others who in their later years have become "rank Tories," he began
his political life as a Liberal, contesting the town of Stafford
unsuccessfully in that interest. After the change in his views, he,
upon the death of Mr. Joshua Scholefield, in July, 1844, was elected
to be one of the Members for Birmingham, in opposition to the
candidature of Mr. William Scholefield. At the general election in
August, 1847, this decision was reversed; and Mr. Spooner, to this
day, is remembered as having been the only Conservative Member
Birmingham ever sent to Parliament.
Mr. Spooner was afterwards chosen to represent North Warwickshire, a
position he held until his death, at the great age of 85, in November,
1864. He was quite blind for some years before his death. He had a great
horror of photographers, and refused all requests to sit for his
portrait. One was at length obtained surreptitiously. On a fine summer
day, he was persuaded, for the sake of the fresh air, to take a seat in
the yard, which then existed at the back of the bank. Mr. Whitlock was
in attendance, and succeeded, greatly to the delight of Mr. Spooner's
friends, in obtaining a very good portrait of the blind old man, as he
sat there, perfectly unconscious of what was going on. I believe this
was the only portrait ever taken.
At the death of Mr. George Attwood--which preceded that of Mr. Spooner
by some years--the firm had been re-constituted, and became Attwood,
Spooner, Marshalls, and Co. The partners in the new firm were Mr. Thomas
Aurelius Attwood, Mr. R. Spooner, and Messrs. William and Henry
Marshall, who had been clerks in the bank all their lives. The deaths,
in a comparatively short period, of Mr. T.A. Attwood and Mr. W.
Marshall, followed soon after by that of Mr. Spooner, left Mr. Henry
Marshall the only surviving member of this firm.
Soon after Mr. Spooner's death, it was announced that an amalgamation of
this bank with the Birmingham Joint Stock Bank in Temple Row had been
agreed upon, and satisfaction with this arrangement was universally
expressed. On Saturday March 10, 1865--only four months after Mr.
Spooner's decease--the town, and in fact the whole country, was
electrified by the announcement that the bank had stopped payment.
People were incredulous, as it had been thought to be one of the safest
banks in the kingdom. An excited crowd surrounded the bank premises
during the whole day, and a strong force of police was in attendance to
preserve order. In the course of the day a circular was issued, of which
the following is a copy:
"It is with feelings of the deepest concern and distress that we
announce that we are compelled to suspend payment, and this at the
moment when, after several months of anxious negotiation, we had
confidently trusted we should obtain such assistance as would enable
us to carry into effect, on our part, the preliminary agreement for
the amalgamation of the bank with the Birmingham Joint Stock Bank.
In this hope we have been disappointed. Sums of money to a large
amount were drawn out of the bank some years since by the family
of the Attwoods. To this circumstance it can be clearly shown, at
the proper time, our failure is to be attributed. For the last ten
years every effort has been made to redeem the loss thus occasioned,
but this has only been partially accomplished. The assets of the
bank are, however, still very considerable, and there are real
estates of great value belonging to the bank, and but slightly
encumbered. We hope that in now suspending payment we shall be
considered as taking the best and only step to ensure a just and
equal distribution of our assets among our creditors."
Upon a full investigation of the state of affairs, it was found that the
total amount of liabilities amounted to the large sum of L1,007,000, and
that the assets consisted chiefly of landed and mining properties of a
very speculative nature. There was also a very large amount of overdrawn
balances due from customers. After many projects had been launched, it
was announced that the committee of investigation had, subject to the
approval of the general body of creditors, disposed of the entire assets
to the directors of the Joint Stock Bank, they undertaking to pay the
creditors of Attwood and Co., in immediate cash, a dividend of 11s. 3d.
in the pound. This arrangement was carried into effect, and "Attwood's
Bank" became a memory only. Mr. Henry Marshall is, however, still living
in retirement at Weston-Super-Mare, and is, notwithstanding his great
age, in vigorous health, both of mind and body.
