Bell, Cookson, Carr and Airey

Last updated

Bell, Cookson, Carr and Airey, also known as The Old Bank, was a private banking partnership established in Newcastle upon Tyne by or before 1755, instigated by Ralph Carr. The claim is made that it is the oldest British country or provincial banking company. [1] The Old Bank continued, under many different names as members of the partnership from time to time changed, until 1839, when as Messers Ridley, Bigge, & Co. it was purchased and folded into the ill-fated Northumberland and Durham District Bank. [2] [3]

Contents

Antecedent and formation

Bell, Cookson, Carr and Airey was formed at the instigation of Ralph Carr, [4] a wealthy Newcastle upon Tyne merchant having considerable experience in international trade, notabily in Northern Europe and the Americacan colonies. [5] Such trade depended, in part, on the handling, administration and settlement of bills of exchange - something Carr became intimately familiar with, and engaged in on his own account. [1]

Maberly Phillips traces Carr's decision to form the bank back to circumstances arising from the Jacobite rising of 1745, when Charles Edward Stuart sought to regain the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. After the British forces loss at the Battle of Prestonpans and the occupation of Edinburgh by the Jacobites, the Duke of Cumberland's army moved north through Newcastle, one of the largest towns near the scene of action. Money was required in Newcastle to pay the troops, and all the gold that could possibly be gathered, had to be sent to Scotland for similar purposes. Ralph Carr availed himself of the business opportunities thus offered; records show that he forwarded to Scotland, at various times, no less than £30,000 in coin, and that he cashed a number of orders raised by Sir John Cope and others. The fulfilment of these obligations put him in communication with an Edinburgh merchant and banker, John Coutts, with whom he struck up a friendship; and also with George Campbell, a London banker. [6] [7] Phillips specifies that so well did Carr carry out the supply of money to the Duke's army, that after the country had been restored to quietness, Campbell suggested to him the suitability of his forming a bank in Newcastle. Carr relates, in a letter, both Campbell's suggestion, and also the notion of starting a bank so as to provide an opportunity for James Coutts, son of the Edinburgh merchant John, who had died by 1751, and who when ill had asked Carr to take care of his sons. [8]

Thus, acting upon the suggestion of Campbell, Carr entered into partnership with three other Newcastle men "of considerable wealth and position", Matthew Bell, John Cookson, and Joseph Airey, to carry on a business as "Bankers and Dealers in Exchange". Each provided £500 of capital, and the enterprise was run from the Pilgrim Street house of Airey. The date of formation is uncertain; the earliest extant deed of partnership is dated 1 January 1756; the Newcastle Courant of 23 August 1755, announces that "Yesterday, Notes were issued from the Bank Established in this Town by a Company of Gentlemen of Character and Fortune, which will be of infinite advantage to this place"; and both the Courant and Journal of 22 November 1755, advertise: "Notice is hereby given that the Newcastle Bank will be opened on Monday next, at the house late Mr. Robinson's, in Pilgrim Street, where all Business in the Banking and Exchange Way will be transacted as in London", but this may simply speak of a change of premises. [9] In this context, it is notable that James Coutts was made a partner in George Campbell's bank, forming Campbell & Coutts, in 1755, and so if the Newcastle bank was a vehicle for the apprenticeship of Coutts, it may have been established some time before 1755.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coutts</span> British private bank

Coutts & Co. is a British private bank and wealth manager headquartered in London, England.

Backhouse's Bank of Darlington was founded in 1774 by James Backhouse (1720-1798), a wealthy Quaker flax dresser and linen manufacturer, and his sons Jonathan (1747-1826) and James (1757-1804).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles William Bigge</span> British banker

Charles William Bigge was an English merchant and banker in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Adam Drummond, 11th of Lennoch and 4th of Megginch in Perthshire, was a Scottish merchant, banker and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1761 and 1786.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Losh</span> English lawyer, reformer and Unitarian in Newcastle upon Tyne

James Losh (1763–1833) was an English lawyer, reformer and Unitarian in Newcastle upon Tyne. In politics, he was a significant contact in the North East for the national Whig leadership. William Wordsworth the poet called Losh in a letter of 1821 "my candid and enlightened friend".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Perlee Parker</span> English artist (1785–1873)

