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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => London and Middlesex => Topic started by: roly on Wednesday 22 August 18 12:10 BST (UK)
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Old requests for information revised.
William Oxlade, a printer and bookseller, was born in London in 1743 and is recorded as having died in London (actually at St. Botolph) in 1803.
However, there are two puzzling other records. It seems that he was committed to the Fleet prison in 1794 and not discharged until 1804.
Can anyone help with an explanation?
roly
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If those "facts" are all true, then the only explanation can be that there are two different people, as he could not have been released from prison a year after he had died!
Have you seen the original documents of all these events?
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I see the burial at St Botolph, of William Oxlad, on 2nd June 1803, a man from Rosemary Lane.
no age at burial, or occupation or any other info given.
Why are you sure this is the same person as the one in prison, and/or the one born 1743 and/or the bookseller?
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It seems that he was committed to the Fleet prison in 1794 and not discharged until 1804.
Although Ancestry's transcript has him discharged on 3 October 1804, the image does not support that, showing simply 3d Oct. [no year].
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Although Ancestry's transcript has him discharged on 3 October 1804, the image does not support that, showing simply 3d Oct. [no year].
And it refers to him as William Oxlade the younger - suggesting there is another William Oxlade around in the area at that time .
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The picture is already becoming clearer. My thanks to correspondents.
I did say that Oxlade's father was also a William and that he outlived his son. And there is certainly a gap in his productive years - plenty of publised items from the 1770s and 1780s and then an abrupt cessation - the time when he was imprisoned, coincidentally or not.
What I didn't know was that he had stayed in prison for so long. It was not unknown for printers to serve a sentence until a debt was repaid and that they then recommenced business. No sign of that with our William.
If there are other fragments, I'd appreciate your sharing them. I should say that I do have a fairly extensive picture of his three marriages and births and deaths of children.
roly
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What I didn't know was that he had stayed in prison for so long.
How long do you think he was in prison? Did you see my reply #3 above?
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Have you looked at this site?
https://www.londonlives.org/formPersName.jsp
There are some interesting snippets for William Oxlade.
It looks as if he went to court as people kept stealing his books!
Don't think it will help with why HE went to prison, but interesting to help fill out his life.
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In reply - yes: I saw reports of the theft of books from Oxlade (two occasions - same offenders).
As to the length of time that Oxlade spent in prison: I don't know...and this was, amongst other things, one of the points that I had hoped could be clarified in these exchanges.
There is a record of his owing twelve pounds to a William Brown but I have no details.
The following may also help. Oxlade's son, John, was imprisoned between 1798 and 1800 as a result of his activities as a member of the London Corresponding Society. John left a detailed account of his imprisonment, describing how his father visited him. It could be, then, that William was 'out'.
In addition, it seems that WO was also involved in radical activities.
One other thought. Oxlade had as a friend James Lackington, seen as the instigator of new methods of bookselling (details easily found on the web). It could have been that, during his own apparently fallow period, Oxlade worked with or for Lackington.
roly
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As to the length of time that Oxlade spent in prison: I don't know...and this was, amongst other things, one of the points that I had hoped could be clarified in these exchanges.
Basic place to check is the London Gazette. Three notices were published for him in August 1797, describing him as a Bookbinder in Chiswell Street. He may well have been released at that time.
Also, if you don't already have his apprenticeship and freedom details (and his father's name), you'll find them in the British Book Trade Index.
Afraid I don't have these links to hand at the moment, but googling will find them easily enough.
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Nothing in BBTI.
I've already come across the Gazette online - it indicates that William Oxlade the Younger of Chiswell Street is in prison - but there's no date on the entry.
roly
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Nothing in BBTI.
British Book Trade Index
http://bbti.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/details/?traderid=51823
Name: OXLADE, William
County: London
Town: London
Address(es): St Paul's Chyd [= Churchyard]. Chiswell St
Book Trades: Bookbinder
Non-Book Trade: Not known
Trading Dates: 1766 (date of freedom) - 1786 (after)
Biographical Dates: 1759 (date of apprenticeship) - 1786 (after)
Notes: Son of William Oxlade of Sheer La, labourer. Apprenticed to Thomas Knowles
This matches the City Freedom papers (Stationers' Company), on Ancestry.
I've already come across the Gazette online - it indicates that William Oxlade the Younger of Chiswell Street is in prison - but there's no date on the entry.
The 3 notices in the Gazette are dated 22, 26 and 29 August 1797 (consecutive issues 14039, 14040 & 14041).
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/14039/page/822.
It would appear that this is the man who was committed to the Fleet on 11 Nov 1794, as in your original post. The 1794 entry in the Fleet register does refer to him as 'the Younger' (as already flagged up by lizdb).
There is no evidence in the Fleet register for a discharge in 1804 (as given by Ancestry). It seems likely that he was released in 1797, as referenced in The Gazette.
His father, presumably 'the Elder', appears not to have been in the book trade, but a labourer.
