Millennium Project
Rob Forsyth with Castle Brothers and Stephanie Jenkins
Deddington History website clearly has a ‘Heineken effect’; it reaches browsers even in the Antipodes. David Castle (a Falklands resident) contacted me in November 2025 to say that he and his brother Steve (Australian resident) are related to Nathaniel Castle who became a Mayor of Oxford.
Their 3xGreat Grandfather was Nathaniel's uncle and, confusingly, also called Nathaniel (1768-1818). He lived in Ledwell and married Ann Merry (1778-1844) on 28 April 1800 at Sandford St Martin.
Ann was the third daughter of William Merry who was recorded in the
Enclosures as occupying Boulderdyke Farm in Clifton in 1808.
This painting hangs in Oxford Town Hall
The Mayor's career has been described in full on an Oxford History website created by Stephanie Jenkins. Much of the following summary has been sourced from it with her kind permission. Please refer to the full original article which contains much more about his career and, in particular, an extensive report of his death and the subsequent inquest as a consequence of his death in 1860 following a hunting accident when he was thrown from his horse.
(click on all images to enlarge)
There appears to be no record of Nathaniel's birth and/or baptism. From census data and the register of his burial aged 62 he would seem to have been born c.1798/1799 depending on which month he was born.
He was apprenticed to an Oxford hatter, Jeremiah Randall, in 1811 aged 12/13. His indenture lasted an unusualy long time to 1825.
He married Mary Green of Oxford on 30 May 1830. They did not have any children.
The 1841 census shows Nathaniel and Mary living above the shop at No.13, High Street, Oxford. Also living with them were his apprentice Richard Castle and also Ann Castle, who was still at school; they were his nephew and niece.
In 1852 he was elected for the first time to the Town Council, and was re-elected in 1853, 1856, and 1859, serving as Sheriff in 1855/6. He was also a Governor of the Workhouse for a while.
On 12 April 1856 Jackson’s Oxford Journal announced that he was taking William Robert Juggins (the nephew of his late partner Robert Juggins) into partnership with him at No 13, High Street, and that the business was now ‘Messrs. Castle & Juggins, Hatters, Shirt makers, Hosiers, Glovers &c’.
He was elected Mayor of Oxford for 1858/9.
Tragedy then struck. He was a regular rider to hounds and, despite being advised against his mount, went out with the South Oxfordshire Hunt on 16 November 1860 . He was thrown and badly injured when his horse shied and then trampled on his chest. He died the next day.
His death and the subsequent inquest were reported in some depth in Jackson's Oxford Journal of 24 November 1860.
Nathaniel's family
Richard was a
Gamekeeper and Maltster. This image from Jackson's Oxford Journal of 22 September 1798 shows he was licensed for Milcombe and Deddington. A list of further certificates transcribed from Jackson's Oxford Journal can be found HERE.
The Castle family were well connected to the countryside. Victoria County History records that they had farms in Heythrop/Dunthrop, Great Tew and Over Worton.
The 1808 Enclosures map identifies the properties he owned/occupied by key numbers:
Key No.104 (now The Old
Malthouse) on Church Street - described as 'Homestead Malting & Garden'. It was reported for sale on 6 August 1808 in Jackson's Oxford Journal
Key No 131 (now Ivings House) on Philcote Street - described as 'cottages' . Reported for sale on 10 December 1814 in Jackson's Oxford Journal
Richard died on 21 March 1820 in Deddington. His gravestone is in Over Worton
Elizabeth died on 18 January 1837 in Deddington. Jackson's Oxford Journal reported on p.3 of its 21 January 1837 edition "Oxford News.On Wednesday last died, at Deddington, aged 81, Mrs. Elizabeth Castle, relict of the late Mr. Richard Castle, and mother of Mr. Castle, hatter, High-street. She was universally respected for the uprightness and integrity of her conduct through life."
She is named on a tombstone in our churchyard along with three other of her Hollier relatives.
There are references to Holliers elsewhere on the History website;
- ownership of a 17th century house on the choke point in Hempton
- a descendant of Elizabeth’s brother William who married a Stilgoe girl emigrated to Australia.
- Peter Walker's composite website recording the genealogies of a number of families with similar name spelling. The Deddington & Hempton Holliers are included