Oxford Inscriptions: Peace stone at Carfax
PEACE
was proclaim’d
In the CITY of
OXFORD
JUNE 1814
There is a newer inscribed stone below the peace stone which supplies no additional information but may have been added as the date on the original stone is hard to decipher. That explanatory stone reads:
THE STONE ABOVE
COMMEMORATES
THE PEACE OF
1814
This peace stone is set in the outside of the north wall of the tower of the original medieval Church of St Martin, which was the City Church and had an important position in the centre of the City of Oxford where four roads meet at Carfax,
The stone refers to the Treaty of Paris, which was signed on 30 May 1814. On Monday 27 June 1814 peace was proclaimed in Oxford when Napoleon was imprisoned on Elba.
The medieval church of St Martin became unsafe in 1820 and was demolished except for its thirteenth-century west tower. The church that replaced it was in turn demolished in 1896, but again the medieval tower survived: more information. Malcolm Graham writes that this peace stone “was possibly dislodged during the demolition of Carfax Church, and carted away amongst the rubble. It was discovered in Old Marston churchyard in 1960 and reset here.”
Two peace stones put up in the City of Oxford to commemorate the event survive: the other one is now on the Plain roundabout.
To view this peace stone it is necessary to pass through the outside part of the café at Carfax. The photograph below shows the stone in context, marked with a red arrow:
As well as at Carfax, the peace was proclaimed at all four city gates and at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. The following notice about the forthcoming proclamation appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 25 June 1814:
Peace will be proclaimed in this city on Monday next [27 June 1814], with the usual ceremonies, on which day the Members of the Corporation will dine together in the Town Hall.
In a separate notice in the same edition, the Mayor of Oxford, Sir Joseph Lock, announced the following meeting to be held on Monday 27 June to arrange a thanksgiving day on 7 July:
A General Meeting of the Inhabitants is requested at the Town Hall, on Tuesday next, at Twelve o'clock, to concert measures for gladdening the hearts of the Poor of Oxford on the Seventh of July, being the day appointed for returning thanks to THE AUTHOR OF PEACE.
Jackson's Oxford Journal of Saturday 2 July 1814 reported both on the proclamation that had been made the previous Monday and on the arrangements for the public dinner for the poor to be held on the following Thursday:
On Monday last Peace was proclaimed at all the usual places within this University and City, and with the accustomed forms, by the Mayor, attended by the whole Corporation in procession. The proclamation was greeted with loud cheers by a great number of persons assembled to witness the ceremony; at the conclusion whereof a number of barrels of strong beer were stationed in different quarters of the town to regale all those who choose to partake of them. The Mayor and Corporation, with their friends, afterwards partook of an excellent dinner at the Council Chamber, in celebration of this great event. The company consisted of considerably more than a hundred, who spent the evening in the truest spirit of conviviality, and with the most perfect harmony.
At a general meeting of the inhabitants, holden yesterday at the Town-Hall, it was resolved, that the subscription on foot for providing the poor with the means of celebrating the return of peace, shall be appropriated to the furnishing of a public dinner on Thursday next, being the Thanksgiving Day, to such of the poor as shall be disposed to partake of it; and to the further purpose of supplying similar means of participating in the general festivity, at their own homes, to those of the poor who shall prefer that mode.
G. V. Cox in Reminiscences of Oxford does not mention the two Oxford peace stones, but recorded the great thanksgiving dinner of meats, plum puddings, and beer held in Radcliffe Square in 1814:
On the 4th [error for 7th] of July a great dinner, set out in the Radcliffe Square, was given (by subscription) to 4000 poor but respectable inhabitants of Oxford, to commemorate “The General Peace, i.e. the best of all Generals,” as was given for their toast.
