1758
Born
about 1758
Estimated Evidence
From Janet Brock’s research notebook. Estimated — inferred, not directly recorded.
Christopher Oates
1758 – 1796
✓ Validated against records · 2026-07-10
Christopher Oates is the furthest this line reaches — a master cordwainer of Kingston-upon-Hull, born about 1758. He was a shoemaker with his own shop and his own apprentice: the tax registers of 1787 record him taking a boy, Robert Blanchard, to the trade. It is the family's high standing, a generation before the fall.
He married twice. His first wife, Mary Hicks, he wed at Hull in 1780; she was buried in January 1788, “Mary wife of Christopher Oats.” That May, a widower, he married again — Mary Allison, at Louth in Lincolnshire, by licence. Children of both marriages were baptised at Holy Trinity, and several were buried there small — a shoemaker's household of the ordinary Georgian kind.
He was buried at Holy Trinity on the 7th of August 1796, the register setting him down plainly by his trade — “Christopher Oates, Cordwainer” — within a year of his last child's baptism. His widow Mary held the family together: when their son Christopher was apprenticed to a sailmaker in 1807, he was entered as “son of Mary Oates, widow.”
Above Christopher the record does not yet go. His own parents are unknown, and no baptism survives for a Christopher Oates of his years at Hull or nearby. He stands at the head of the line as its most established figure — the master craftsman whose son would be ruined into the merchant service, and whose great-granddaughter Mary Elizabeth would marry into the Richmond keel family and steady it again.
Composed from validated records · 2026-07-10
- Birth
- About 1758
- Marriage
- 1. December 5th 1780 to Mary Hicks in Holy Trinity, Hull 2. May 5th 1788 to Mary Mary Allison, in Louth, Lincolnshire
- Burial
- August 7th 1796, Hull
- Children
- Thomas Oates baptised February 16th 1782, Holy Trinity, Hull, burial April 28th John Oates baptised May 10th 1784, Holy Trinity, Hull William Oates burial September !st 1789, Hull Richard Oates baptised April 10th 1787, Holy Trinity, Hull, burial March 5th 1790 Stephen Oates baptised October 11th 1792, Holy Trinity, Hull Bartholomew Oates baptised September 18th 1793 Holy Trinity, Hull Christopher Oates baptised October 7th 1795, Holy Trinity, Hull
- Occupation
- Cordwainer (Baptism records)
- 1780
- Marries Mary Hicks in Holy Trinity, Hull Christopher Oates of this parish and Mary Hicks of this parish were married in this church by banns in the year 1780 in the presence of William Hicks and Ann Moody
- 1787
- Apprenticeships Christopher Oates, Master, Kingston upon Hull. Apprentice: Robert Blanchan Occupation: Shoemaker
- 1788
- Burial January 6th "Mary wife of Christopher Oats (sic)"
- 1788
- Marries Mary Allison in Louth Marriage by License, Christopher Oates, Widower, St. Mary, Hull to Mary Allison of the the parish of Louthesk, Lincolnshire on May 5th 1788 in Louth.
- 1796
- Burial: August 7th 1796, Christopher Oates, Cordwainer
- 1819
- Burial: Mary Oates, October 28th, 1819, Hull M.I. Holy Trinity, Hull Sacred to the memory of Mary Oates who died 27th October 1819 aged - years (rest of stone eroded) P.R. 1819, October 20th Mary Oates, 55
In your grandmother’s words · from her notebook
Family
Marriages
The children of Christopher & Mary Hicks
The children of Christopher & Mary Allison
Life
Confirmed — anchored to a recordEstimated — inferred
1780
Married Mary Hicks
5 December 1780 at Holy Trinity
Christopher Oates married Mary Hicks, 5 December 1780, Hull. (Mum's record; her burial 6 January 1788 — “Mary wife of Christopher Oats.”)— First marriage — Mary Hicks, Hull (5 December 1780)
Mum’s record Evidence
From Janet Brock’s research, cited — not yet re-verified at the image:
- First marriage — Mary Hicks, Hull (5 December 1780) — Marriage of Christopher Oates and Mary Hicks, Holy Trinity, Hull, 5 December 1780 — Mum's reading (not re-read at the image this pass). Mary was buried 6 January 1788, freeing him to remarry that May. from Mum’s research
1787
A master shoemaker — Kingston-upon-Hull
1787
Master: Christopher Oates, Shoemaker, of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire. Apprentice: Robert Blanchard. Indenture 1787, registered 1788.— A master, taking an apprentice (1787)
Confirmed in index record Evidence
Found in an index or transcript — the original page not yet read:
- A master, taking an apprentice (1787) — Board of Stamps apprenticeship registers (IR 1), 1787 (registered 1788); TNA IR 1, piece 64, folio 139; Society of Genealogists calendar no. 229581. findmypast Britain, Country Apprentices 1710–1808 (id GBOR/APPRENTICES/428333/2), read 10 July 2026 — a printed calendar, not the original leaf. index entry — original not yet seen
1788
In 1788
1788
Burial January 6th "Mary wife of Christopher Oats (sic)"— From Janet Brock’s research
Mum’s record Evidence
From Janet Brock’s research notebook.
