the world of private banking

BANKING AND FAmILy ARcHIVES 101
The Connection between Families and Private Banks
The reason why family papers may prove of value in this respect is because private
banks were often controlled by the same families over long periods of time, with
sons, sons-in-law, nephews, cousins and brothers-in-law taking part in the business.
The successors of the eighteenth -century banker William Minet were his nephew
Hughes Minet and his cousin’s son Peter Fector. This family connection was
reinforced when Fector married Hughes Minet’s sister. This was not an unusual
occurrence, as families involved in joint banking partnerships often intermarried.
Daughters’ marriages could bring new blood into the business. The success of the
Manchester banking firm of John Jones, banker and tea merchant, was largely driven
by Jones’ son-in-law Lewis Loyd, who joined the firm after his marriage. Sometimes
the family connection could extend over several centuries: the Beckett family were
bankers for over six generations and the Smith family for even longer.
Family businesses also provided employment for members of kin. A letter from
Samuel Jones Loyd, Lord Overstone, to Lewis Loyd junior in 1863, following
news of the sale of the family firm Loyd Entwisle, amply illustrates this point.
Overstone commented that the sale was made ‘without any consideration of the
future interests of young members of the family. … Your brother Edward’s sons
– William’s sons – Entwisle’s sons – Dyce Nicol’s sons. And has it been forgotten
there are six nephews of Col. Loyd wholly unprovided for … who bear the name
of the family and must carry that name about the world in humble poverty?’
Not that all the younger members of the family were enthused by their chosen
profession. Rowland Smith writing in 1849 complained: ‘I am fixed at the bank
on a high stool with nothing to do except look at an occasional customer who
comes in about twice an hour (for this is market day and consequently more busy
than usual)’.
Family Papers
The private papers of these banking families may throw light on their banking
interests which were not otherwise recorded, or that have long since disappeared.
Even if the banking records do exist, private papers may reveal additional
information not found in the formal record. Private papers may also contain details
of personal tensions within the family business, the interplay between banking and
other business activities and the private wealth of banking partners. The latter was
an important factor in maintaining confidence in private banks, for without the
protection of limited liability, partners might be required to call on their private
assets to settle banking debts.
L.A.M. Sencicle, Banking on Dover (London, 1993).
D.P. O’ Brien (ed.), The Correspondence of Lord Overstone, vols 1–3 (1971).
Letter to S.G. Smith, NatWest Group Archives, ref. 4615.