Worminghalls.

Oliver Urry, apparently a skinner, fn. Most of the merchants were Southampton men, but four Oxford burgesses, notably Robert Walford or Sadler, mayor in , owned consignments of goods, and another Oxford man carried salt in his own cart. Minor contacts with many other English towns were recorded, particularly the relatively close towns of Henley, Abingdon, and Reading. Thomas's guild in St. Mary's church in included men from Winchester and Norwich, fn. Martin's church in The change in Oxford's economic base from manufacturing and commerce to service trades dependent on the university was well advanced by , when the occupations of c.

The occupations of some men, including some of the aldermen, were not stated; the table also excludes wives and the inhabitants of the outlying hamlets of Walton and Binsey, but includes the immediate suburbs. The food and drink trades were predominant, in terms of both numbers and wealth, but cloth and leather trades were still strong and some of the town's leaders were drapers.

The mayor, William Dagville, whose interests included brewing, fn. Another draper and a spicer paid 13 s. By contrast, most of the cloth- and leather-workers paid less than the average of 1 s. The privileged persons of the university paid very low sums, but were assessed separately and perhaps to a different standard; the largest group, the manciples, were probably, as later, fn. There seem to have been remarkably few representatives of the book trades.

Two other large groups whose numbers bear testimony to the presence of the university were the tailors and the building workers. Few tailors and none of the masons or carpenters appear to have been prominent; as with other provincial towns, Oxford may have depended for specialized building work, particularly in the university, on outside masters.

Metal-workers were few but some were prosperous, notably John of Deddington, a cutler, possibly a descendant of Richard of Deddington, an ironmonger in the town a century earlier.

The large number of skinners accords with other evidence of a thriving guild, but the craft declined in the later Middle Ages. Although the general occupational structure revealed by the poll tax is probably accurate, some men, particularly the wealthier, followed several occupations of which only one was recorded; the servants of John Hicks, spicer, included a brewer and a maltman, fn.

The largest recorded households were those of Walter Wycombe, brewer, with 11 servants, and William Northern, alderman, with 10; the 12 other households employing 5 or more servants were those of 3 tailors, 2 weavers, both members of the Cade family, 2 spicers, 2 brewers, a tanner, a chandler, and a baker.

Proceedings under the Statute of Labourers in the s fn. There were about three times as many building workers as cloth-workers, perhaps because of the nature of the evidence rather than because of a drastic decline in the cloth industry or a boom in building since That the cloth industry did decline, however, is evident from aulnage accounts taken in Oxford.

In 46 men and women paid on cloths, but none can be proved to have come from Oxford, and certainly none held office there; Robert Butterwick, who paid on the largest number of cloths c. A few weavers and dyers continued to be recorded, including two 'malefactors from Flanders' in , fn.

By the early 16th century weavers had virtually disappeared from Oxford. Sources: cartularies, tax lists, court records. Coverage is uneven, since the occupations of almost all bailiffs serving in the period may be derived from the poll tax and Statute of Labourers presentments, whereas fewer than a third of the occupations of bailiffs before are known.

Men who followed two unrelated trades have been entered twice. The known occupations of town bailiffs see Table III confirm the dominance of the victualling and distributive trades, and suggest a rise in status of leather-workers in the 15th century, probably associated with the growth of gloving, for which the town quickly acquired some reputation; fn.

The spectacular increase in the number of brewers and taverners among the bailiffs after probably owed much to changes in the organization of brewing in the town. Records of the assize of ale fn. The apparent lack of brewers among the bailiffs between and may be due largely to lack of evidence of occupations in that period.

The bailiffs engaged in distributive trades included 14 spicers or apothecaries, 11 mercers, 3 chandlers, and a grocer. Among the metal-workers in the town the ironmongers, who might also be classified with the distributive trades, most often reached bailiff's rank, but the two who occur between and were goldsmiths.