Henry Perlee Parker (1785–1873) was an artist who specialised in portrait and genre paintings. He made his mark in Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1820s through patronage by wealthy landowners and through paintings of large-scale events of civic pride. Over a period of forty years his work was exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institution in London. Coastal scenes of fisherfolk and smugglers were a popular specialism. Through the distribution and sale of mezzotint prints of subjects such as William and Grace Darling Going to the Rescue of the SS Forfarshire, Parker became one of the north-east's best-known nineteenth-century artists. In Newcastle upon Tyne he was central to the setting-up of a Northern Academy for the Arts. Later, in Sheffield, he taught drawing at the Wesleyan Proprietary Grammar School, and in his later years he lived in Hammersmith, London. He had a large family and was married three times.

Thomas Hanway Bigge was an English banker in Newcastle upon Tyne. The Bigge family were gentry based at Longbenton in the later 18th century, and are well documented; but Thomas Hanway Bigge has been confused with another member of the family, Thomas Bigge (1766–1851), who had moved to the London area by about 1810.

The Oeconomist, full title The Oeconomist, Or, Englishman's Magazine, was an English monthly periodical at the end of the 18th century. It was published in Newcastle upon Tyne, and was edited by Thomas Bigge, in partnership with James Losh.

Thomas Maude (1801–1865) was an English clergyman, writer and poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawks family</span> Capitalist dynasty

The Hawks family was one of the most powerful British industrial dynasties of the British Industrial Revolution. The Hawks owned several companies in Northern England and in the City of London all of which had the name Hawks in the company name, and which had iron manufacture and engineering, which they exported worldwide using their own ships, as their main enterprises. The Hawks family were involved in merchant banking, and in freemasonry, and in Whig free-trade politics. They developed areas of West London, including Pembroke Square, Kensington.

Jane Watts born Jane Waldie (1793–1826) was a British artist and author born to a Scottish and Northumbrian family.

William Edward Barnett was an English banker and cricketer. He played ten first-class matches for Cambridge University Cricket Club between 1849 and 1854.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Coutts (MP)</span>

James Coutts was a Scottish politician, merchant and founder of the Coutts & Co. bank.

Bertram Anderson was an English merchant, landowner and politician who represented Newcastle-upon-Tyne and served once as Sheriff, three times as Mayor and was elected five times as MP in the House of Commons between 1553 and 1563 and was also Governor of the Merchant Adventurers of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Bryan Abbs (1771–1850) was an English landowner and magistrate for County Durham. He was involved in promoting the construction of the north dock at South Shields, and property development south of the River Tyne.

William Russell (1734–1817) was an English merchant, coal-fitter and banker. He first went into business as a merchant in Sunderland. He then made a substantial personal fortune from coal mining.

The Northumberland and Durham District Bank was a joint stock bank created in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, in 1836, which operated across the north-east of England. It was the area's largest such bank in its period, but failed in 1857 and was liquidated at enormous cost to its shareholders between then and 1865. A modern analysis of the bank's failure suggests the cause of its collapse was its own thorough incompetence, rather than an exogenous shock such as a monetary panic or bank run.

Ralph Carr (1711–1806) was a British businessman and banker who occupied a leading position in Newcastle upon Tyne in the 18th-century. He was one of the foremost merchants upon the Tyne; founder of a famous bank in Newcastle; a considerable landowner in Northumberland and Durham; and an earnest and liberal supporter of numerous schemes of progress and philanthropy.

The North-Eastern Banking Company was a joint stock bank established in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, in 1872, and which was amalgamated with the Bank of Liverpool in 1914.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alnwick and County Bank</span>

The Alnwick and County Bank was a short-lived bank, founded in Alnwick, Northumberland, England in 1858, and purchased by the North Eastern Banking Company in 1875.

References

  1. 1 2 Phillips 1894a, p. 452.
  2. ↑ Phillips 1894b, p. 174.
  3. ↑ Phillips 1894b, pp. 337–338.
  4. ↑ Phillips 1894b, p. 24.
  5. ↑ Welford 1895, pp. 491–492.
  6. ↑ Phillips 1894a, pp. 452–453.
  7. ↑ Phillips 1894b, p. 23.
  8. ↑ Phillips 1894a, pp. 454–455.
  9. ↑ Phillips 1894b, pp. 177–178.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.