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Put it down to poor eyesight and old age - I never found the details of Oxlade's career in BTTI.
I only found one Gazette reference.
So this going leaps and bounds. Many thanks.
roly
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There is a PCC will for William Oxlade, yeoman of Dulwich, Surrey, signed on 14 November 1804, proved 23 July 1807.
This William Oxlade was probably the one buried at Dulwich College in 1807, aged 83 (so born c.1724). A note in the margin of the death duty index for 1807 shows he was insolvent. The executor was William Crawford, a bookseller. William Crawford married Mary Oxlade in 1794 at St Luke’s, a parish where William Oxlade the Younger was active (according to the Gazette).
Given the bookselling connection, this William Oxlade of Dulwich may be the father of William Oxlade the Younger, the bookbinder in the Fleet. However, the Younger isn’t mentioned in the will, as far as I can see, so he may have pre-deceased his father, and therefore he may be one buried in 1803 from Rosemary Lane.
You may want to look at the 1807 will. It’s in rather poor condition, and the second page is missing from Ancestry, but it can be seen (just about) via TNA’s free preview image, accessible from Discovery ...
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D314992
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Thanks, Bookbox.
The sister of William Oxlade the younger - Mary - married William Crawford in 1794. A daughter, Mary Ann, was born before the marriage took place. A son, Alexander, was born to the couple - and apprenticed to his uncle John, a bookbinder.
But - something of a clincher to your discoveries (I hope) - William Oxlade the elder, bequeathed his possessions to the young Mary Ann.
What brought about this complicated manouevre is not at all clear: but it could have had something to do with WO the younger's insolvency.
Phew.
roly
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Or that his son,William the younger, had predeceased him. As suggested in reply #13.
Younger dying 1803 (as per burial) and older dying 1807 Dulwich (as per proving of Will)
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The sister of William Oxlade the younger - Mary - married William Crawford in 1794.
Are you sure? Have you read the 1807 will?
... I give and bequeath
the same and every part thereof unto my
Grandaughter Mary the Wife of William Crawford
of Peerless Row in the City Road Bookseller
Perhaps Mary Oxlade who married William Crawford in 1794 was William Oxlade the Younger’s daughter (rather than his sister)? Just a suggestion.
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Bookbox - you're quite right! My aberration.
roly
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Thanks to correspondents I now have a reasonably accurate picture of the circumstances surrounding William Oxlade's latter years and his death.
There remains that gap between his printing books up to 1780 and then his incarceration.
In addition, his son, John's, activities are elevated. He was born in 1770 and died in Greenwich in 1850. He received his articles of clerkship and was given the freedom of the city of London 'by patrimony' (I'm aware that is a scant summary); but quite whether he did practice as an attorney or worked as a bookseller is not yet clear.
It is known, as I wrote before, that he was imprisoned as a member of the London Corresponding Society between 1798 and 1800. He had married a Sarah Sheldrick in 1794 and there were three children of the marriage. The family certainly endured tough times - and, sadly, John Oxlade's wife, Sarah, and two of their children, another Sarah and Eliabeth all died in 1812 when, coincidentally, there was an epidemic of whooping cough...There may well have been a connection.
It could be that this misfortune prompted Oxlade to up sticks and move to Portsea, Hampshire. There in 1813, he married a Mary Ann Terry and the family lived in Portsea until 1820 when they then moved back to the London area (actually Mitcham).
The period in Portsea coincided with a rise in work prospects during the Napoleonic wars until, after Napoleon's fall, trade fell off rapidly. As it happens, the family of Brian Blessed, the actor, followed a very similar line of progression to that of John Oxlade - London, Portsmouth, London.
In Portsea, Oxlade worked as a bookseller. But he also issued broadside ballads and these ballads carry the name 'W. Oxlade'. It would seem that JO was carrying on his father's business: but JO's own name is nowhere on the ballads. I can't 'explain' this discrepancy.
Any views?
roly
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Sorry...One afterthought.
If Johnn Oxlade was imprisoned, would this disbar him from practising as an attorney? You'd expect that this was so...
roly
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Pursuant to the life and times of William Oxlade comes enquiry into the fortunes of his son, John (born 1770).
He married a Sarah Sheldrick in 1794 and children were born as follows - George (1795 and dying in the same year); Sarah (1796 and dying in 1812); Ann (1797); Elizabeth (1798).
I had a notion - I really can't remember how this came about - that Elizabeth also died in 1812. Coincidentally (?) a Sarah Oxlade, wife of John Oxlade, died in 1812, aged 73.
If this Sarah was the wife of John as aforementioned, then her daughters would have been 16 (Sarah) and 14 (Elizabeth). Is this likely? I can find no other death notices for Sarah Oxlade.
But it may have been one or other or all of these deaths that precipitated a move for John Oxlade to Portsea where, in 1813, he married a Sarah Ann Terry (I've referred to this event before...).
I've been unable to find any details involving Eliabeth; nor, indeed, of Ann.
Help would be much appreciated.
roly