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From: 163 Spring 2026
Author: Peter Smith
While we have touched on Oxford’s, and in particular Port Meadow’s, links with the early days of powered flight in previous journals, Freemen may not be aware that the first Englishman to fly in a hot air balloon in this country was a Freeman of the City of Oxford.
James Sadler was a pastry chef by profession (as was his father) and an accomplished chemist, residing and trading at 84 High Street in Oxford, currently the Grand Café. On 4th October 1784 he made his official balloon ascent from Christchurch Meadow outside Merton College, becoming the first English Aeronaut (balloonist).
He rose to 3,600 ft (1,100m), and was airborne for around 30 minutes landing six miles away between Islip and Wood Eaton. Unusually, he set off early in the morning in the dark but the flight is nonetheless recorded in some detail as the first flight in this country by an Englishman. Later Sadler flights, and those of his peers, actively sought paying spectators and sponsors to help with funding their passion.
Sadler went on to undertake many more flights. As did his youngest son, Windham, until he sadly died in a ballooning accident in 1824. In 1796 James made a career change from a pastry chef to follow his other interest, becoming Chemist to the Royal Navy. Amongst his achievements in that role was inventing a type of steam engine, and notably, improvements to cannon design for which he was praised by Admiral Lord Nelson. James resumed ballooning after his Navy career, working with Windham as he developed his own ballooning skills and reputation.
Although largely ignored in his lifetime by the University, despite being an accomplished scientist, Oxford ‘town’ is rightly proud of James as one of the early pioneers of flight.
He was born in 1753 and died in 1828. He became a Freeman on 2nd July 1779, and his brother Thomas in October 1784. One of his two sons was admitted to the Freedom in 1806. His father James was admitted in 1743, and his grandfather John in 1718. There are descendent admissions going back to 1675. Further research is needed to establish whether the Freedom originally came to the Sadler family through the paternal route or by apprenticeship.
James is buried in the churchyard of the former St Peter-in-the-East church, now the college library for St Edmund Hall. The Royal Aeronautical Society (RAS) erected a commemorative stone tablet there on the centenary of James’ death in 1928. In 1984 the RAS returned to Oxford on the bi-centenary of his 1784 flight to refurbish his gravestone, and erect a metal plaque on the stone wall on Dead Man’s Walk, commemorating that flight. There is a more recent commemorative plaque erected to him in the Town Hall foyer, by the Museum of Oxford.
The pictures show the 1984 RAS plaque erected on Dead Man’s Walk, a portrait c.1820 of Sadler in later life held by the National Portrait Gallery, and James and John Sadler portrayed leaving Oxford by balloon in 1810 by R Havell.
If you are interested in James Sadler, there are the books “King Of All Balloons” by local Oxford author Mark Davies, and “The Man With His Head In The Clouds” by Richard O Smith.
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