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While the connection of
Cocks, Biddulph and Company with the Royal House, in addition to its links
with the times of the Stuarts and the Parliamentarians, also resulted in a
unique legacy of documents and records.Heywood's Bank had its origin in the
18th century, and in the story of the development of this old family bank in
the years that followed will be found much that is of real interest. - As in the case of many of the
other banks which became a part of Martins Bank Limited, it is clear that
with the passing of the years a great volume of interesting facts and
reminiscences has been lost, but we owe the preservation of much of the
material presented in these pages to those members of the Staff who have
cared for these tiny fragments of that larger story of England; men who
through their interest in the things of antiquity have made it their business
to preserve the records from which this brief account has been written.
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In the vaults of
this old bank are stored ledgers which go back to the time of the French
Revolution and Signature Books which were in use during the ensuing
Napoleonic wars. Here, too, are stored private diaries, the entries in
which throw an interesting light on the bank clerk of an earlier day. The
vaults themselves, together with the outside walls of the Bank are part of
the original building commenced in 1798; and in them the brick-built arches
of the Heywood wine cellar may still be seen. The banking house of Arthur Heywood, Sons
and Company had a much longer lease of life than any other similar firm in
Liverpool. It endured as a private bank from 1773 until 1883, the year of
its purchase by the Bank of Liverpool Limited. To trace the
history of the family further back than the Eighteenth Century is outside
the scope of this short account, but it is known that the Heywood family
were Nonconformist, and that the Rev. Oliver Heywood of Halifax and his
brother Nathaniel, Vicar of Ormskirk, were both ejected from their livings
by the Act of. Uniformity in 1662.
Nathaniel Heywood had two sons, Nathaniel and Richard. The latter emigrated
to Drogheda and commenced business there as a merchant. Having no children
of his own he invited his nephew Benjamin, son of Nathaniel, to live with
him as his adopted son. In course of time Benjamin succeeded to a thriving
business and married the daughter of General Arthur Graham of Armagh, a
niece of the Mayor of Drogheda at that time.
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He died at the early age of
38, leaving two sons, Arthur and Benjamin.
Arthur Heywood, who was later to become the founder of the Banking
house, came to Liverpool in 1731 and served an apprenticeship of five years
to John Hardman of Allerton Hall, Member of Parliament for the borough in
1754. He was followed ten years later by his brother Benjamin who, in 1741,
was apprenticed to James Crosby, Mayor of Liverpool in 1753. Arthur Heywood
afterwards lived in Lord Street, where he also had his business premises.
Later the two brothers had houses, built side by side in Hanover Street, Nos.
58 and 59. These houses were situated on the east side of the street, between
Seel Street and Gradwell Street. Immediately behind their property was a
tennis court.
Images © Barclays Ref
0030-1300-0003
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This is a copy of the signature of
Queen Victoria,
held by Heywoods Bank.
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Arthur Heywood had married
for the first time in 1739 at the age of 22. His wife was the daughter of
Samuel and Penelope Ogden, of Mossley Hill. Samuel Ogden's wife was the
daughter of John Pemberton, a burgess of Chester, who became a wealthy
Liverpool merchant. John Pemberton had another daughter who married Richard
Mimes of Wakefield, and, two years after the death of his first wife,
Arthur Heywood married a daughter of Richard Milnes. In 1751 Benjamin
Heywood married the sister of Arthur's first wife.
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The business of the two
brothers prospered. They became experienced in the African trade, engaged
to some extent in privateering and had their Letters of Marque. As
representative merchants they were elected to the Chamber of Commerce. It is clear that the change to
banking had been foreshadowed for some time prior to 1773, the actual year
in which the firm embarked on the business of banking. It appears obvious
that traders and private individuals had regarded the Heywoods as being
among the responsible merchants to whom surplus funds could be entrusted,
and this no doubt influenced them in their decision to become bankers.
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In their new venture they
had not long to wait for success, and in July of the following year they were
singled out of all the bankers in Liverpool by the Government to receive
the light gold then in circulation and to exchange for it gold of full
weight. From Hanover Street
the business was transferred to No. 7, Castle Street about 1776, and when
the bank was established there, Arthur's eldest son, Richard, took up his
residence on the bank's premises, as was customary in those days. Castle
Street was, at that time, a narrow street only 12 feet wide. Later the west
side was demolished and the street widened which necessitated the entire
rebuilding of the bank premises. In
1784 the firm opened a branch in Manchester under the management of
Richard Ogden.
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Key to the Heywoods family chest
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It was not a success, and
two years later, in 1786, Arthur Heywood himself took over the management
but after six months' Nathaniel, to live with him as his adopted son. In
course of time Benjamin succeeded to a thriving business and married the daughter
of General Arthur Graham of Armagh, a niece of the Mayor of Drogheda at
that time. He died at the early age of 38, leaving two sons, Arthur and
Benjamin.