1788
Married Mary Allison
5 May 1788 at Louth
May 5 [1788] — Christopher Oates & Mary Allison. (Louth St James. Mum: “Marriage by Licence, Christopher Oates, Widower, St. Mary, Hull, to Mary Allison of the parish of Louth.”)— Second marriage — Mary Allison, Louth (5 May 1788)
Read at the image record Evidence
Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:
- Second marriage — Mary Allison, Louth (5 May 1788) — Louth St James, Lincolnshire, marriage register, 5 May 1788; Lincolnshire Archives, LOUTH ST JAMES PAR 1/7, page 115. findmypast Lincolnshire Marriages And Banns (id GBPRS/LINCS/MAR/00288905/1), read at the leaf 10 July 2026. The Louth list gives only the day and the names; Mum's fuller reading — a widower of St Mary, Hull, married by licence — comes from the marriage-licence record. read at the image
1796
In 1796
1796
Burial: August 7th 1796, Christopher Oates, Cordwainer— From Janet Brock’s research
Mum’s record Evidence
From Janet Brock’s research notebook.
1796
Buried at Holy Trinity — “Cordwainer”
7 August 1796 at Hull
7 [August 1796] — Christopher Oates (Cordwainer).— Burial — Holy Trinity, Hull (7 August 1796)
Read at the image record Evidence
Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:
- Burial — Holy Trinity, Hull (7 August 1796) — Holy Trinity, Kingston-upon-Hull, burial register, 7 August 1796; East Riding Archives PE 158/77, page 90. findmypast Yorkshire Burials (id GBPRS/YORKSHIRE/BUR/204286322), image PE-158-77/00090, read at the leaf 10 July 2026. The entry gives his trade but no age. read at the image
1819
In 1819
1819
Burial: Mary Oates, October 28th, 1819, Hull M.I. Holy Trinity, Hull Sacred to the memory of Mary Oates who died 27th October 1819 aged - years (rest of stone eroded) P.R. 1819, October 20th Mary Oates, 55— From Janet Brock’s research
Mum’s record Evidence
From Janet Brock’s research notebook.
Occupation
Cordwainer (Baptism records)— From Janet Brock’s research
Mum’s record Evidence
From Janet Brock’s research notebook.
Our research
The wall — Christopher's own people
Research · the head of the Oates line
His 1788 Louth marriage and his 1796 Holy Trinity burial are read at the images this pass; his standing as a master shoemaker rests on the 1787 apprenticeship calendar, and his first marriage (Mary Hicks, 1780) on Mum's reading.
- His parents are unknown. His burial gives no age; his birth (about 1758) is inferred from his 1780 marriage and 1787 master's standing. A findmypast baptism sweep found no candidate at Hull or in the East Riding; the West-Riding Oates baptisms are all too late. Round 2: his 1780 Mary Hicks marriage at the image (it may give his abode or status), and the Hull Freemen's / burgess rolls — a master shoemaker may be enrolled, naming his father or his own master.
- His children, at the leaf. The Holy Trinity baptisms and infant burials of both marriages, re-read at the image, would reconstitute the household and settle which children belonged to Mary Hicks and which to Mary Allison.
- The 1788 marriage-licence bond (Lincoln or Louth) — it may name his father, and would be the surest way past the wall.