No. 38: Former house/surgery
Nos. 38 Broad Street was the fourth houses from the right of the thirteen houses dating from the first half of the seventeenth century that were demolished in 1937 to make way for the New Bodleian Library (now the Weston Library). There was a cluster of doctors’ surgeries in this area from the nineteenth century.
All the houses on the north side of Broad Street were in St Mary Magdalen parish.
John James Sims Freeborn (1795–1873) was matriculated as a “medicus” (doctor) on 15 September 1834, and Robson’s Directory of 1839 lists him as an apothecary at 38 Broad Street. He can be seen residing there at the time of the 1841 census with his wife Charlotte and their sons Robert and John, plus his parents-in-law Richard & Ann Tredwell and a servant.
By the time of the 1851 census he had moved next door to No. 39 and his 27-year-old physician son Richard Fernandez Freeborn (1823–1883), who had been matriculated by the University as a chirurgus or surgeon on 15 October 1847, was occupying this house at No. 38 with his wife Clara and their baby daughter plus two servants. (The house is wrongly numbered 39 Broad Street in that census.)
The 1861 census lists Richard Fernandez Freeborn and his wife Clara occupying both Nos. 38 & 39 Broad Street with with six children, plus an assistant surgeon and five servants, including an upper and an under nurse and a footman.
By the time of the 1871 census Richard Fernandez Freeborn was living at just No. 38 again with his wife and three children.
The 1881 census shows Richard Fernandez Freeborn as a physician at No. 38 Broad Street with four grown-up children living at home: John (a graduate of Exeter College who was studying medicine at London), Albert (an undergraduate at Christ Church), Clara, and Mary. They were looked after by a cook, housemaid, indoor manservant, and under-housemaid. Richard Fernandez Freeborn died at 38 Broad Street on 20 April 1884.
John Charles Richard Freeborn (1853–1934) took over his father’s practice, and the 1891, 1901, 1911, and 1921 censuses shows him here at 38 Broad Street with his wife Emily. They had no children. They remained here at this address until 1928.
No. 38 then became a private house, and from 1928 to 1936 was the home of Thomas Grylls. A report in the Daily Telegraph of 29 December 1936 said that Grylls, a former bank manager aged 64, had hanged himself at No. 38 the previous day because he was depressed that it was to be pulled down to make way for the New Bodleian Library, as he was almost blind and was worried about having to make himself familiar with a new home.
The house was demolished in 1937.
Date |
Occupants of 38 Broad Street listed in directories |
1800 |
Mr Berkeley |
1839–1928
|
1839: John James Sims. Freeborn, Apothecary 1841– 1852: John James Sims Freeborn & Richard Fernandez Freeborn, Surgeons 1861–1883: Richard Fernandez Freeborn, MRCPE, MD of Scotland, FRCPh |
1928–1936 |
Thomas M. Grylls |
No. 28 was demolished with twelve
neighbouring houses in 1937 |
|
See the bound typescript in the Bodleian Library entitled “The
Demolished Houses
of Broad Street and the Freeborn Family”
(1943), attributed to Emily Sarah Freeborn,
and the webpage by Alan Simpson which reproduces some of the material in it.