The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-02-13 00:00:00

TEMPLE BAR AND CHILD'S BANK.

On Monday evening, Mr. F. G. Hilton Price,
F.G.S., read, at a meeting of the London and
Middlesex Archwological Society, a paper on the
history of Temple Bar and of the banking-house of
Messrs. Child. As an instance of the proberb that "it
is an ill wind that blows no one somegood," Mr. Price
stated that the threatened downfall of Temple Bar
last summer led to searches being made among the
archives of Messrs. Child, who for years have been
tenants of the double chamber over the Bar, where
they have stowed away their ledgers and journals for
two centuries. On their removal into the howe these
archives were carefully searched, and materials were
found towards a tolerably complete history of Messrs.
Child, whose house is " universally acknowledged to
be the first banking house in succession to the gold-
smith's trade out of which it sprung." It is generally
said, but the fact rests only on tradition, that Oliver
Cromwell kept here his cash accounts, but it is certain
that Nell Gwynne did so, and the ledgers of the firm
show the account of her executors, and also those of
King William 111. and of Queen Mary, his consort.
The original sign of the house was the " Marygold,"
which may still be seen in the watermark of all the
cheques drawn on Child and Co. The original sign,
too, though no longer set up outside in the street, is
preserved in the "shop," as it is still called. It is of
oak, the ground stained green, with a gilt border, a
marygold, and a sun; and below is the motto, Ainst
mom dme. Many of the customers of the bank towards
the end of the 17th century used to address their letters
to "Mr. Alderman Child and Partner, Goldsmiths, at
the Marygold,next door to Temple Barr" ; and cheques
with the same address are extant, dated as early
as 1694. Again, in 1732, when the second Sir Francis
Child was Lord Mayor, the Earl of Oxford addressed
his cheques and orders on the firm to "The Worshipful
the Lord Mayor and Company at Temple Bar." The
sign of the Marygold, added Mr. Prise, appears to have
atisen out of a tavern or public ordinary, which is
known to have existed on the site as early as the
reign of James 1., and in 1619 its keeper, one
Crompton, was " presented " by his neighbours on
account of the disorderly character of his tavern.
It was in 1681 that Francis Child took a lease
of the premises from St. Dunstan's parish, agree-
ing to lay out £BOO in building; and it appears
that in course of time both the "Sugar Loaf and
Green Lettice," and also the "Devil Tavern," with
which Ben Jonson's name is associated, were absorbed
into the banking house, and the adjoining houses in
Child's-place. The kitchen in the rear of the present
bank, and the commodious cellars below it, in Mr.
Price's opinion, belonged not to the "Devil," but to
the "Sugar Loaf and Lettice." The Devil's Tavern
was pulled down in 1787, and no doubt originally it
had for its sign "St. Dunstan pulling the Devil by
the Nose." The original rules of the " Apollo "
Club, which met here, are still in the possession of
Messrs. Child. Mr. Price next proceeded to illus-
trate the family connexions of the bank, including
the Blanchards, Wheelers, Childs, Rogers, Jackfsons,
Tyringhams, Backwells, &c., but these details would
scarcely interest the public.. He noted as worthy
of remark, and as sho.wmg how the banker
grew out of the goldsmith, the fact that the
front office at Messrs. Child's is still called the
"shop," and the back office, where the ledgers are now
kept, the "counting-house." He next noticed Nell
Gwynne's account, and the fact of her dying in 1687
with her banking account overdrawn—a debt which
her executors agreed to pay off with the very moderate
interest of 5 per cent. One of her executors was
Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester. Then he connected
the bank with Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, by the
following anecdote:—" It is recorded that in the year
1689 the stability of Child's Bank became precarious

in consequence of a rumour being prevalent that a 'run'
was about to be made upon it. This coming to the
knowledge of the Duchess, then lady Churchill, she set
to work and collected among her friends as much gold
as she was able, which she brought down to the bank
in her coach on the very morning of the intended
run, and so enabled the firm to meet all demands upon
them." He also traced the use of pass-books as far
back as the reign of Queen Anne; previous to which
"a customer was wont to call occasionally at the
bank, and check his account in the ledger in the pre-
sence of one of the partners. The
,customer having
agreed that his account was correct, wbuld sign his
name on the folio of the ledger, adding, ' I allow this
account;' and very frequently the partners signed it
as well." The first pass-book appears to have been
•-:ued to a Lady Carteret, in compliance with a
request conveyed in a letter; so that possibly we
may owe to a lady this improvement on such primi-
tive banking as that above described. In those
early days of banking, added Mr. Price, Lon-
don bankers issued their own notes; there have
hitherto been stored away above Temple Bar
whole files of such bank-notes of Messrs. Child, all of
which bear the Bar itself, and not the Marygold, as a
vignette. Mr. F. Child, it appears, in 1729, devised
a new form of promissory notes, with a picture of
Temple liar in the left hand corner; but they were
discontinued before the end of the last century.
Among the best known and most illustrious person-
ages who have kept their banking account at
Child's during the post two centuries are the
names, besides those already mentioned, of Sir
Robert Vyner Samuel Pepys, Thomas Wood, of
Littleton, the Earl of Castlemain, Lady Anne
Palmer, Lord Leigh, Lord Grandison, Sir John Mor-
dant, Roland Winn, Sir Alan Brodrick, Sir Walter
Vane, the Earl of Carlisle, the Dukes of Devonshire,
Bedford, and Bridgewater, Sir Thomas Osborne, after-
wards Duke of Leeds, Sir Charles Duncombe, Sir
Thomas Skipwith, the Duke of Bolton, the Palmers
of Dorney, Bishop Stillingfleet, Horace Walpole, the
poet Dryden, John Duke of Marlborough, Lord
Keeper North, Prince George of Denmark, and the
Earleiof Dorset and Middlesex. It is generally thought
that Charles 11., his Queen. and the Queen Mother
(Henrietta Maria), the Duke of York, Prince
Rupert, &c., kept their cash accounts with Messrs.
Child; but this, as Mr. Price showed, was a mis-
take, for they really banked with a Mr. Alder-
man Backwell, whose bank and its books and
many of their customers passed to Messrs. Child.
It may be added that Messrs. Backwell's ledgers
and other books are still to be seen at Temple
Bar. The walls of the room in which the meeting was
held were decorated with some water-colour sketches
and rare prints of Temple Bar, the " Devil " Tavern,
St. Clement's Danes Church, &c., lent by Mr. J. E.
Gardner- and Mr. Waller, of Fleet-street, exhibited a
curious document on vellum, being an inventory of
New Year's gifts to and from Queen Elizabeth and her
courtiers at Hampton Court in the first year of her
reign, authenticated by her own Royal sign manual.—
The Times. 1-4 ./J1