The old familiar premises have now, too, passed away. The inconvenient
old office, with its rows of leather buckets, and its harmless array of
antiquated blunderbuses; its old-fashioned desks, dark with age, and
begrimed with ink spattered by successive generations of bygone clerks;
the low ceiling and quaint elliptic arches; the little fire-place near
the counter, where Aurelius Attwood, with his good-humoured face, used
to stand warming his coat-tails, and greeting the customers as they came
in, were all so much in harmony with the staid, gray-headed clerks, and
the quiet, methodical ways of the place, that when there, one might
fancy he had stepped back for fifty years, or was looking upon a
picture by Hogarth.
It was stated a few pages back that the Bank of England, after the
great panic of 1825, consented to forego their exclusive privilege
of joint-stock banking. This, however, was not done without an
equivalent, for the Act of 1826, ratifying this consent, gave them the
power of establishing branch banks in the large towns of England. In
pursuance of the powers thus granted, the first branch was opened
at Gloucester on July 19th of that year. Others were started at
Manchester, September 21st, and Swansea, October 23rd. On New
Year's Day, 1827, the Branch Bank of England commenced business in
Birmingham, occupying the premises of the defunct firm of Gibbins,
Smith, and Goode, in Union Street, now the Gas Offices of the
Corporation. The first manager was Captain Nichols, who brought with
him, from the parent bank, a staff of clerks. One of these, a mere
youth at the time, was destined to fill an important position in the
town and in the country. This was Charles Geach; a very remarkable
man, of whom I shall have more to say by and by.
Captain Nichols was succeeded by Captain Tindal, brother of the
illustrious jurist, Lord Chief Justice Tindal. During this gentleman's
tenure of office the business was removed to the premises in Bennetts
Hill, vacated by the unfortunate "Bank of Birmingham," of which more
hereafter. Here the business has ever since been conducted.
Captain Tindal was a good man of business, and under his management
the bank was very prosperous. He was a man of highly-cultivated mind.
He took a very active interest in all local matters connected with
literature and art, and he was a very liberal patron of the drama.
Those who had the pleasure of being present at the pleasant _soirees_
at his house, to which he was accustomed to invite the literary and
artistic notabilities of the neighbourhood, will not easily forget how
pleasantly the evenings passed; how everyone enjoyed the charades
and theatricals which were so excellently managed by the gifted
Miss Keating, then a governess in the family; how, too, everyone was
charmed with the original and convenient arrangement for supplying
visitors with refreshments. Instead of the conventional "sit-down
suppers" of those days, Captain Tindal had refreshment counters and
occasional tables dotted here and there, so that his friends took what
they pleased, at the time most convenient to themselves. One room was
very popular. Within its hospitable portals, hungry bipeds of the male
persuasion were supplied, to their intense satisfaction, with abundant
oysters, and unlimited foaming Dublin stout. Oysters were then five
shillings the barrel of ten dozens! _Tempora mutantur; spero meliora!_
It was a great loss to social and artistic Birmingham when Captain
Tindal was removed to London, twenty-one years ago. The Bank of
England opened a "West End" branch in Burlington Gardens, London,
and the Captain was appointed its first manager. This new branch was
opened October 1st, 1856. The resolution of the Board of Directors to
appoint Mr. Tindal to this position seems to have been taken suddenly,
for Mr. Chippindale, who had been sub-manager for some years, and was
now placed at the head of the Birmingham branch, did not know of it
until he was informed of his appointment by a customer of the bank.
This gentleman, who was a merchant in the town, tells me that he "was
the first to tell him of it. He said it was not true, and he must go
out and contradict it. I told him I _knew_ it _was_ true, but even
then he was incredulous." Mr. Chippindale has recently retired, and
has been succeeded by Mr. F.F. Barham.
