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 Gurneys were an influential family of English Quakers, who had a major influence on the development of Norwich. They established Gurney's Bank in 1770, which merged into Barclays in 1896. Members of the family still live in the United Kingdom.
Norwich is a historic city in Norfolk, England. Situated on the River Wensum in East Anglia, it lies approximately 100 miles (161 km) north-east of London. It is the county town of Norfolk and is considered the capital of East Anglia, with a population of 141,300. From the Middle Ages until the Industrial Revolution, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important.
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to the west and Scotland to the north-northwest. The Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
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]
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council member elected by voters.
The Bullmastiff is a large-sized breed of domestic dog, with a solid build and a short muzzle. The Bullmastiff shares the characteristics of molosser dogs, and was originally developed by 19th-century gamekeepers to guard estates. The breed's bloodlines are drawn from the English Mastiff and the extinct Old English Bulldog. It was recognized as a purebred dog by the English Kennel Club in 1924.
The blunderbuss is a firearm with a short, large caliber barrel which is flared at the muzzle and frequently throughout the entire bore, and used with shot and other projectiles of relevant quantity and/or caliber. The blunderbuss is commonly considered to be an early predecessor of the modern shotgun, with similar military and defensive use. It was effective only at short range, lacking accuracy at long range. A blunderbuss in handgun form was called a dragon, and it is from this that the term dragoon evolved.
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]
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 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.
Overend, Gurney & Company was a London wholesale discount bank, known as "the bankers' bank", which collapsed in 1866 owing about £11 million, equivalent to £1,001 million in 2018.
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 operaTrial by Jury, a character describes his accumulation of wealth until he "became as rich as the Gurneys".[5]
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known.
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its popular companion piece, Jacques Offenbach's La Périchole. The story concerns a "breach of promise of marriage" lawsuit in which the judge and legal system are the objects of lighthearted satire. Gilbert based the libretto of Trial by Jury on an operetta parody that he had written in 1868.
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.
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).
For much of the 19th Century Henry Gurney was in partnership with Sam Baker and Walter Curtis. Samuel Baker having set up West India Merchants and subsequently Samuel Baker and Co. of 147 Leadenhall Street. [6] The three men established of H. Gurney, Baker and Co. of 69 Lombard Street. They were Bill Brokers and Money Dealers. After many years of successful business the firm was liquidated in May 1883. [7]
Related Research Articles
Elizabeth Fry, often referred to as Betsy Fry, was an English prison reformer, social reformer and, as a Quaker, a Christian philanthropist. She has often been referred to as the "angel of prisons".
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet was an English Member of Parliament, brewer, abolitionist and social reformer. He had connections with the Gurney family.
The Gildencroft Quaker Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Chatham Street, Norwich, Norfolk, England, where many of the city's Quakers were buried including the writer Amelia Opie. Many members of the Gurney family - who had a major influence on the development of Norwich - are buried here. The family founded Gurney's Bank.
Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market (1873) is a book by Walter Bagehot. Bagehot was one of the first writers to describe and explain the world of international and corporate finance, banking, and money in understandable language. The book was initially printed in Great Britain by Henry S. King & Co. in 1873.
Sir Lancelot Douglas Carnegie, sometime British Minister and then Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Portugal in 1925, was the second son of the 9th Earl of Southesk, and the eldest son by his second marriage (1860) to Lady Susan Murray, eldest daughter of Alexander Murray, 6th Earl of Dunmore. His matrilineal great-uncle was the diplomat and statesman Sidney Herbert, Lord Herbert of Lea.
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. His London seat was 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.
Hudson Gurney was an English antiquary and verse-writer, also known as a politician. He was a member of the Gurney family.
David Barclay (1729–1809) 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.
David Barclay of Cheapside (1682–1769) was a Scottish merchant and banker.
John Gurney (1845–1887), a member of the renowned Gurney banking family of Norfolk, was mayor of Norwich.
Richard Sanderson was a British merchant, banker, and Conservative and Tory politician.
Verily, Anderson (1980). Friends and Relations: Three Centuries of Quaker Families. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN1-898030-84-7. — an account of the Gurney family.
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