Gurney's bank was a family-run bank founded by members of the Gurney family in 1770 and headquartered in Norwich, England. It merged into Barclays Bank in 1896.
The bank was founded in 1770 by John and Henry Gurney, sons of John Gurney (1688–1741), who passed the business to Henry's son, Bartlett Gurney, in 1777. [1] The bank was founded in what is now known as Bank Plain (formerly Redwell Street). The Quaker Gurneys were renowned for their honesty, reliability, and fair dealings — so people entrusted them their money for safe keeping. About 1777, Alderman Poole, a wine merchant, sold Bartlett Gurney premises near to the red well, and Gurney installed safes for bullion. A junior clerk slept on the trapdoor to the vaults to safeguard the valuables. The bank issued its own notes. A bull mastiff (complete with brass collar) stood on guard inside the doors at the Bank Plain premises, and there was always a blunderbuss at the ready.[ citation needed ]
Bartlett Gurney died in 1802, without a male heir, in Norwich. He was succeeded in control of the bank by his cousins, including John Gurney, whose children included the banker Samuel Gurney. On his father's death in 1809, Samuel Gurney assumed the control of the Norwich bank. About the same time, he also took over the control of the London billbroking business of Richardson, Overend & Company, in which he was already a partner. The title of the firm was subsequently changed to Overend, Gurney and Company, and for forty years it was the greatest discounting house in the world. Samuel Gurney died in 1856. [2]
In 1865, the business of Overend, Gurney & Company, which had come under less competent control, went public as a joint stock company, but in 1866 the firm suspended payment with liabilities amounting to £11,000,000 Sterling. The failure of that bank ruined a number of the Gurneys, as well as numerous investors. The Norwich bank, however, escaped significant damage to its business and reputation from the collapse of the cousins' business. [3] The Times stated, shortly after the suspension: "It is understood that the suspension of Overend, Gurney & Co will not in the slightest degree compromise Gurney's Bank of Norwich. That establishment recently passed into the hands of new partners, whose resources are beyond all question". [4]
The Gurney family was known for its wealth; in Gilbert and Sullivan's 1875 comic opera Trial by Jury , a character describes his accumulation of wealth until he "became as rich as the Gurneys". [5]
In 1896, Gurney's Bank merged with Backhouse's Bank of Darlington and Barclays Bank of London and several other provincial banks, controlled by Quaker families, to form what is now Barclays Bank.
Elizabeth Fry, sometimes referred to as Betsy Fry, was an English prison reformer, social reformer, philanthropist and Quaker. Fry was a major driving force behind new legislation to improve the treatment of prisoners, especially female inmates, and as such has been called the "Angel of Prisons". She was instrumental in the 1823 Gaols Act which mandated sex-segregation of prisons and female warders for female inmates to protect them from sexual exploitation. Fry kept extensive diaries, in which the need to protect female prisoners from rape and sexual exploitation is explicit.
Overend, Gurney & Company was a London wholesale discount bank, known as "the bankers' bank", which collapsed in 1866 owing about £11 million, equivalent to £1,084 million in 2021. The collapse of the institution triggered a banking panic.
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).
The Pease family is an English and mostly Quaker family associated with Darlington, County Durham, and North Yorkshire, descended from Edward Pease of Darlington (1711–1785).
Gurney is an English surname of Anglo-Norman origin.
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.
Sir Lancelot Douglas Carnegie, was a British diplomat.
Samuel Hoare Jr was a wealthy British Quaker banker and abolitionist born in Stoke Newington, then to the north of London in the county of Middlesex. From 1790, he lived at Heath House on Hampstead Heath. He was one of the twelve founding members of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
Joseph Fry was a tea dealer and an unsuccessful banker. He was the husband of the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry.
Earlham Hall is a country house in Norfolk, England. It is located just to the west of the city of Norwich, on Earlham Road, on the outskirts of the village of Earlham. For generations it was the home of the Gurney family. The Gurneys were known as bankers and social activists; prison reformer Elizabeth Fry grew up at Earlham Hall. When the University of East Anglia was founded in 1963, the building became its administrative centre, and it now serves as the law school.
Daniel Gurney (1791–1880), was an English banker and antiquary from the Gurney family of Norwich.
Louisa Gurney Hoare was an English diarist and writer on education, and a member of the Gurney family. She was concerned particularly with standards of education.
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.
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.
John Gurney was an English banker and member of the Gurney family of Norwich. Besides his role as a partner in Gurney's bank he is notable as the father of the social reformers Elizabeth Fry and Joseph John Gurney, the writer Louisa Hoare and the banker Samuel Gurney.
Samuel Gurney may refer to:
Sir George Head Barclay, was a British diplomat.
David Barclay of Cheapside (1682–1769) was a Scottish merchant and banker.
The Bank of Queensland was a bank in Queensland, Australia. Established in London it opened for business in Brisbane on 13 August 1863 in the renovated premises of the former Joint Stock Bank. There had been just four (trading) banks established in Queensland by late 1862 but all from other Australian colonies, branches of New South Wales Bank, Union Bank of Australia, Australian Joint Stock Bank and the Bank of Australasia.
Charles Barclay of Bury Hill, Surrey, was a British brewer and landowner, who also served as a Tory Member of Parliament for the constituencies of Southwark (1815–1818), Dundalk (1826–1830), and West Surrey (1835–1837). Closely related to both the Barclay and Gurney banking dynasties, he came from a prominent Quaker family and was cousin of social reformer Elizabeth Fry.
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