John Nixon (1588 – 14 April 1662) was an English politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1646 to 1653. Nixon was the son of William Nixon, a husbandman of Blechington and his wife Joan Silvester. He became a merchant at Oxford and acquired a considerable fortune. On 2 October 1622 he was elected on to the Common Council, and in 1623 became bailiff.Mayors of Oxford - John Nixon
/ref> He was admitted a freeman on 3 February 1625 W R Williams ''The Parliamentary History of the County of Oxford''
/ref> and in 1627 was elected senior bailiff. He became mayor of Oxford in 1636. In April 1638 he was elected an Alderman. As a zealous puritan, he was a witness against Archbishop Laud at his trial. Although he was a prominent Parliamentarian, in 1642 he contributed four pounds of powder and two pieces of match to a general royalist fund. However, in 1643 he fled from Oxford when the King was on his way and the then mayor on the advice of the king recommended that he and other aldermen and councillors who had left the city should be disfranchised, forfeit the freedom of the City, and be deprived of any offices they held in the City. In June 1646, five days after the Royalist troops began evacuating Oxford, the act of disenfranchisement was repealed and Nixon was restored to his freedom and his place on the council. He was elected mayor of Oxford again in 1646. In December 1646, Nixon was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

as a recruiter to the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

. In October1647, a Parliamentary Order of 4 October demanded "the Continuance of the old Mayor and Bayliffes in theire places until further order", and Nixon continued as Mayor in place of the mayor chosen for 1647. He was a commissioner for assessment for Oxford in 1649 and was appointed one of the City Coroners in 1653. He was mayor of Oxford for the third time in 1654. In 1658, Nixon founded a free school for the sons of freemen. It opened at Guildhall Yard in 1659, and survived for 235 years until 1894. In January 1659 Nixon stood for parliament again but was unsuccessful. He was appointed commissioner for assessment for Oxford in 1660. In May 1661 he was reported to be unable to do the work of a Commissioner of Barges "owing to his weakness of body", but in August he took part in the procession that went out to meet Charles II, wearing a scarlet gown and tippet. Nixon died in 1662 and was buried on 17 April at St Mary's Church with the following epitaph on his monument. : : : : : : : : : {{lang, enm, italic=no, May many more this worthy pattern lye,, , : {{lang, enm, italic=no, A good faire copie for posterity. Nixon married Joan Stevenson of Weston-on-the-Green. There are portraits of John Nixon and his wife in Oxford’s Town Hall.

References

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, before= John Whistler , before2= John Smith , with=

John Doyley John Doyley (1602–1660) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1646 to 1648. Background Doyley was the son of Sir Cope Doyley of Chislehampton. He matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford on 27 November 1618 aged 16. ...

1646–1648 , years=1646–1653 , after= Not represented in

Barebones Parliament Barebone's Parliament, also known as the Little Parliament, the Nominated Assembly and the Parliament of Saints, came into being on 4 July 1653, and was the last attempt of the English Commonwealth to find a stable political form before the ins ...

{{s-end {{DEFAULTSORT:Nixon, John 1588 births 1662 deaths English MPs 1640–1648 Mayors of Oxford