Of the textile-workers 9 were drapers and 4 dyers. The other occupations recorded were a clerk in the period , a gentleman and an esquire , a husbandman , and a gentleman The prominence of the drink trades is even more marked when the occupations of those bailiffs who became mayors are considered: 10 brewers, vintners, or taverners served the office between and compared with 5 men from the distributive trades, and 4 from the other victualling trades. There were no leather or metal workers and the textile trades were represented only by 3 drapers; a hosier and a tailor were recorded between and The inhabitants of Oxford had developed some sense of corporate identity by the mid 11th century when the reeve and all the citizens omnes cives of Oxford witnessed a lease by St.

Alban's abbey. The concept, however, was not without difficulties. In the burgesses granted the island of Medley, part of their common meadow, to St. Frideswide's priory in exchange for stalls in Oxford. Frideswide's over the earlier grant to that house no such intermediary as William de Chesney was necessary. The agreement with St. Frideswide's was made by the burgesses of the vill of Oxford and sealed with the seal of the alderman of the guild.

The citizens of the commune of the city and of the merchant guild who granted Medley to Oseney abbey in and confirmed the grant in were clearly the successors of the 'burgesses' of , for they held the burgesses' common pasture; but it would be hasty to assume fn.

Indeed, the use of the words citizens or burgesses 'of the community of the city and of the merchant guild' in both and suggests that there was some distinction, in origin at least, between the two bodies. In and succeeding years, for instance, a firm distinction was made between the burgesses and the minuti homines of Oxford, who contributed quite separately to an aid for the marriage of the king's daughter.

In the early 14th century admission to the guild gave exemption from toll and other customs in the market and fairs. Membership of the guild was not restricted to residents within the walls; lists of c.

The first known charter to Oxford was granted by Henry II c. It confirmed to the citizens the liberties they had enjoyed under Henry I: their guild merchant with all liberties and customs, so that no one who was not a member of the guild might carry on any business as a merchant in the city or its suburbs; quittance of toll and transport dues passagium throughout England and Normandy; all the customs, liberties, and laws of London; the right to serve the king at his feast with those of his butlery; the right to enjoy trading privileges with Londoners within and without London; the right not to be impleaded outside Oxford in any lawsuit, but to settle all disputes according to the law and custom of London; the rights of sac and soc, toll and teme, and infangthief.

Most of those rights can be shown from other evidence to have been enjoyed by the burgesses in Henry I's time. They had a guild by c. Frideswide's, who produced Henry II's charter in support. In King John granted the borough to the burgesses to hold at a higher farm than they used to pay in the time of Henry II and Richard I, and confirmed their privileges generally.

Another charter of the same date granted that burgesses' goods should not be seized anywhere for debt, except when they were the principal debtors or their pledges, or when the debtors were of 'the commune and power' of the borough and the burgesses themselves had failed to do justice; that burgesses should not lose their goods as a result of any trespass committed by a servant; and that if any burgess died within the kingdom, whether or not he had made a will, the king would not confiscate his goods until notice had been given to his heirs.

In the burgesses claimed to hold the town at farm of the king as freely as the men of London, fn. Edward I in confirmed the charters of and Within the borough and its suburbs the mayor and burgesses were to make executions of all property judicially recovered and acknowledged and damages adjudged before them.

In all actions about tenements, rents, and tenures, the burgesses might plead by writ of right patent. The king's clerk of the market was not to interfere in the borough or its suburbs. The burgesses' right to buy and sell freely throughout the kingdom and their exemption from toll, murage, pavage, pontage, piccage, stallage, and other customs were confirmed. Merchants coming to Oxford were to buy and sell only in the market, and no one was to expose goods for sale until he had paid custom.

No one who was not of the guild might sell at retail within the borough. The burgesses were to be quit of murdrum within the borough and its suburbs, and they were exempted from trial by combat.

Pleas of the Crown were to be decided according to the law and custom of London; the husting court was to be held weekly, and the aldermen were to hold view of frankpledge twice a year in their wards. Nothing in the charter, however, was to prejudice the liberties of the university.

