the world of private banking

106
THE WORLD OF PRIVAtE BANKING
stating that Samuel is ‘much the same as he has been for some time past, but
troubles himself very little about business’.
Further details of the bank’s activities can be gleaned from Vincent Stuckey’s
letter to Messrs Messiter, bankers of Wincanton: ‘By our existing arrangements we
are enabled to negotiate the local notes of the banks of Dorset, Wilts, and Hants but
we have no objection to take from you the notes of the banks west of Wincanton.
Also Wells, Bath and Bristol notes and bills and will pay the amount to your bankers
in London in 14 days after receiving them. We also shall be glad to carry on a
weekly exchange of the notes of our respective houses and pay the balance through
our London bankers, a plan we wish to adopt with all respectable houses’.
The Private Accounts of Banking Partners
The private papers of banking partners can contain information about the profitability
of the business which may not be available from other sources. Several private
account books surviving among the family papers of the Barnard banking family
of Bedford include references to ‘partner’s share’ in the profits of the business. The
private account book (1806 to 1840) 23 of Thomas Barnard I (1784–1853), son of
the founder of the bank, notes an income of £883 in 1809, of which £845 were the
profits from the partnership. There are regular references to partnership profits in
the ensuing years, and by 1840 his share had risen to £4,700. 24
Thomas II, son of Thomas I, maintained a private account book 25 from the time
he joined the partnership in 1854. This also contains details of his annual share of
the profits and a valuation of property including bank capital and buildings in 1885.
The private account books of Thomas Barnard I and II both include information
about their personal wealth and investments.
Interestingly, Lord Overstone’s papers include a memorandum of his wealth
in 1874. 26 Although written many years after his resignation from the banking
business, it contains an account of the annual profits of the Jones Loyd partnership
from 1817 to 1848. Overstone calculated that the total profits of the bank over that
period were £2.2 million and his share amounted to £563,000.
Pressnell noted that considerable emphasis was placed by contemporaries on
the personal wealth of private bankers, as these assets might be called upon in the
event of the banking firm’s suffering financial difficulties. One of the most visible
signs of wealth was the ownership of land. Private family papers provide much
evidence of this and other personal assets. Lord Overstone’s papers, for example,
contain the investment ledgers of both Lord Overstone and his father Lewis Loyd.
23
Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service, ref. DDBD 1205.
24
Notes on the private account books of the Barnard Family, NatWest Group Archives,
ref. 181.
25
Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service, ref. DDBD 1238.
26
O’Brien, Correspondence, vol. 3, pp. 1274–5.