Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/265

 S. I. MAR. 26, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

257

JEDICATIONS OF CHURCHES (9 th S. i. 49). Vhen Ecton states in his preface that for the names of the saints" of the several churches .ommunicative antiquary Browne Willis, 1.," it seems at first an intimation that it vas a personal communication. He was iving at the time; ob. 1762. But then Browne Willis himself wrote 'Parochiale Anglicanum; or, the Names of all the Jhurches and Chapels within the Dioceses >f Canterbury, Rochester, London, Win- fester, Chichester, Norwich, Salisbury, Wells, Exeter, St. David's, Llandaff, Bangor, St. Asaph/ London, 1733.
 * the editors are obliged to that learned and

For completeness there must be taken with Ecton's ' Thesaurus ' J. Bacon's ' Liber Regis,' London, 1786. From his position as Receiverof the First Fruits, Bacon had access to original sources of information. His " constant ated by a monk of Westminster."
 * uide " was the ' Liber Regis,' " a MS. trans-

ED. MARSHALL, F.S.A.

HAMMERSLEY'S BANK (9 th S. i. 146). As I lancy the curious history of Hammersley's Bank is not very generally known, for books on banks only make a very slight allusion to it, your readers might be interested if I set out the account given by Daniel Hardcastle, jun., in ' Banks and Bankers' (London, Whittaker <fc Co., 1842) :

"Amongst the private bankers Hammersley's house was about the first to stop, and presented circumstances more singular than any of the rest. The date of the stoppage was 20 Sept., 1840, and the estimated amount of deposits, 650,000?. Mr. Hugh Hammersley's death took place the day before, and it was then announced, for the first time, that he had long been the sole partner. The bank, it was therefore submitted, could not but stop, because, in point of fact, there was no longer a banker to it. The case was without a parallel; but it looked sus- picious, and, as the event proved, not without reason. Mr. Hugh Hammersley left a will, in which he named his brother legatee of the business and the property belonging to it. The brother, in the course of a few days, issued a circular letter, in which he disclaimed and renounced the bequests, but took upon himself the character of executor, and engaged to prove the will, time being allowed for an affair of such magnitude. This proposal was not opposed, the will was proved, and, to the sur- prise of all parties, the property was put into Chancery for distribution. A conclusion so un- common was not inconsistent with the history of the house, which was mi generis. The bank was founded some fifty years ago by Thomas Hammers- ley, a clerk in the house of Herries & Co., who prevailed upon Messrs. Morland & Ramsbottom to set up a new bank with him. This was done, and for a few years they carried on business under the name of Morland, Ramsbottom & Hammersley, but dissolved partnership, it is said, with a loss to each. Thomas Hammersley, who seems to have been a man of bold character as well as consider-

able talent, succeeded in forming a still stronger firm, of which he placed himself at the head that of Hammersley, Montolieu, Greenwood, Brooks- bank & Drewe. From such an association an excellent business was to have been expected, two of the names Montolieu and Greenwood being well known as those of wealthy and well-connected men; but the result proved the reverse. The principle upon which the bank was founded was pad and illegitimate; the amount of real property invested in it, I suspect, was trifling; the partners relied for success on the reputation of their names and a dexterous use of the credit system." P. 269.

Then follows a statement of some of the losses incurred by the bank, and the author thus proceeds :

" These reverses must have produced their natural effects in some quarter or other. The mystery in which the affairs of the bank have been wrapped up does not enable us to trace them distinctly nor to explain theprecise period or circumstances under which the different partners withdrew or dropped off. All that appears certain is that Mr. Hugh Hammersley, who succeeded his father Thomas, the founder of the bank, is declared, as soon as he dies, to have been the sole partner, although no one had an idea that the firm consisted of that gentle- man only. Under such circumstances the conjecture is not improbable that the bank was insolvent during the lifetime both of the father and the son. Such, however, is not the aspect the matter was made to present to the public. Appearances are well kept up; the concern is made to last the time of those who had devised and depended upon it, and when the last who had enjoyed it dies, and the next-of- kin to whom it is bequeathed as a means of excel- lent sustenance declines the inheritance, it ceases to exist. No fiat can issue against a dead man, and after an interval of suspense, the estate is made to yield ten shillings in the pound, by some arch process or other carried on in an obscure corner of the Court of Chancery. When the former partners left, on what conditions and with what liabilities, if any, is either not asked or at least not publicly explained."

I think Hardcastle's book of 1843 throws a little more light on the subject, but I have not been able to obtain this book. More contemporary opinion is to be found in these papers : Spectator, 26 Sept., 3, 10, 17 Oct., 1840, and the Examiner, 27 Sept., 1840. I have not seen these, but am curious to know what they contain. P. B. WALMSLEY.

90, Disraeli Road, Putney, S.W.

The history of this bank, from its first formation in Pall Mall to its stoppage in 1840, will be found in the Banker's Circular for that year. This long article was copied into Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, First Series, ix. 351. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

Mr. Thomas Hammersley started this bank in 1796, after retiring from Ransom & Morland. The firm continued to nourish until 20 Sept., 1840, when the deposits amounted to 650,0007.