LONDON BANKERS, AND THEIR ORIGIN.
The company of Goldsmiths, in London, appeared as a fraternity, as early as 1180, but it was in the reign of Edward the third, that they were first incorporated. They became, in time, the bankers of the capital. TheLombardswere the first and greatest, and most of the money contracts, in old times, passed through their hands. Many of our monarchs were obliged to them for money.—The three blue balls, now used by pawnbrokers, but converted by them into golden ones, are, in reality, the arms of the Lombards.
Lombard-street, in the metropolis, took its name from being the residence of the Lombards, the great money-changers and usurers of early times. They came out of Italy into this kingdom before the year 1274; at length their extortions became so great, that Edward the third seized on their estates; perhaps the necessity of furnishing himself with money for his Flemish expedition, might have urged him to this step. They seem quickly to have repaired their loss; for complaint was soon after made against them, for persisting in their practices. They were soopulent in the days of Henry the fourth, as to be able to furnish him with money, but they took care to get the customs mortgaged to them, by way of security.
They continued in Lombard-street till the reign of queen Elizabeth, and to this day it is filled with the shops of eminent bankers. The shop of the great Sir Thomas Gresham stood in Lombard-street; it is now occupied by Messrs. Martin and Stone, bankers, who are still in possession of the original sign of that illustrious person, theGrasshopper.
The business of goldsmiths was confined to the buying and selling of plate, and foreign coins of gold and silver, melting them, and coining others at the mint. The banking was accidental and foreign to their institution.
Regular banking by private persons resulted in 1643 from the calamity of the times, when a seditious spirit was incited by the acts of the parliamentary leaders. The merchants and tradesmen who before trusted their cash to their servants and apprentices found that mode no longer safe; neither did they dare to leave it in the mint at the tower, by reason of the distresses of majesty itself, which before was a place of public deposit. In the year 1645, they first placed their cash in the hands of goldsmiths, who then began publicly to exercise the two professions of goldsmiths and bankers. Even oflate years there were several very eminent bankers who kept the goldsmith’s shop; but they were more frequently separated.
The first regular banker was Mr. Francis Child, goldsmith, who began business after the restoration. He was the father of the profession, a person of large fortune, of most respectable character, and he was knighted by the king. He lived in Fleet-street, in the house adjoining Temple-bar, where the banking business is still carried on in the same firm, though by different persons. Granger, in his Biographical History, mentions that Mr. Child succeeded Mr. Backwell,[51]a banker in the time of Charles the second, noted for his integrity, abilities, and industry; who was ruined by the shutting up of the Exchequer in 1672.[52]His books were placed in the hands of Mr. Child, and still remain in the family.
The next ancient shop was that possessed at present by Messrs. Snow and Co. in the Strand, a few doors westward of Mr. Child’s, who were goldsmiths of consequence in the latter part of the same reign. Mr. Gay celebrates the predecessor of these gentlemen, for his sagacity in escaping the ruin of the fatal year 1720, in his epistle to Mr. Thomas Snow, goldsmith, near Temple-bar:—
O thou whose penetrative wisdom foundTheSouth Searocks and shelves where thousands drown’d,When credit sunk and commerce gasping lay,Thou stoodst; nor sent’st one bill unpaid away.
O thou whose penetrative wisdom foundTheSouth Searocks and shelves where thousands drown’d,When credit sunk and commerce gasping lay,Thou stoodst; nor sent’st one bill unpaid away.
O thou whose penetrative wisdom foundTheSouth Searocks and shelves where thousands drown’d,When credit sunk and commerce gasping lay,Thou stoodst; nor sent’st one bill unpaid away.
O thou whose penetrative wisdom found
TheSouth Searocks and shelves where thousands drown’d,
When credit sunk and commerce gasping lay,
Thou stoodst; nor sent’st one bill unpaid away.
To the westward of Temple-bar the only other house was that of Messrs. Middleton and Campbell, goldsmiths, who flourished in 1692, and is now continued with great credit by Mr. Coutts. From thence to the extremity of the west end of the town there were none till the year 1756, when the respectable name of Backwell rose again, conjoined with those of Darel, Hart, and Croft, who with great reputation opened their shop (afterwards the house of Devaynes, Noble, and Co.) in Pallmall.