Humphry Morice (Governor of the Bank of England)

Humphry Morice (c.1671 – 16 November 1731) was a British merchant, MP and Governor of the Bank of England. He inherited his father's trading business around the age of eighteen, and learned finance and speculation from an uncle. Placed in Parliament through a cousin's interest in 1713, his Whig politics ultimately provoked a breach with his Tory cousin, and he had to be given another seat in 1722 by Robert Walpole's administration. He rose to be Deputy Governor and then Governor of the Bank of England in 1727, but unknown to his contemporaries, his fortune was largely fictitious and he was embezzling from the Bank and his daughters' trust fund. He died suddenly in 1731, perhaps having poisoned himself to forestall the discovery of his frauds, and left behind enormous debts.

Humphry was the only son of Humphry Morice (c. 1640-1696), a London merchant trading extensively in Africa, America, Holland and Russia, and his wife Alice, the daughter of Sir Thomas Trollope, 1st Baronet. Because of the early death of his mother, the young Humphry was raised at Werrington, the seat of his uncle Sir William Morice, 1st Baronet. He succeeded his father in his mercantile business in 1689. His father's will left him in the guardianship of his two uncles, John and Nicholas. The latter was a skilled financial speculator, who involved and trained Humphry in that business. On 26 June 1704, Humphry married Judith Sandes (d. 1720), the daughter of a London merchant, by whom he had three daughters who survived him; Elizabeth, later married her stepbrother Paggen Hale, while Judith married George Lee and Ann did not marry.

Morice's mercantile business was extensive: he was one of four creditors for £18,000 of another merchant gone bankrupt in 1707, and he owned over £4,000 of Bank of England stock in 1710, making him eligible to become a director of the institution. Morice did, in fact, become a director in 1716, and continued to hold that office, He was also involved with the launch of the South Sea Company, acting as a commissioner for subscriptions in 1711. Morice several times testified on trade subjects before Parliament: in 1707 on losses in the West Indies trade due to the lack of convoys, and in 1710 and 1713 in favor of dismantling the Royal African Company's monopoly on West African trade. In light of his activity and wealth, he not unnaturally wished to enter Parliament.

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