Soon after Mr. Chippindale's appointment, a friend of mine received
from New York a large sum in four months' bills upon Glasgow, which
he wished to discount. He was well known in Birmingham, but had no
regular banking account. The bank rate in London was four per cent. He
took the bills first to the National Provincial Bank, where Mr. Henry
Rotton offered to "do" them at four-and-a-half. This he thought too
high, and he next took them to the Bank of England. Mr. Chippindale
told him that the rule of the bank was not to discount anything having
more than ninety days to run; but, if he left the bills as security,
he could draw against them for the cash he wanted, and, as soon as the
bills came within the ninety days' limit, they could be discounted at
the London rate of the day. This arrangement was entered into, but,
unfortunately for my friend, a sudden turn in the market sent the rate
up three per cent. within the month, so that, when the transaction was
completed, he had to pay seven per cent. It made a difference to him
of between L200 and L300.
From the time of Mr. Chippindale's appointment, the branch bank has
gone quietly on in its useful course. It does not compete much with
the other banks in general business; indeed, its office seems to be
rather that of a bank for bankers. Now that none of the local banks
issue their own notes, it is a great convenience to them to have on
the spot a store of Bank of England paper, available at a moment's
notice, to any required amount.
The ten years from 1826 were very fruitful of joint stock banks in
Birmingham. Some have survived, but many are almost forgotten. I will
mention the defunct ones first. The "Bank of Birmingham" was promoted
by a Quaker gentleman, named Pearson. He had been, I believe, a
merchant in the town, but was afterwards a partner in the firm of
Moilliet Smith, and Pearson, from which he seems to have retired at,
the same time as his partner, the well-known Mr. Timothy Smith. The
Bank of Birmingham started with high aims and lofty expectations. The
directors built for their offices the substantial edifice on Bennetts
Hill, now occupied as the Branch Bank of England, and they prepared
for a very large business. They, however, much as they may have been
respected, and successful as most of them undoubtedly were in their
private affairs, were not men of large capacity, and they had not the
quick and sound judgment of character and circumstances necessary in
banking. Nor were they very fortunate in their manager. Mr. Pearson,
although he might have been taken as a model of honesty, truthfulness,
and straightforwardness, was a phlegmatic, heavy man, and his manners
were, to say the least, unprepossessing. The bank was not a success.
Negotiations were, a few years after, entered into, and arrangements
resulted, by which the Birmingham Banking Company took over the
business, on the basis of giving every shareholder in the Bank of
Birmingham a certain reduced amount of stock in their own bank, in
exchange.
Some time before the transfer took place, a member of one of the most
respected and influential mercantile families in the neighbourhood
suspended payment, owing a large sum to the Bank of Birmingham,
upon which he paid a composition. He afterwards prospered, and some
twenty-five years afterwards, all those shareholders in the defunct
bank who still held, in the Birmingham Banking Company, the shares
they had been allotted in exchange at the time of the transfer,
received cheques for the deficiency, with interest thereon for the
whole period it had been unpaid. A relative of my own received,
in this way, several hundred pounds. I am not aware that this
circumstance has ever been made public, but it is due to the memory of
the late Mr. Robert Lucas Chance that so praise-worthy an act should
be on record.
Mr. Pearson, after the closing of the bank, commenced business as a
sharebroker, which he continued until his death. He was one of the
last to retain, in all its rigour, the peculiar dress of the Society
of Friends. His stout, broad-set figure, with the wide-brimmed hat,
collarless coat, drab "thoses" and gaiters, will be remembered by many
readers.
The Commercial Bank had offices at the corner of Ann Street and
Bennetts Hill. Mr. John Stubbs was an active promoter of this bank,
and Mr. James Graham was manager. It had a short life. Mr. Graham went
to America, and died somewhere on the banks of the Mississippi.
The Tamworth Banking Company opened a branch in High Street, opposite
the bottom of Bull Street. It was open as late as 1838, but was
eventually given up, and the premises were occupied by Mrs. Syson as a
hosier's shop, until pulled down for the Great Western Railway tunnel.
The Borough Bank was promoted by Mr. Goode, of the defunct firm of
Gibbins, Smith, and Goode. It was connected with the Northern and
Central Bank of England. The office was in Bull Street, in the
premises now held by Messrs. J. and B. Smith, Carpet Factors.
This bank was unsuccessful, and when it closed, Mr. Goode opened a
discounting office in the Upper Priory, which proved to be successful.