The charter of was confirmed in , , and In another charter was issued in the name of Henry VI, confirming most of the privileges granted in , but not, like the earlier confirmations, in the form of an inspeximus; it may have been issued by Richard, duke of York as protector of the kingdom, and it was not referred to in later charters. Further confirmations of the charter were granted in , , and The privileges granted to Oxford were not granted from purely altruistic motives, for the king had a strong financial interest in the town and its prosperity.

The arrangement, which was of doubtful benefit to the town, was cancelled in In the bailiffs were allowed towards the farm c. The Crown made grants from the fee farm from time to time. The earliest recorded was Henry I's grant to St. While the privileges granted by royal charters were considerable, in practice the burgesses' independence and freedom of action was checked from the early 13th century by the growth of the university, which, protected and encouraged by successive kings, gradually acquired considerable power in the day to day running of the town.

Relations between the two bodies in the 13th and early 14th centuries were marked by violent conflicts, each of which left the university strengthened at the expense of the town. A settlement by the papal legate in provided that for ten years half the rents assessed on clerks' hostels were to be remitted, and for the following ten years the rents were to be those assessed by clerks and laymen before ; the town was to give 52 s.

Nicholas's day each year; food and other necessities were to be sold to scholars at reasonable prices; arrested clerks were to be delivered to the bishop, the archdeacon, or the chancellor of the university; 50 leading burgesses and their heirs for ever were to take an oath to observe the settlement, and each Michaelmas, on taking office, the mayor and bailiffs were to swear the same oath before the archdeacon and chancellor.

In , after fighting during which a clerk was killed by townsmen, the university was granted further privileges. It was ordered that if a burgess killed or wounded a clerk the town community was to be amerced and punished, the bailiffs being amerced and punished separately if they had been negligent; the chancellor or his representatives were to be present at the assize of bread and of ale, and the provisions of for the mayor and bailiffs' annual oath to the university were repeated.

Continuing disputes between townsmen and clerks seem to have led the king to reorganize the town's government and grant further privileges to the university in Four aldermen assisted by eight law-worthy burgesses were to be responsible for keeping the peace and holding assizes; two of the more law-worthy men in each parish were to be sworn to inquire each week whether any suspects had been harboured in the parish, and anyone who received such men for more than three nights was to be responsible for them.

A layman who injured a clerk was to be imprisoned until he paid compensation; a clerk who injured a layman, until delivered by the chancellor. To protect the scholars' interests in the market regrators were forbidden to buy or sell victuals before 9 a. Apart from the control of the market, the most frequent cause of dispute was the jurisdiction of the chancellor's court.

The court, an ecclesiastical one, presumably came into existence c. The renting of houses in the town by clerks was another source of friction. Before rents had apparently been assessed by agreement of clerks and burgesses, and the settlement of stipulated that houses rented to clerks for the first time should be assessed by four masters of arts and four burgesses.

The tendency for properties once rented to clerks to remain in their tenure is illustrated by the formal declaration of the chancellor and proctors in that although a house in St. John's parish had been rented to a master and scholars for three years it would not be assigned to scholars again at the end of that term.

In , after more fighting, an agreement was drawn up whereby the chancellor obtained cognizance of all trespasses in which scholars were involved, except pleas of homicide and mayhem, but he was to take only reasonable fines from laymen imprisoned by him; he was to give townsmen a day's notice to appear in his court, instead of summoning them at an hour's notice; he was not to summon transients to answer for offences committed outside Oxford; and he was not to deliver a clerk imprisoned for seriously wounding a layman until it was known whether or not the layman would live.

The mayor, bailiffs, aldermen, and their assistants, and 50 burgesses fn. The chancellor and mayor were to have joint cognizance of bad food, the forfeitures and amercements going to St. Clerks were not to insist on minimum leases of ten years, and their houses were to be reassessed every five years.

The agreement also defined for the first time those eligible to share the privileges of the university, later known as privileged persons: clerks and their families and servants, parchment-makers, limners, scriveners, barbers, and others who wore clerks' livery. The jurisdiction of the chancellor's court continued to be a source of grievance to the townsmen.

