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Bank of Liverpool


The Bank of Liverpool was a financial institution founded in 1831 in Liverpool, England.

In 1918, it acquired Martins Bank, and the name of the merged bank became the Bank of Liverpool and Martins Ltd. The name was shortened to Martins Bank Ltd in 1928.

The successor bank was bought by Barclays Bank Ltd in 1969, when all of its 700 branches became branches of Barclays.

By the time that the Bank of Liverpool was formed, there were already seven private banks in the city, the most prominent of which, Arthur Heywood, had been in existence since 1773. However, in 1826 a new Act of Parliament limited the Bank of England's monopoly of joint stock banking to within 65 miles of London and allowed the creation of new joint stock banks in the provinces. The first of the new joint stock banks to open an office in Liverpool (in 1829) was the Manchester and Liverpool District Bank, regarded as a "needless humiliation" by the local merchants. Encouraged by William Brown, the Bank of Liverpool was formed in 1831 and was the first joint stock bank to have its head office in Liverpool.

The early shareholders included many prominent Liverpool names including Bibby, Booth, Hornby and Rathbone. William Brown was the first chairman and Joseph Langton the general manager. After opening in temporary premises in Brunswick Street, the Bank purchased the Talbot Inn in Water Street and moved into the converted building in 1832; the Bank stayed in Water Street for the remainder of its independent existence. William Brown's own American firm, William and James Brown, hit temporary financing difficulties in 1837 and the Bank and Arthur Heywood together provided guarantees and were instrumental in obtaining Bank of England support for Brown.

Much of the Bank's business was connected to Liverpool's trade with North America, particularly cotton, and as early as 1837 it was opening accounts with North American banks. Chandler stressed the prudent policy of the directors and it did enable the Bank to weather the frequent financial crises. In particular it remained profitable in 1847 when the similar-sounding Royal Bank of Liverpool failed, also during the American Civil War which disrupted the cotton trade, and the collapse in 1866 of Overend, Gurney and Company. It was the Bank's prudential approach which made it reluctant to assume the protection of limited liability as "unlimited liability encouraged the directors to exercise every care." Eventually, in 1882, the Bank became a limited company.


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