Author: Hitchings, Edward
Biography:
HITCHINGS, Edward (1749-1825: ancestry.com)
He was baptised at St. Aldate’s, Oxford, on 29 Sept. 1749, one of nine children of a tanner, John Hitchings (1699-1789), and his wife Mary Ellins of Brize Norton (1708-57), who had married in 1733. Apprenticed to a tailor in 1762, he built a thriving business in Oxford and became a prominent citizen and philanthropist. On 7 Nov. 1775 he married Elizabeth Benwell at St. Aldate’s; of their eleven children, six survived to adulthood, with one becoming a clergyman and another a physician. Between 1780 and 1800 he held various City offices and served as a lieutenant in the Oxford militia. He was three times elected Mayor of Oxford: 1800-1, 1811-12, 1821-2. During his second term, on the occasion of a Royal Visit, he was knighted. His verse was mainly occasional, consisting of short poems written to entertain his friends and family, that Hitchings had printed locally for private circulation. Some of the titles under his name in libraries consist of a number of these short pieces, separately paginated but bound together under a title provided by the library (“Five Letters in Verse, and Other Poems,” for instance). In 1820 the family moved into a house on St. Giles’ St. where he died on 21 Nov. 1825. He was buried on 26 Nov. at St. Giles’ Church. His wife died in 1831 and was buried with her husband in 1836. (ancestry.com 22 Aug. 2022; “Mayors and Lord Mayors,” oxfordhistory.org.uk) HJ
Other Names:
- E. Hitchings