James Banting Mayor of Oxford 1832

In 1832, James Banting was Major of Oxford.

• James was born in 1779, son of a tailor, James Banting and his wife Rachel Prior.
• He was baptised at St Aldates Church on 16th February 1780.
• This family were deeply rooted in the area around St Aldates, his father, grandfather and great grandfather were baptised and or buried in the church.

There is a great view of St Aldates from 1800 in the Tate, take a look.

This view of St Aldates from 1893

 See separate post on this family group as Oxford Cluster

His father was a tailor, who died in 1798 and it looks highly probable that James took over his fathers business, the Pigot’s directory for 1823 lists James Banting and Co as tailors in St Aldate’s.

• James came onto the Council for the first time in 1821. By 1829 it appears that James was no longer working as a tailor.
• On 31st October 1829, Jackson’s Oxford Journal asks ‘for all persons indebted to the late partnership concern of James Banting & Co of this city Tailors’
• The business is not listed in the 1830 Pigot’s Directory and James Banting becomes Esquire, which means of being of a higher social standing than a mere ‘Mr’
• He then begins his climb up the ranks of the Council, in 1825 he was elected Junior Chamberlain, in 1828 Senior Bailiff and in 1831 he becomes Mayor’s assistant and then finally in 1832 he was elected Mayor of Oxford.
• He served for a year and then appears to have moved to a property in Worton where he lived with his sister Sarah.
• By the 1851 census, James and Sarah have moved back to Oxford, to live in Beaumont Mansion Beaumont St in the parish of St Mary Magdalen.

James never married and died in 1859, aged 80 years

A separate post describes the property he owned in and around Oxford

There are other Banting’s in and around Oxford at this time, as well as James, there is a Henry Banting working as a tailor and Joseph, possibly James’ s brother working as a builder.