This section of the website contains a selection
of images of primary sources relating to
the life of John Bankes, Citizen & Haberdasher of London (c1652-1719).
John Bankes was a man of considerable property, and was involved
in business transactions on several levels. He was a timber merchant,
and traded from two wharves - one at St Paul's Wharf, London and
the other at Nine Elms, on the south side of the river in Surrey.
He was involved in the import of material from Scandinavia.
He also engaged in many property transactions concerning housing
developments in London. In the late seventeenth century there was
much building taking place in and around the City of London, fuelled
by the reconstruction after the Great Fire of 1666 and the need
to provide housing and business premises for a rapidly expanding
population. At various times of his life Bankes owned leasehold
estates in the Westminster, Southwark, and Whitechapel areas, as
well as his timber yards and houses at Goodman's Fields, St Benet,
Paul's Wharf, and Nine Elms.
In order to carry out this business, Bankes needed to raise capital,
and least one source of funding was a solicitor named John Hales.
His business dealings with this man spanned many years, and involved
many thousands of pounds. Bankes regularly produced statements of
his receipts and expenditure, and his indebtedness to his creditors.
Some of these are preserved at the PRO, Kew. His statement for the
year 1709 shows lists of expenditure and liabilities
and assets and receipts . Comparison
with other documents shows that this was written in his own hand.
Some of the most fascinating material about Bankes that has survived
is the collection of everyday documents relating to his business
affairs. There are a number of property leases relating to building
developments in which he was involved. Many of them concern dealings
with a carpenter named Simon Betts, and among other people mentioned
in them were Nicholas Barbon. Barbon was the son of the MP who gave
his name to the Barebones Parliament in the 1650s, and was heavily
involved in property development in London in the late seventeenth
century.
Unfortunately, these Deeds are too large to be displayed meaningfully
on this site, but I have found a few smaller items that may be of
interest. To start, I hope you will be interested to see a handwritten
rental agreement dated 1717, which was made between Bankes and
a certain Peter Abell. The document was signed by both parties,
and witnessed by Nathan Crow, who other sources have confirmed was
in the service of Bankes in the later years of his life.
This document demonstrates an apparent informality to business dealings
of the time; the document does not appear to have been drawn up
by a solicitor, but presumably it was regarded as sufficient in
law to protect the interests of Bankes and Abell.
At the PRO, Kew, it is possible to see (indeed, to hold) a variety
of other documents that demonstrate the apparent informality of
such dealings. There are several bills and receipts, and I have
selected one of each of these. The bill shows
a charge by a Bricklayer for work done for Bankes in 1715 .
There are a quite few points worth noting here, among which are:
the sheer fascination of seeing such an everyday item from nearly
300 years ago; the insight we gain into the materials used in building
work at the time; the information we gain about the price of materials
in 1715.
The receipt is in similar vein. It records
money paid by Bankes to a bricklayer for work carried out on his
properties.
Like
all of us, John Bankes had to pay his taxes. Taxation records can
reveal information about an individual and his household. For instance,
we can learn whether his wife was alive at the time of the assessment,
whether he had any servants, or gauge the size of his house from
the number of hearths his house contained. We have traced a number
of taxation records relating to John Bankes, and transcriptions
of them can be seen by clicking here.
For anybody who wants to learn more about The National Archives'
holdings of tax records, click
here.
As Bankes's life drew to its close he had the task of divising his
Will. In this document he left his estates to members of his family,
and the next source is of particular interest in this regard. It
is a handwritten sheet, in Bankes's writing,
on which he stated his wishes as regards the disposal of his leasehold
estate at St George Yard, Whitechapel. The disposal of these
estates as outlined in this source is perecisely as stated in Bankes's
Will. Maybe this was his draft, from which his solicitor drew up
his Will.
The last source displayed here is an image
of the final page of the Will of John Bankes. This document
is twelve pages long, and it is not practical to display it in its
entirety. However, for those who are interested, a
transcription of the Will is also available for viewing.
Please note the above transcriptions have been made as accurately
as possible, but are likely to contain errors. Neither the transcriber
or the creator of this website accept any responsibility for any
possible consequences of such errors.
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