After a few years, Mr. Goode took as partner his son-in-law, Mr. Marr,
a Scotchman, who had been engaged in an Indian bank for many years.
The firm then became Goode, Marr, and Co., under which designation it
is still carried on. The present proprietor is the son of the Mr. Marr
just named, and is the gentleman upon whom a violent murderous attack
was made in his office a few years ago. Mr. Goode, the courteous
manager of the Birmingham and Midland Bank, is the son of the founder
of this firm.
It will be remembered that in 1825 the firm of Gibbins, Smith, and Co.
collapsed. As soon as their affairs were arranged, Mr. Gibbins and a
nephew of his, named Lovell, opened a bank in New Street, on the spot
where Mr. Whitehead now has his shop, at the corner of Bennetts Hill.
Here for some two or three years they appear to have done very well;
in fact the business became too large for their capabilities. Some of
the leading men of the town, with the return of prosperity, began to
see that there was ample room for greater banking facilities than
the then existing private banks could provide. Negotiations were
accordingly entered into for the purchase of this business, and
for its conversion into a joint stock bank. Terms were very soon
provisionally settled, and the prospectus of the Birmingham Banking
Company was issued. The capital was fixed at L500,000, in 10,000
shares of L50 each, of which L5 per share was to be immediately
called up. The list of directors contained, among others, the names
of Charles Shaw, William Chance, Frederic Ledsam, Joseph Gibbins,
and John Mabson. The shares were readily taken by the public, and on
September 1st, 1829, the company commenced operations on the premises
of Gibbins and Lovell. It was decided, however, to build a suitable
banking house, and in a very short time the building standing at the
corner of Waterloo Street was erected. Before removing to the new
bank, the directors made overtures to Mr. Paul Moon James, of the firm
of Galton and Co., which resulted in that bank being closed, and Mr.
James becoming manager of the Banking Company. With such directors,
and with so able and so popular a man for the manager, the progress of
the bank was very rapid, and it soon had the largest banking business
in the town. In a few years the reputation which Mr. James had
obtained as a successful banker induced the directors of a new bank at
Manchester to make him a very lucrative offer. Much to the regret of
his Birmingham directors, and indeed to the whole public of the town,
he accepted the offer, and shortly afterwards removed to Manchester.
He retained the position of manager there until his death. Mr. James
was something more than a mere man of business. He had a cultured
mind, and took a very active part in educational questions. This very
day, on looking over an old book, I found his name as the Birmingham
representative of a leading literary association of my younger days,
the "Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge"--a society which,
with Lord Brougham for chairman and Charles Knight for its most active
member, did much to create good, wholesome, cheap literature, and
published, among many other works, the "Penny Magazine" and the "Penny
Cyclopaedia."
After Mr. James left Birmingham, the directors of the Banking Company
appointed Mr. William Beaumont to be his successor. A Yorkshireman
by birth, he had resided for some time in Wolverhampton, filling a
responsible position in one of the banks there. Mr. Beaumont remained
manager of the Birmingham Banking Company until his death in 1863,
having filled the office for more than a quarter of a century. During
his life the bank had a very high reputation, and paid excellent
dividends. It had squally weather occasionally, of coarse, but it
weathered all storms. It was in great jeopardy in the great panic
of 1837. It held at that time, drawn by one of its customers upon a
Liverpool house, four bills for L20,000 each, and one for L10,000. It
held besides heavy draughts upon the same firm by other houses,
and the acceptors--failing remittances from America--were in great
straits. Mr. Charles Shaw, the chairman of this bank, saw the
Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Governor of the Bank of England,
and averted the impending calamity. But for timely aid, the Liverpool
firm must have stopped, to the ruin of half the country. The bank had
another sharp turn of it from 1842 to 1844, when bar iron fell from
L12 per ton to L6; but it overcame all its difficulties until the
retirement of Mr. Shaw and the death of Mr. Beaumont.
From this time forward there seems to have been great want of a strong
head and a steady eye amongst the directors. The plausibilities of Mr.