The record of the sixth council of the Mayor Sir Joseph Lock dated 27 June 1814 (the day that peace was proclaimed) consist entirely of a full description of the peace proclamations:
The Mayor having received the Kings Mandate to proclaim the late peace made between this Country and France then under the dominion of Buonaparte, the Mayor held several conferences with his Brethren and other of the Council House in what manner the same should be best done fitted to the solemnity of the occasion after a war which with little interruption had continued for the long space of twenty years and more and upon great and deliberate consideration the peace was this day proclaimed as follows —
At an early hour of the morning the whole Council house with their several Officers and the City Constables assembled at the Guildhall and Mr Mayor and the Aldermen and Assistants being habited in their respective robes of Office and every Member of the Council Chamber dressed in Gowns appropriate to their respective situations in the Chamber formed a procession in the order here set down. — The City Marshal with his staff of Office together with the Constables of the four City wards with their staves of Office and the City Petty constables all going first to clear the way — then followed the City Trumpeters — then the Serjeants of the Mayor and of the Bailiffs with their respective Maces then the Town Clerk — then the Mace bearer carrying the great Mace and next to him the Mayor walking singly, then followed walking two and two the Aldermen and the Assistants then the two Bailiffs then such of the Common Council as had served the office of Bailiff then the two Chamberlains and such of the Common Council as had served the office of Chamberlain then all the remaining Members of the Council House according to their place and seniority.
In this order the procession moved from the Guildhall to Carfax where the proclamation was audibly and distinctly read by the Town Clerk then to East Gate (the Vice Chancellor and University not having arrived at St Marys Church in due time, the procession passed on to the East Gate) and the proclamation was there read, then on returning from East Gate the proclamation was read against the porch of the Church of Saint Mary’s the Vice Chancellor and Proctors and several members of the university being there come; — the procession then going back to Carfax proceeded down Fish street and Saint Tolls to the fourth gate where the proclamation was again read — then returning up Saint Tolls to the entrance into Brewers Lane — the procession passed along that lane to the west gate where the proclamation was again read — and from west gate where the proclamation was again read — and from west gate the procession moved to and along the Butcher row and again passing Carfax proceeded to the North Gate where the proclamation was for the last time read and from the North gate the procession returned to the Guildhall and then separated —
During the whole procession the Members went on foot departing from the ancient form of riding on Horseback, some of the oldest Members from age, and some from infirmity being unable to ride —
After the business of the day was over the whole Council house dined together at a superb banquet provided in the Council house, the City Treasurer contributing thereto the sum of £30 and the individual members paying the remaining expence and during the procession several barrels of ale were given away to the Populace, viz — one at each of the several Gates two at Carfax and one against St Mary’s Church.
A later Peace Proclamation in Oxford
A report in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 3 May 1856 about the next Proclamation of Peace in the City of Oxford that took place on Wednesday 30 April 1856 to mark the end of the Crimean War describes in detail the same “ancient custom” followed back in 1814. A civic procession formed at the Town Hall, the Mayor taking the lead, followed by the Aldermen and then the councillors (all in carriages this time), and it visited the following six traditional places where the Proclamation was read by the Town Clerk:
- Carfax, and then along the High Street
- University Church of St Mary-the-Virgin (in the front of which was a platform on which were ranged the Vice-Chancellor, the Heads of Colleges and Halls, the Proctors, and many other members of the University)
- The site of the East Gate near the west end of the High Street, and then back towards Carfax
- The site of the South Gate in St Aldate's, and then along Brewer Street and Paradise Street
- The site of the West Gate
- The site of the North Gate in Cornmarket Street, followed by a return to the Town Hall for refreshments.
See also:
- G. V. Cox, Reminiscences of Oxford (London: Macmillan & Co, 1868), pp. 73–76, where he describes the “great event” that took place in Oxford in 1814
- Christopher Danzig, “The big junket” in Oxford Today for Trinity Term 2014 which describes how the victorious sovereigns celebrating the imprisonment of Napoleon descended on Oxford on Tuesday 14 June 1814, with King Frederick William and Marshal Blucher receiving honorary degrees in the Sheldonian Theatre