Gunner and Company

Last updated September 07, 2023

Gunner and Company was an English private bank, based in Bishop's Waltham, Hampshire.

Founded in 1809, it served as the primary provincial bank for Bishop's Waltham and the Meon Valley throughout much of the nineteenth century. It was the last provincial private bank in the United Kingdom, from 1921 until it was bought out by Barclays Bank in 1953.^[1]

The Gunner family continued to run the legal practice of Gunner & Carpenter until 1973.

History

Formally known as the Bishop's Waltham and Hampshire Bank, it was founded by four partners: Thomas Fox, a dealer in wine and spirits; Stephen Steele, a farmer; John Seymour, a doctor and William Gummer, a solicitor. Each partner contributed £1,000 and the Bank opened in the office of William Gunner. From the outset it was a bank of issue but this ceased after 1844. The partners were not full-time bankers and from the outset they recruited a clerk to manage the day-to-day business. John Mansell was aged only 20 on appointment; he stayed for 42 years and was still the Bank's only clerk when he retired.^[2]

Changes in the partnership gradually shifted control to the Gunner family, hence the popular name Gunners Bank. Steele left in 1816, Fox died in 1834 and Seymour in 1849. William Gummer brought in two sons, though only Charles stayed. When William, the last of the founding partners, retired in 1851, the Bank was reconstituted. Charles Gunner was joined by Thomas Fox, the founder's nephew and Thomas Ridge, William Gunner's nephew, a case of true nepotism. John Mansell retired and was replaced as sole clerk by his son-in-law, James Lock. As the three partners only met twice a year, Lock ran the Bank. Charles Gummer died in 1874 aged only 54 and his wife took her husband's place; Lock made Managing Partner. Ridge died in 1873 and Fox left in 1877 leaving Gunners run by Mrs Gunner and Lock.^[2]

The firm remained in Gunner hands from that point on, and the Bank continued as a local entity, trading profitably but increasingly anomalous in the world of joint stock banking. It was difficult for country banks to compete with the size and range of services offered by the joint stock banks. Indeed, since the 1920s, Gunners had been the sole remaining “private and family” bank. By the 1950s the senior Gunner partners were in their 60s and no new blood was forthcoming; in 1953 the Bank was sold to Barclays. One final touch from Pressnell indicated the gap between the old and the new: Gunners “did not possess a telephone line until its last years”.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Related Research Articles

William of Wykeham was Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England. He founded New College, Oxford, and New College School in 1379, and founded Winchester College in 1382. He was also the clerk of works when much of Windsor Castle was built.

Bishop's Waltham is a medieval market town situated at the source of the River Hamble in Hampshire, England. It has a foot in the South Downs National Park and is located at the midpoint of a long-established route between Winchester and Portsmouth. It is home to the ruins of Bishop's Waltham Palace, a Scheduled Ancient Monument under English Heritage management, and a well-preserved high street with many listed buildings which now house independent shops.

The Anchor Brewery was a brewery in Park Street, Southwark, London, England. Established in 1616, by the early nineteenth century it was the largest brewery in the world. From 1781 it was operated by Barclay Perkins & Co, who in 1955 merged with the Courage Brewery, which already owned the nearby Anchor Brewhouse. The Park Street brewery was demolished in 1981.

Exton is a small village and civil parish in the City of Winchester district of Hampshire, England. The village lies in the South Downs National Park, on the west bank of the River Meon, immediately to the north of Corhampton. It is located two miles north of Droxford and five miles north-east of Bishop's Waltham. Its name first appears in 940 as East Seaxnatune, meaning "farmstead of the East Saxons".

Kingsclere is a large village and civil parish in Hampshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan Appleton</span> American merchant and politician (1779–1861)

Nathan Appleton was an American merchant and politician and a member of the group of entrepreneurs known as "The Boston Associates".

Samuel Dinsmoor Jr. was an American lawyer, banker, politician, and the 22nd governor of New Hampshire.

Banking in the United Kingdom can be considered to have started in the Kingdom of England in the 17th century. The first activity in what later came to be known as banking was by goldsmiths who, after the dissolution of English monasteries by Henry VIII, began to accumulate significant stocks of gold.