W.H. Beaumont--who had succeeded his father as manager--seem to have
put them off their guard, and they followed where he led until it
ended in ruin. It is useless now to say all one knows, or a quarter of
what has been said; but it has always been my opinion, and always will
be, that if Charles Shaw, or a man with half his courage and ability,
had been at the helm, the Bank would not have closed its doors. Had
they only sought counsel of their larger shareholders, there was
amongst them one man, still living, who not only could, but would,
have saved the bank from shipwreck.
Few men in Birmingham are likely to forget "Black Saturday," the 14th
of July, 1866. Had a French army suddenly opened a bombardment of
the town from Highgate, it would possibly not have caused greater
astonishment and dismay. That very week shares had been sold on the
Stock Exchange at a high premium; and now, by the culpable weakness
of a few unquestionably honest and well-intentioned gentlemen, the
hard-earned life's savings of aged and infirm men, the sole dependence
of scores of widows and hundreds of orphans, was utterly gone. No
wonder that pious, God-fearing men ground their teeth and muttered
curses, or that women, pale and trembling, tore their hair in wild
terror, while some poor sorrowing creatures sought refuge in suicide.
No wonder that even now, more than eleven years after, the memory of
that day still rises, like a hideous dream, in the minds of thousands.
I have been shown a copy of a lithographed daily newspaper, printed on
board the "Great Eastern" steamship, then engaged in laying the first
successful Atlantic cable. In the number for July 14th, is an account
of the stoppage of this bank, which had been telegraphed to the ship
in mid-ocean by means of the cable then being submerged.
Upon full investigation it was ascertained that the total liabilities
amounted to L1,805,469 10s. 5d. All the capital was lost. A call of
L10 per share was made upon the unfortunate shareholders, and the
debts were paid. Some time afterwards the new "limited" company which
had been formed upon the ruins of the defunct bank took over some
unrealised assets, and this resulted in a return of L1 per share,
leaving a clear total loss, taking the shares at the market price, of
L43 per share.
On Thursday, July 19th, a meeting of the shareholders was held in the
large room at the Exchange, nearly 500 being present. Mr. Edwin Yates,
the Mayor, presided, and in his opening remarks pointed out that the
resuscitation of the bank was impossible, for various reasons which
he mentioned. The discussion which followed was marked by great
moderation. There was little excitement, and not much expression of
angry feeling. Mr. William Holliday, in a very masterly speech of
great length, showed the difficulties in the way of reviving the
bank, and suggested that the only way of saving the property of the
shareholders, was by the establishment of a new bank on the ruins
of the old, the shareholders in which were to have priority in the
allotment of shares. This, having, been discussed by several speakers,
was eventually decided upon, and a committee was appointed to carry
the resolutions into effect.
The new bank, under the name of the "Birmingham Banking Company
Limited," was formed with all speed. Josiah Mason--then plain
Mister--was the first chairman, and Mr. T.F. Shaw manager. The shares
"came out" at a small premium, from which they gradually rose. From
that time it has gone on steadily and surely. It has secured a good
_clientele_, and is doing a large and profitable, business. It pays
good dividends, and its shares stand well in the market. Mr. Shaw
retired, from "continued ill health," in May, 1876. Mr. P.W. Walker
was appointed manager _pro tem._, and at the end of the year, Mr.
James Leigh, who had been manager of the Birmingham branch of the
Worcester Bank, took the helm. May the bank under his guidance have,
_fortitudine et prudentia_, a long career of prosperity and usefulness
before it!
I shall now have to go back again to the year 1836. At this time trade
was good and everything looked prosperous. Mr. Geach, who was still a
clerk in the Bank of England, conceived the idea of starting a fresh
bank, and having secured the adhesion of a few influential men, the
prospectus was issued of the Town and District Bank, capital L500,000,
in 25,000 shares of L20 each. The shares were taken up readily, and
the branch commenced business in Colmore Row, on the 1st of July,
1836. The directors were Messrs. George Bacchus (chairman), Edward
Armfield, George J. Green, George C. Lingham, John G. Reeves, Josiah
Richards, and Philip Williams.