In they gained a small point when the king forbade the chancellor to hear cases in which a layman had ceded to a clerk an action, usually for debt, against another layman; fn. The agreement of was confirmed in It also strengthened the peace-keeping provisions of the charter of by reiterating that the chancellor and mayor should receive the oaths of the aldermen and their assistants yearly at Michaelmas, and providing that the two men from each parish who were to assist them in controlling suspicious strangers might be chosen and sworn more often than once a year.

After the great riot of St. Scholastica's day both town and university surrendered their charters. From the beginning of the affair the king had taken the university's part, fn. The mayor, John of Barford, was imprisoned. Scholastica's day, at which the mayor, bailiffs, and aldermen, and all those who had sworn to the university were to offer 1 d. The town was bound in marks to fulfil the conditions. Scholastica's day, in addition to the oaths imposed in , left neither party in doubt as to who held the real power in Oxford, and kept fresh for centuries the bitterness and sense of grievance of the townsmen.

The riot of marked the end of a century and a half of intermittent violence between town and gown. Perhaps because of exhaustion on both sides, perhaps because the ascendancy of the university seemed so firmly established, relations between the two bodies seem to have improved in the later Middle Ages. The question of the liability of the university to payment of 15ths and 10ths caused concern in the town in and , despite formal agreements with some colleges in , and led to two petitions to parliament; in the university and colleges were ordered to pay subsidies on lands acquired since There was further trouble in in the course of which one of the bailiffs was punished by the chancellor for imprisoning a scholar.

Finally, categories of allowable privileged persons were defined: the chancellor, doctors, masters, graduates, students, scholars, and clerks living within the precincts of the university and their daily servants; the steward and 'feed men' of the university with their menials; bedels with their daily servants and households; stationers, bookbinders, limners, scriveners, parchmentmakers, barbers, the university bell-ringer, with their households; all caters, manciples, spencers, cooks, launderers, poor children of scholars or clerks within the university; all servants taking clothing or hire by the year, half year, or quarter at a rate of 6 s.

If, however, any member of a privileged person's household sold merchandize, he was to be tallageable with the town for that merchandize. Despite the agreement of the position of privileged persons, particularly of scholars' servants, continued to be abused. As early as a list of privileged persons had included a harp-maker and a shepster among the scriveners, barbers, cooks, and manciples, fn.

The later medieval pattern of government by a mayor, two bailiffs, and four aldermen, aided by a council, developed in Oxford during the 13th century; earlier the government was in the hands of two reeves, who were at least nominally royal officials, while the chief spokesman for the burgesses was the alderman of the merchant guild.

The first recorded reeve of the city was Godwin; with Wulfwin the earl's reeve, whose jurisdiction may have extended beyond the town, he witnessed a lease between and They were responsible for paying the fee farm at the Exchequer, and for maintaining law and order; they presided over the bailiffs' or king's court which dealt with breaches of the king's peace and disputes over real property.

The first recorded alderman of the guild was the knight William de Chesney in ; fn. In the later 12th century there were usually two aldermen, but in there seems to have been only one, a powerful and wealthy burgess John Kepeharm.

The newly elected mayor had to take an oath to the king before being admitted to his office, a long and difficult undertaking if the king were in a remote part of his realm; the charter of granted that the mayor might take his oath in the Exchequer as the mayor of London did, if the king was far away. The charter of added that if both the king and the barons of the Exchequer were away from London the mayor might be presented to the constable of the Tower and admitted to office by him, as long as he presented himself again to the king or the barons on their return to London.

Aldermen in the later sense of officers in charge of wards first appeared in the mid 13th century, and their title, like other aspects of Oxford's government, may have been borrowed from London. There seem to have been eight such aldermen in , fn. The first reference to an aldermanry in the sense of 'ward' occurs in By , then, the senior town offices were established, and the structure persisted, despite occasions later in the century when, perhaps in response to temporary exigencies, extra officers seem to have been appointed: in there seem to have been eight aldermen, and in and four men who may all have been bailiffs witnessed deeds.

