Finsbury Bank for Savings
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History of the building

Chapter 2 of 121816–1839

A shilling at a time

The Finsbury Bank for Savings was founded in 1816 and belonged to the first generation of English savings banks. Parliament first legislated for such banks on 12 July 1817. The Act laid down what the historian H. Oliver Horne called “the two most fundamental principles”: honorary management, and the investment of the depositors’ money with the State.

Where the bank first met is uncertain. A Middlesex Sessions record of 1825–28 has it in St James’s Walk, “moving to St John’s Square”. The Survey of London says that “by the 1820s” it “was based in St John’s Square”, where in 1826 the feather-bed maker William Clare let part of No. 47 to the bank. In 1828 the parish historian Thomas Cromwell placed it “at the south-east extremity of Jerusalem Passage”.

“for the purpose of affording a secure investment by tradesmen, mechanics, labourers, servants, and others, of such small sums of money as they may from time to time find it convenient to deposit …”

Thomas Cromwell, History and Description of the Parish of Clerkenwell, 1828, on the bank’s purpose

Cromwell also printed its rules. The bank took “Deposits of not less than one shilling”. A balance of twelve shillings and sixpence earned four per cent, and no one could pay in more than £30 a year or £200 in all. Six trustees, sixteen directors, a treasurer and a committee of twenty ran it, none of them for pay. One or more directors sat on Monday evenings from seven to nine to take deposits, and on Wednesday evenings to pay money out. By 1830 the bank held £71,803 18s. 3½d. in 3,100 accounts.

William Nathaniel Wortley, the bank’s actuary from 1839 to 1875, ran it for most of the Victorian period.

Notes

  1. Cromwell (1828), p. 152 (“established in the year 1816”); J. Tidd Pratt, The History of Savings Banks in England, Wales, and Ireland (Rivington, 1830), p. 124 (“FINSBURY. ESTABLISHED in 1816”); J. Tidd Pratt, A Summary of the Savings Banks (HMSO, 1846), p. 97 (“Established 1816”); Historic England list entry 1209479 (“INSTITUTED A.D.1816”). According to Lloyds Banking Group Archives, which hold a depositors’ ledger for 1816–1820, the bank opened on 5 August 1816; no other source gives the day (Archives Hub, GB 386 TC/45, Wayback capture 20221004060705 of https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb386-tc/45; Lloyds TSB Group Archives catalogue TD, TD/443/a/1, TNA Discovery download GB 0386 TD_1, PDF p. 227).
  2. 57 Geo. III c. 130; H. Oliver Horne, A History of Savings Banks (Oxford University Press, 1947), pp. 77–78 (https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.189991); Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th edn, vol. XIX (1859), p. 657. The Act also required every bank to lodge its rules with the Clerk of the Peace.
  3. The London Archives, MR/S/BS/04/1-3, dated 1825–28, catalogued as “Finsbury Bank for Savings, St James’s Walk, moving to St John’s Square, Clerkenwell”, in the series MR/S/BS “Savings banks”, 1816–1843 (TNA Discovery, https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/1c1f3e78-fda8-49cb-8a9b-768ebe33b39c); the catalogue does not describe the contents. In 1826 William Clare, a feather-bed maker, bought No. 47 St John’s Square and let part of the house to the bank: Survey of London vol. 46, p. 138, para [p116] and fn. 138 (MDR 1826/11/3; 1843/6/83), https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol46/pp115-141. A Sun Fire policy of December 1826 lists a “Savings Bank 19 St John Square” (The London Archives, MS 11936/508/1053670); the different house number is unexplained. The Lloyds description says that the bank opened in St John’s Square; the St James’s Walk record makes that doubtful.
  4. Survey of London vol. 46, p. 82, para [p78] (“by the 1820s was based in St John’s Square”); p. 138, para [p116] and fn. 138 (William Clare, feather-bed maker, bought No. 47 St John’s Square in 1826 and let part of the house to the bank), https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol46/pp115-141.
  5. Cromwell (1828), p. 152 (page image https://archive.org/download/b29309013/page/n185_w1200.jpg): “established in the year 1816, and enrolled agreeably to the several Acts of Parliament”.
  6. Cromwell (1828), p. 152. The sentence continues: “to be returned, in whole or in part, when called for; and to accumulate in the mean time in the nature of compound interest”. Cromwell says the bank was formed, “like the rest of its kind”, for this purpose.
  7. Cromwell (1828), pp. 153–154 (rules 1, 2 and 5). The four per cent rate is Cromwell’s alone.
  8. Cromwell (1828), pp. 153–154 (page images n186–n187): “entrusted to six trustees, sixteen directors, a treasurer, and a committee of twenty”, “assisted by an actuary, and other necessary officers”. The hours are confirmed by Tidd Pratt (1830), p. 124. The figures apply to 1828 only.
  9. Tidd Pratt (1830), p. 124 (page image https://archive.org/download/historysavingsb01pratgoog/page/n154_w1200.jpg), with interest at £3 6s.
  10. In 1858 Wortley told a Select Committee that he had been connected with the bank for thirty-three years: Report from the Select Committee on Savings Banks (1857–58), Minutes of Evidence, 22 March 1858, p. 106, Q.1531–1534 (Google Books xORbAAAAQAAJ); Lloyds TSB Group Archives catalogue TC, TC/45/b/2, “Copy of black and white photograph of William Nathaniel Wortley, actuary (1839-1875)” (TNA Discovery download GB 0386 TC_1, PDF p. 83).