The British Linen Bank was a commercial bank based in the United Kingdom. It was acquired by the Bank of Scotland in 1969 and served as the establishment's merchant bank arm from 1977 until 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Gurney (1786–1856)</span> English banker and philanthropist

Samuel Gurney was an English banker and philanthropist from the Gurney family of Norwich. He should not be confused with his second son, Samuel (1816–1882), also described as banker and philanthropist, and a Member of Parliament.

Glyn, Mills & Company was a private bank founded in London in 1753, which existed until 1969, when it became part of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Hottinger first appears in the annals of the town of Zöllikon, near Zurich, in 1362. The town had recently joined the Swiss Confederation, and was poised to become a thriving center for trade. In 1401, three members of the Hottinger family were named Grand Burghers of the city. Their names Hans, Heinrich and Rudolf – or, in their French variants, Jean, Henri and Rodolphe – have marked the family dynasty for over 500 years. During the 15th and 16th centuries, their descendants oversaw the canton's progressive transformation from a rural to a financial economy, taking an active role in the region's political, cultural and religious life all the way into the 18th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremiah Smith (lawyer)</span> American judge

Jeremiah Smith was a United States representative for New Hampshire, United States Attorney for New Hampshire, a United States circuit judge of the United States Circuit Court for the First Circuit, the sixth governor of New Hampshire and chief justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court of Judicature and the New Hampshire Supreme Judicial Court. He was a member of the Federalist Party.

Francis Moryson was an English soldier who became a Virginia colonial official and agent. A Royalist in the English Civil War, he emigrated to the Virginia Colony, where he held several posts before returning to England and becoming the colony's agent, and finally briefly served on the commission investigating Bacon's Rebellion.

David Barclay of Youngsbury (1729–1809), also known as David Barclay of Walthamstow or David Barclay of Walthamstow and Youngsbury, was an English Quaker merchant, banker, and philanthropist. He is notable for an experiment in "gratuitous manumission", in which he freed an estate of Jamaican slaves, and arranged for better futures for them in Pennsylvania. His legacy was as one of the founders of the present-day Barclays Bank, a century ahead of its formation under that name, and in the brewing industry.

Barclays is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services.

The Gurneys were an influential family of English Quakers, who had a major part in the development of Norwich, England. They established Gurney's Bank in 1770, which merged into Barclays Bank in 1896. A number of family members were abolitionists. Members of the family still live in the United Kingdom.

Allen Wardner was a Vermont banker, businessman and politician who served as State Treasurer. He was also the father-in-law of Attorney General, Secretary of State and United States Senator William M. Evarts.

Sir Charles Cockerell, 1st Baronet was a Somerset-born Englishman who prospered as an official of the East India Company (EIC) and became a politician. He sat in the House of Commons for most of the period between 1802 and 1837, sitting for five different constituencies.

Holt's Military Banking is a trading name of The Royal Bank of Scotland, a subsidiary of NatWest Group, offering dedicated banking facilities to service personnel in the United Kingdom and on operational tours of duty overseas. It can trace its origins to a Mr. Vesey, army agent to the 23rd Regiment of (Light) Dragoons, in Dublin in 1802.

References

↑ Peter Mathias, The First Industrial Nation, Routledge, pp. 323, ISBN 978-0-415-26672-7
1 2 3 Hodgson, R A, Gunners Bank I: A Country Banking Partnership 1809-1953. Portsmouth Archives Review 1977 Vol 2 pp 26-53
↑ Pressnell, L S, Country Banking in the Industrial Revolution, Oxford, 1956
↑ The Times, 27 February 1953

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.

[1] Peter Mathias, The First Industrial Nation, Routledge, pp. 323, ISBN 978-0-415-26672-7

[Gunners-2] 1 2 3 Hodgson, R A, Gunners Bank I: A Country Banking Partnership 1809-1953. Portsmouth Archives Review 1977 Vol 2 pp 26-53

[3] Pressnell, L S, Country Banking in the Industrial Revolution, Oxford, 1956

[4] The Times, 27 February 1953

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]