In the later 13th century it became common for men to serve as bailiff several times: Ellis the Quilter held the office at least eight times in the decade , and Philip de Eu served at least five times between and , when he became mayor. Walter of Milton c. By the mid 14th century the mayor was always chosen from among the aldermen.

By that date the office of alderman, which appears from the available evidence to have been an annual one in the later 13th century, was coming to be held for life, although the form of annual election continued.

Richard Cary, who was alderman in , held no office in or , but was mayor or alderman every year from then until his death in ; William Northern served as alderman or mayor every year from until his death in Even in the 13th century it was usual for men to serve as bailiff before becoming mayor, and by the end of the century the office of alderman probably ranked above that of bailiff. After it is clear that a man normally served as bailiff before becoming an alderman, and was an alderman at the time of his election as mayor.

There seem to have been only four exceptions: Robert Mauncel in , Thomas Fowler in , and John Edgecombe in became alderman without serving as bailiff, and William Dagville in became mayor before becoming alderman. John FitzAlan, a civil lawyer and possibly a royal servant, fn. Below the bailiffs in the hierarchy of town officers were two chamberlains, financial officers whose earliest known accounts date from All the officers were elected annually.

The mayor was elected at Michaelmas by the 'community of burgesses' and travelled at once to London to be admitted in the Exchequer. The legal officers included the court officials called bailiffs in fn.

There was a town crier by , and in the same year two clamatores custume appear for the first and only time. The office of town clerk seems to have developed in the earlier 13th century. The town appears to have had its own coroners in , and in they were ordered to be present with the county coroners at a special gaol delivery.

There seem to have been four coroners in , but only two from c. The earliest record of what appears to have been a permanent council is Walter of Milton's complaint of c. Twenty-four men sworn in to assist the mayor and reeves in keeping the peace in the town fn. In ten burgesses, including three former mayors and six former bailiffs, who may have been councillors, acted with the mayor and bailiffs in reaching an agreement with St.

Frideswide's priory. Brian Twyne, the antiquary, saw lists of 8, 12, and 13 councillors among officers elected in , , and , but did not copy out their names.

The evidence suggests, then, that from the later 13th century there was a council composed largely of former bailiffs; it was presumably that body which was referred to in as the town council. Lists of members of the mayor's council elected in , , and fn. Comparison of the three lists indicates that they were revised each year and that the composition of, and order of seniority within, the council was fairly rigidly fixed.

The lists for and are almost identical; the name of Thomas Haville, who seems to have died during the mayoral year , fn. A former chamberlain who had not served as bailiff has moved to the bottom of the bailiffs' list; he may have bought a bailiff's place, although there is no clear evidence of that practice until c. At the end of the whole list are the names of the two men, presumably former chamberlains, who were to be bailiffs in A change of order among the former bailiffs seems to have been a correction of an error in the earlier lists, and one former bailiff, omitted from both the earlier lists, has been inserted in his correct position.

The mayor's council, it seems, had assumed more or less the shape it was to have in the 16th century; all that was lacking was any substantial body of former chamberlains. The bailiffs were not responsible to the town for their accounts, since they had only to produce the annual farm at the Exchequer. The chamberlains, and presumably the key-keepers, accounted annually to the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses. Presents were sent to the king, the chancellor of the university, and other dignitaries.

The chamberlains also seem to have paid the expenses of the St. Scholastica's day mass and offering. From onwards the expenses of perambulating the liberty were paid regularly.

Among unusual payments was 6 s. The chamberlains' main sources of income were the payments made by men entering the guild i. Money was also made occasionally by the sale of fish from the town fishponds, as in , or of other items such as an old door which produced 6 s.

The chamberlains also accounted for the profits of butchers' and fishmongers' stalls and bakers' baskets, money which apparently belonged earlier to the bailiffs for the fee farm. The chamberlains do not seem to have accounted for the other revenues belonging to the farm; it may be that some stalls paid rent to the chamberlains, or that the money was in fact an extra tax levied to cover the cost of specific repairs.