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Heywoods Bank Castle Street, 1787 - Image © Messrs Henry Young and
Sons
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Arthur Heywood, who was later to become the founder of the
Banking house, came to Liverpool in 1731 and served an apprenticeship of
five years to John Hardman of Allerton Hall, Member of Parliament for the
borough in 1754. He was followed ten years later by his brother Benjamin
who, in 1741, was apprenticed to James Crosby, Mayor of Liverpool in 1753.
Arthur Heywood afterwards lived in Lord Street, where he also had his
business premises. Later the two brothers had houses built side by side in
Hanover Street, Nos. 58 and 59. These houses were situated on the east side
of the street, between Seel Street and Gradwell Street. Immediately behind
their property was a tennis court. Arthur
Heywood had married for the first time in 1739 at the age of 22. His wife was
the daughter of Samuel and Penelope Ogden, of Mossley Hill. Samuel Ogden's
wife was the daughter of John Pemberton, a burgess of Chester, who became a
wealthy Liverpool merchant. John Pemberton had another daughter who married
Richard Mimes of Wakefield, and, two years after the death of his first
wife, Arthur Heywood married a daughter of Richard Milnes. In 1751 Benjamin
Heywood married the sister of Arthur's first wife.
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Ledger of the True British or Good Intent Society 1793
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The business of the two brothers prospered. They became
experienced in the African trade, engaged to some extent in privateering
and had their Letters of Marque. As representative merchants they were
elected to the Chamber of Commerce.
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It is clear that the change to banking had been foreshadowed
for some time prior to 1773, the actual year in which the firm embarked on
the business of banking. It appears obvious that traders and private
individuals had regarded the Heywoods as being among the responsible
merchants to whom surplus funds could be entrusted, and this no doubt
influenced them in their decision to become bankers. In their new venture they had not
long to wait for success, and in July of the following year they were
singled out of all the bankers in Liverpool by the Government to receive
the light gold then in circulation and to exchange for it gold of full
weight. From Hanover Street
the business was transferred to No. 7, Castle Street about 1776, and when
the bank was established there, Arthur's eldest son, Richard, took up his
residence on the bank's premises, as was customary in those days.
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Ledger of the Commissioners for the issuing of Exchequer Bills 1793
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Castle Street was, at that time, a narrow street only 12 feet
wide. Later the west side was demolished and the street widened which
necessitated the entire rebuilding of the bank premises.In 1784 the firm
opened a branch in Manchester under the management of Richard Ogden. It
was not a success, and two years later, in 1786, Arthur Heywood himself
took over the management but after six months' experience closed the
branch.
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In 1788, however, Benjamin Heywood
left the firm of Arthur Heywood, Sons and Company and with his two sons
went to Manchester, where they established a successful banking business
which was eventually taken over by the Manchester and Salford Bank. Arthur
Heywood continued with his own sons until his death in 1795 at the age of
78, by which time an employee, Samuel Thompson, had become a partner.
Benjamin Heywood died in Manchester in the same year at the age of 72. The construction of the building
in Brunswick Street which is still associated with the name of the Heywood
family was commenced in 1798 and the removal took place in 1800. From that
time the interest of the family in the banking business developed. Richard
Heywood died in 1800, and, as he had no children, the care of the bank
devolved upon his younger brother, Arthur (ii). Hugh Jones, who married the
eldest daughter of the second son of the first Arthur Heywood, became a
partner in 1806. The fourth son of Arthur (i) was John Pemberton Heywood,
and two of his sons, Richard Heywood (u) and John Pemberton Heywood (n)
joined the banking firm. Richard Heywood (n), however, died in 1833 aged
31; and in 1835, Samuel Thompson died, being succeeded in the bank by his
son, Samuel Henry Thompson.
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This pistol is believed to have been carried by the first Arthur
Heywood.
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The following year, 1836, the third daughter of Hugh Jones
married Robertson Gladstone, brother of William Ewart Gladstone who became
the great Victorian Prime Minister. In course of time their son obtained a
partnership in the bank. In
the same year John Pemberton Heywood, a grandson of the first Arthur
Heywood, married a daughter of Hugh Jones, a marriage between close
relatives which consolidated the several interests in the bank. He resided
at the Bank House in Fenwick Street, but subsequently acquired a country
residence at Norris Green.
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As a politician his consistent Liberalism won from Mr.
Gladstone the offer of a peerage which, however, he declined. Arthur Heywood (n) died in the
autumn of 1836, aged 82. Richard
Heywood Jones, eldest son of Hugh Jones, appears to have received his
partnership shortly before his marriage in October, 1836. Samuel Henry Thompson lived with
his father in Abercromby Square until his marriage, when he removed to
Toxteth. In 1847, he bought Thingwall Hall, near Liverpool, with nearly 300
acres of park land. He died in 1892, aged 85. To one of his sons Liverpool
University is indebted for its medical laboratories and to the other the
city owes the Palm Houses in Sefton and Stanley Parks, both now, unhappily,
war casualties.
