{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} '''John Oakman''' (c.1748–1793) was an English engraver and writer.

==Life== Oakman was born in Hendon about 1748, and was educated at a grammar school. He was apprenticed to the map-engraver Emanuel Bowen, but left before completing his indenture, in consequence of an affair with his daughter, whom he afterwards married.<ref name="dnb00">{{cite DNB|first=Lionel Henry|last=Cust|authorlink=Lionel Henry Cust|wstitle=Oakman, John|volume=41|page=292}}</ref><ref name="odnb">{{cite ODNB|id=20433|title=Oakman, John}}</ref>

He kept a shop in partnership with Matthias Darly for the sale of caricatures and similar prints,<ref name="dnb00"/> "but the love of pleasure and good company got so much the better of his judgment that he was soon put to other contrivances to obtain a living."<ref name="mag">[https://books.google.com/books?id=HsayOTjfvocC&pg=PA335 Page 335] ''The Monthly Magazine'', volume 10. 1800.</ref> Having some literary facility, he made money by writing several disreputable novels, such as ''The Life and Adventures of Benjamin Brass'' (1765), partly based on his early life, ''The History of Sir Edward Haunch'', and others. His book ''The Adventures of William Williams, an African Prince'', whom Oakman met in Liverpool prison, had some success through its attack on slavery as an institution.<ref name="dnb00"/> "He wrote for two guineas a set of two volumes; and such was his rapidity, that he could produce one work a week."<ref name="mag"/>

Oakman had a gift for song-writing, and wrote many popular songs for Vauxhall Gardens, Bermondsey Spa and elsewhere; he also wrote burlettas for the performances at Astley's Amphitheatre. He engraved on wood illustrations for children's books and cheap literature. After a somewhat vagrant life, Oakman died destitute at his sister's house in Westminster in October 1793,<ref name="dnb00"/> and was buried at Holy Trinity Minories.<ref name="odnb"/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

'''Attribution'''

* {{DNB|first=Lionel Henry|last=Cust|authorlink=Lionel Henry Cust|wstitle=Oakman, John|volume=41|page=292}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Oakman, John}} Category:1740s births Category:1793 deaths Category:18th-century English novelists Category:English male songwriters Category:English wood engravers Category:18th-century English engravers Category:Artists from the London Borough of Barnet Category:Musicians from the London Borough of Barnet Category:People from Hendon Category:Writers from the London Borough of Barnet