The major expenses of lawsuits were probably covered by special collections, like that taken in for a plea between the town and the university. Some of the turrets on the wall were also let, as were the cellar and shops, described in as two taverns, fn.

Oxford burgesses were summoned to parliament in and regularly from onwards. Of the 96 known M. Later in the century Edmund Kenyon served nine times and William Dagville eight assuming that the Walter Dagville returned twice was an error for William , and in the 15th century Thomas Coventry served ten times. As a rule, though, lateth- and 15th-century burgesses served only once or twice.

Only four parliamentary burgesses cannot be identified as Oxford men, and only one, William Bedston, M. He was a county landowner whose chief estate lay at Heythrop; he was a Yorkist, a royal servant, possibly a lawyer, who had served as M.

His election for Oxford may have been the result of Yorkist pressure on the town. Another Yorkist and royal servant, Thomas Fowler, a member of a Buckinghamshire family, was elected alderman of Oxford in , not having served as bailiff; he may have been M. He too was a lawyer, fn. Oxford, like other boroughs, employed its parliamentary burgesses on other business while they were in London. In and again in the burgesses were engaged in negotiations with the mayor and sheriffs of London to obtain guarantees that Oxford men might enjoy the trading privileges granted by their charters.

Martin's church to Abingdon abbey in or before Similar connexions between town and country continued into the early 12th century, when county landowners like Geoffrey de Clinton, chamberlain of Henry I, and Waukelin Hareng held Oxford houses; sometimes such houses were used for courts.

As the magnate element in the town disappeared new connexions between town and country were formed by townsmen investing in rural property.

The first who is known to have done so was Henry of Oxford d. Among the larger accumulations made by 15th-century townsmen were those of the mayors John FitzAlan, whose estate, including extensive north Oxfordshire property, fn.

The origins of Oxford burgesses are indicated rarely, but 13th-century surnames suggest that most came only short distances to the town: of place-names employed as surnames by Oxford property-owners in may be identified with reasonable certainty, and as many as 85 lay within 50 miles of the town, scattered fairly evenly around it. Some places supplied several names, notably London 5 , and the Berkshire towns of Wallingford and Faringdon 4 each. Many men named after places seem to have been recent immigrants, as appears by the relatively high number of them in Oxford in who had acquired property by purchase or marriage rather than by inheritance.

In the borough nearly half of the recorded conveyances were by inheritance or gift within the family, but of the men named after places whose manner of acquiring property is known only 10 out of 46 did so by inheritance; in the Northgate hundred half of the conveyances were by sale, but of the men involved who were named after places, all 23 had acquired their property by purchase or marriage.

The pattern of immigration suggested by surnames recorded in is similar to that for , in that the distant places lay mainly in the north-east; places within 15 miles of Oxford were fairly evenly distributed around the town, but those between 15 and 20 miles were concentrated in the west and north, while those between 20 and 60 miles lay mainly in the west, south, and east, towards London, Bristol and Southampton.

Most of the evidence for emigration from Oxford derives from London sources. A family named Oxford, involved in skinning in the parish of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, by the late 13th century, produced at least two prominent London citizens fn. Bartholomew's hospital. Throughout the Middle Ages Oxford was controlled by comparatively few families, bound together by kinship, marriage, apprenticeship, and business interests.

The 'greater burgesses', subject of a rambling complaint c. Milton not only accused individual greater burgesses of blocking footpaths and objecting to smoke from other men's chimneys, but also made more serious allegations that they ignored restrictions which they themselves had imposed on the weavers' guild, and arranged tax assessments so that almost all the money came from the lesser burgesses.

Often, according to Milton, extra money was collected and divided among the greater burgesses; on one occasion it was spent at a drinking party which developed into a brawl, an incident 'not to the honour of the king or his men'.

At the same time opportunities to rise were greater: bailiffs were recruited from a wider field, and apprenticeship came to offer an avenue to success for those without useful family connexions.