Chapter 5: OLIVER HANCOCKS SEN.(b.1759), VICTUALLER

Oliver did not marry until 1783, when he was 33 years old. He married Elizabeth Goode in St Mary and St Paul, in Aston. Elizabeth was illiterate, signing her name with cross. Joseph Goods, presumably Elizabeth’s brother, witnessed the marriage. Having married in Aston, Oliver and Elizabeth settled down in the rapidly expanding city of nearby Birmingham.

Birmingham, as surveyed in the Domesday Book (1086), was a tiny hamlet. After the granting of a market charter in 1166, it began to expand as a centre of local trade. By the 1500's, Birmingham was a market town enclosed by forests and farmland. Tanning, weaving and the manufacture of metal products by large numbers of skilled smiths were established industries, and waterpower was already in use. At this time, most of the houses in the town of Birmingham stood in one long street (Digbeth and High Street), running uphill from the crossing over the River Rea.

In Oliver's great grandfather’s time, during the English Civil War (1642-1648), Birmingham’s smiths produced some 16000 sword blades for the Parliamentary forces. As a result the town was besieged and taken by the Royalists.

In 1700 Birmingham still consisted of only 30 streets, 100 courts and alleys, 2504 houses, 15032 inhabitants, St Martin’s church, St John’s chapel, 2 dissenting meeting houses and King Edward VI’s school.

By the mid-1700's, Birmingham had become a centre of religious nonconformity, of radical politics, and of scientific research. Its generally liberal and tolerant atmosphere attracted such men as Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of the evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin) to the city. Erasmus Darwin, together with the industrialist Matthew Boulton and the inventor and engineer James Watt, belonged to the flourishing Lunar Society in the late 1700's. Another famous Birmingham resident, the scientist Joseph Priestley, discovered oxygen.

Once in Birmingham Oliver took up a new profession, that of victualler. He ran the 'Wagon and Horses' 12 (later renumbered as 14) Edgbaston Street. Edgbaston Street is situated in the heart of the city's market district, and opens out on to St Martins Church and the Bull Ring. On 20 August 1794 Oliver signed a 103 year lease between himself and Sir Thomas Gooch Bart. of Benacre Hall, Suffolk, for land on Bromsgrove Street, which at that time was probably still open country on the edge of the rapidly growing city.

Scene in an Eighteenth Century Inn

Oliver and Elizabeth had only three known children, two sons and a daughter. The first two of which were baptised in St Martins. This church, which dominated the Bull Ring, was the original parish church for the whole of Birmingham. Mary, the youngest child, married Joseph Parker in Halesowen in 1807. Her brother Oliver and Lucy Connop witnessed the marriage. These two were to marry each other some five years later - perhaps they met for the first time on this occasion! Mary and Joseph then moved to Kidderminster where their six children were baptised in the Wesleyan Chapel.

Oliver junior (Chapter 6) carried on his parents business at the 'Wagon and Horses'.  His parents both ran the inn until their deaths in 1814 and about 1819 respectively. Oliver senior had either not amassed a great fortune, or he had earlier turned his business over to his heir, for his estate was valued at less than £20 at his death. He left no will, so letters of administration were granted to Oliver junior, but only after Elizabeth had died.

Central Birmingham 1833 - locations mentioned in text

OLIVER HANCOCKS bp.1759 d.1814 m. ELIZABETH GOODE

…..JOHN HANCOCKS bp.1784 d.

…..OLIVER HANCOCKS bp.1787 d.c.1845-48 (Chapter 6)

…..MARY HANCOCKS bp.1789 d.- m.JOSEPH PARKER

……….JOHN bp.1807 d.-

……….HANNAH bp.1812 d.<1813

……….HANNAH bp.1813

……….JOSEPH bp.1816

……….MARY bp.1818 d.<1822

……….MARY bp.1822