the world of private banking

BANKING AND FAmILy ARcHIVES 107
Lord Overstone’s investments ledgers have enabled Ranald Michie to compile a
detailed analysis of his personal wealth from 1823 to 1883. 27 Much of Overstone’s
investments were in land, as were the investments of the earlier generation of
partners in Jones Loyd, his father and two uncles. 28
Family Correspondence
Although only a small number of letters may still remain, correspondence between
family members can provide insights into the development of banking. Several
letters to Abel Smith II from his sons during the 1770s survive in the NatWest
archives. These include his son Robert’s report on the London business in 1775
and references to the difficulties caused to the partnership by Abel Smith’s decision
to withdraw funds deposited with the bank in London. 29 A letter to Abel Smith
from his son Abel III in 1777 describes the opportunities for opening a bank in
Hull and the importance of obtaining the remittance of customs revenues for such
a business. 30
Several letters around the 1740s from Peter Fector to the merchant William
Minet record Peter’s entry into the business run by William and his father Isaac.
They also provide evidence that banking had developed from the activities of
the Dover side of the business by 1744. In a letter of September that year, Peter
notes: ‘Scarce one packet arrives [in Dover] but brings half a dozen letters at least
with accounts for sundry sums of Money to be distributed among the [French]
prisoners. I go two and three times a week in the prison. … The Commission on
these articles is small being but 6d in the Pound, but the number of sums make it
answer pretty well’. 31
Unfortunately, it is fairly rare for long series of family correspondence to
survive. One notable exception is a collection of letters written to Samuel George
Smith from various members of the family, between 1846 and 1900. 32 As well
as private family affairs, their subject matter covers a wide range of topics,
including problems at the Derby, Hull, Lincoln and Nottingham Smith Banks
and discussions about possible amalgamations. In 1852 a letter from one of the
Nottingham partners complains that the partners there had ‘let the trade accounts
of the town go to other banks by our not keeping pace with the times’ and suggests
27
R.C. Michie, ‘Income, Expenditure and Investment of a Victorian Millionaire: Lord
Overstone, 1823–1883’, in Bulletin of the Institute for Historical Research, vol. 58, 137,
May 1985, p. 67.
28
Ibid., pp. 75–7.
29
Leighton-Boyce, Smiths, pp. 78–82; NatWest Group Archives, ref. 2637.
30
Ibid., pp. 190–91; NatWest Group Archives, ref. 2619.
31
Sencicle, Banking, p. 10.
32
NatWest Group Archives, ref. 4615.