David Barclay of Youngsbury

David Barclay
David Barclay, engraving by Richard Earlom.
Born	1729 (1729)
Died	1809 (1810) (aged 80)
Occupation	Businessperson, merchant, banker

David Barclay (1729–1809) was an English Quaker merchant and banker. He is also known as a philanthropist and abolitionist. His legacy was as one of the founders of the present-day Barclays Bank, a century ahead of its formation under that name, and in the brewing industry.

He was the son of David Barclay (1682–1769) ("David Barclay of Cheapside"), second son of Robert Barclay, and Priscilla Freame, daughter of the banker John Freame.

Barclay bought the manor of Youngsbury in Hertfordshire in 1769, and enlarged the house there. A plan by Capability Brown for Barclay in 1770 introduced a serpentine lake. He sold it in 1793 to William Cunliffe Shawe, and it passed in 1796 to Daniel Giles. He got to know John Scott of Amwell, Amwell, Hertfordshire being a few miles away, the other side of Ware; Scott was a fellow Quaker whom Barclay met on turnpike committees as well as at Friends' meetings. After Barclay had got to know Samuel Johnson through the Thrale brewery deal in 1781—Johnson being involved as an executor—Barclay approached him in 1784 to write the biography of Scott, who differed from Johnson in terms of politics, and in other matters. They met, and Johnson made light of the disagreements; but he died the following year, leaving Barclay money in his will. Barclay turned to John Hoole to write the biography.

In later life Barclay lived at Walthamstow.

The origins of the Freame Bank, in which Barclay and his brother John inherited shares through their mother, go back at least to the first quarter of the 18th century. The name of the bank changed frequently, but it was generally known as Barclay, Bevan & Co., from the middle of the 1770s. Bevan was Silvanus Bevan III, son of Timothy Bevan and nephew of Silvanus Bevan II the apothecary; his mother was Elizabeth, Barclay's half-sister.