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 Fleet Street in or before 1693 (cf. baptismal register of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West). Like his contemporary, Sir [q. v.], he added the business of a banker to that of a goldsmith, and the bank (which still preserves the original sign of the Golden Bottle) has existed in the same spot (No. 37) until the present day. Hoare was one of the goldsmiths authorised by the treasury in 1694 to receive contributions for raising 1,000,000l. on the duty arising from salt, and the new rates of exchange (Lond. Gaz. 9 April 1694). In 1695–6 he subscribed the association roll of the Goldsmiths' Company congratulating William III on his escape from assassination (, Memorials and Characters, 1741, p. 21 n.) Hoare's financial transactions were on a large scale. In March 1696–7 he joined Child and others in advancing 60,000l. to pay ready money for wrought plate brought into the mint to be coined (, Brief Relation, iv. 195). Samuel Pepys was one of his customers, and left him a mourning-ring at his death in 1703 (Diary, 4th edit., 1854, iv. 360–1). He and Child are said to have united to make a run upon the Bank of England in 1707 during the alarm caused by the Pretender's rumoured invasion, but he refuted the charge in a broadsheet dated 16 March (cf. The Anatomy of Exchequer Alley, a contemporary pamphlet quoted in Price's ‘Handbook of London Bankers’). On 28 Aug. 1710 he contracted, with three other merchants, to supply the treasury with 350,000l. for the use of the army in Flanders (, vi. 622).

Hoare was knighted by Queen Anne when she dined at Guildhall on Lord Mayor's day 29 Oct. 1702 (ib. v. 231). On 16 Sept. 1703 he was elected alderman for the ward of Bread Street, and sheriff on Midsummer day 1709. He was an unsuccessful court candidate at the parliamentary elections for the city of London in 1705 and 1708, but represented the city in parliament from 1710 to 1715 (ib. v. 552, vi. 295, 633). On Michaelmas day 1710 an unsuccessful attempt was made by the tory party to secure his election as lord mayor, in opposition to Sir Gilbert Heathcote [q. v.], but he succeeded to the office by seniority in 1712. Hoare was president of Christ's Hospital and of the London workhouse, and one of the committee for building fifty new churches in London. He died on 6 Jan. 1718 at his house at Hendon, Middlesex, and was buried on 13 Jan. at St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, where his monument, erected by his son Henry in 1723, still exists. He left a bequest of 200l. to the Goldsmiths' Company for an annual pension to eight poor widows of freemen.

He married, by licence dated 27 July 1672, Susanna, daughter of John Austin of Brittons, Essex, by whom he had eleven sons and six daughters, the eldest being born in 1673, and the youngest in 1694. Of these children four sons and two daughters survived him, viz. Richard, John, Henry (who succeeded him in business), Benjamin (who also joined the firm), Mary (married to Sir Edward Littleton of Pillaton Hall, Staffordshire, bart.), and Jane. His wife died on 24 Sept. 1720, and was buried in St. Dunstan's. His character is eulogised by Wilford (Memorials and Characters, 1741).

His grandson, (d. 1754), was elected lord mayor of London in 1745, the year of the rebellion, and in 1741 wrote a journal of his shrievalty, which was printed privately by his grandson, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, in 1815. He lived at Barn Elms, Barnes, on the banks of the Thames, and died in 1754. Some letters from him to the Duke of Newcastle are in Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 32696, f. 44, and 32725, f. 303 (see also, Hist. of London, i. 654–5; Gent. Mag. 1841, pt. ii. p. 425; Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. pt. ii. p. 20).

Portraits of Sir Richard Hoare and his grandson Sir Richard, engraved by Worthington, appear in Sir R. Colt Hoare's ‘Pedigrees,’ &c., taken from paintings in the author's possession at Stourhead.



HOARE, RICHARD COLT (1758–1838), historian of Wiltshire, born on 9 Dec. 1758, was only son of Richard Hoare, esq., of Barn Elms, Surrey (created a baronet in 1786), by Anne, second daughter of Henry Hoare, esq., of Stourhead, Wiltshire, and of Susannah, daughter and heiress of Stephen Colt, esq. His grandfather was Sir Richard Hoare (d. 1754) [see under, 1648–1718]. He was educated at private schools, first at Mr. Devis's school on Wandsworth Common, and afterwards at that of Dr. Samuel Glasse, at Greenford, near Harrow. He was at an early age introduced into the family banking-house, 37 Fleet Street, but continued his classical studies under the tuition of the Rev. Joseph Eyre. The liberal allowance of his grandfather, Henry Hoare, soon placed him in a position of independence.