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1883, the business was sold to the Bank of Liverpool Limited. The retirement
of two partners and the untimely death of a third is understood to have
influenced Mr. Arthur Heywood, who had carried on the business since the
death of John Pemberton Heywood in 1877, in his decision to sell. The year 1835 was an outstanding
year in the history of the Bank, In that year the accounts of the Corporation
of Liverpool were transferred to it, and thereby hangs an interesting story,
recounted in Sir James Picton's “Memorials”. He says: “The banking account of
the Corporation up to this time had been "kept with the banking house of
Messrs. Leyland and Bullens. At a " meeting of the Finance Committee.,
held on June 19th, Alderman Leyland " announced that he would make no
further advances to the Corporation, the " account then standing to
their debit in the sum of Ł12,800. Some rather “high” words ensued.
Alderman Sandbach, Conservative though he might be, “was jealous for the honour of the
Corporation, and immediately signed a “cheque on his bankers, Messrs. Heywood
& Co., for the amount. The day “following the account of the Corporation
was transferred from Leyland and “Co. to Messrs. Heywood, where it has ever
since remained.”
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Perhaps the most interesting, and
probably the most valuable relic which the archives of the old bank have
yielded is a letter written by Lord Nelson to a Liverpool business friend.
It was written aboard the
“Victory,” off Lisbon, and is dated a few weeks before the Battle of
Trafalgar.
It was found amongst some old
papers which were being examined prior to destruction. It is interesting to
note that at the time of its discovery the sand was still on the writing,
but with frequent handling this has long since disappeared.
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This letter was written by Admiral Lord Nelson
to a Liverpool business
friend a
few weeks before the Battle of Trafalgar
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Today it is the exception to have a customer
who cannot write, but the signature books of the early years of the
nineteenth century contain the names of so many illiterate customers that
some method of identification had to be adopted. The method chosen was that
of a description of the customer in the space reserved for the signature.
Some of these descriptions, a few examples of which follow, are somewhat
trenchant:—
“Little pug-faced woman with a squeaky voice.”
“Rather short and remarkably plain. A little like
a monkey.”
“Rings on her fingers. About 12 hands
high.”
“Shows the whites of his eyes all round.”
“Sallow, and marked with smallpox.”
”Old man, red wig, wedding ring on right hand”.
“Young woman, rather
bold-looking. Dark hair and eyes.”
“Sharp-faced old woman. Punch's spirity woman.”
“Short round-made man. Small
rings in his ears.”
“Little woman, inmouthed—lost her teeth.”
“Short man. Whiskers all round his
face, one tooth out in front. Looks like a coal heaver”.
“Clean looking old lady with frill cap.”
But the most
revealing of all is surely this description :
“Thick-lipped old woman of 45.”
© 1949 Martins Bank Limited
Abridged 2013 by Martins Bank Archive
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The future
arrives early - at Heywoods…
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 When
Martins first takes the idea of computerised book keeping seriously, it
embarks on a road that leads to it becoming the UK’s first bank to
regularly process the day-to-day transactions of a branch by
computer. In fact a
number of branches take part, - in Liverpool: Heywoods and Castle Street,
and in London: 68 Lombard Street and 41a South Audley Street. Work is first processed in the
old-fashioned way, and then processed again using specially converted
adding machines (seen here at Heywoods machine room, on the right of the
picture) capable of printing out onto computer paper tape. The tapes are fed into the Pegasus
Computers, one at Liverpool Computer Centre, the other at South Audley
Street. The capability
to read and sort cheques automatically comes with the use of an IBM
Reader/Sorter machine, which is installed in Martins Bank’s Clearing
Department at Lombard Street.
Of the four cheques
shown here, the one personalised to “Peters Liverpool Estate” is a very
rare example of one of the earliest automated cheques from Heywoods, and
dates from March 1961. At this early stage, the only detail to be encoded
onto the cheque in magnetic ink is the customer’s account number. Within months however, the cheque
number, sorting code and amount will begin to be added to the experiment.
The first cheque is a Martins Bank classic design from the 1930s. We can then see can see the familiar Magnetic
Ink, or “MICR Line” beginning to arrive on the other three cheques…
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Images © Martins Bank Archive
Collections and Stephen Walker
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We are grateful to Anne
Hindle for this image (right) – one of a number kindly donated to the Archive
– from the estate of Ron Hindle, the visionary Martins man who brought to
the UK the system of cheque clearing that was only just beginning to be
wound down in the 2020s. In
close up, on a Friden Flexowriter machine, is a statement of account about
to be produced for a Heywoods customer. Three of these machines, receiving
their output from Pegasus, handle the work of the Liverpool computerised
branches, at the Liverpool Computer Centre. Again, this photo was taken in the very early
days of Martins Bank’s computerisation, when the records of around 30,000
current accounts were processed daily by the Pegasus Computer. You can read much more about these
developments, and about how the efforts of Ron Hindle gave the UK an
electronic clearing system that is still in place today, by browsing the
various features in our TECHNOLOGY section.
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Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections
– Ron Hindle Estate
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Still see the light?
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Remarkably – as late as 1978 – the colour image
of Barclays Liverpool Heywoods Branch below, reveals that the area still
relies for its street lighting on the same precarious overhead cabling with
suspended lighting units!
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Images © Barclays Ref 0030-1669
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