Smith's Bank

Smith's Bank was a series of English banking partnerships in London and the provinces, all controlled by the Smith family that operated between 1658 and 1918. Although Smith's Bank was never a single entity, the first bank was established in Nottingham by Thomas Smith; often dated to 1658, it is believed to be the first bank to be formed outside London.

Smith's grandson, Abel Smith II, substantially increased the scale of the enterprise, opening banks in Lincoln and Hull and, most importantly, the London firm of Smith & Payne. Other banks were later opened or acquired in the east midlands area.

The bank lost its direction in the late nineteenth century and its solution was to merge with the Union Bank of London in 1902, forming the Union of London & Smith's Bank. This in turn was acquired by the National Provincial Bank in 1918.

Thomas Smith (1631–99), was a mercer, and local alderman; as with many merchants his trade led to the safe keeping of funds and hence to banking. Premises that he used for his merchant and banking business were purchased in 1658, the year used to indicate the approximate formation of the bank. However, there is no actual record of when he started banking and it was probably earlier in the decade. Regardless of the actual date, Thomas was clearly a banking pioneer: Richards stated that Thomas Smith “appears to have been the only English provincial banker in the seventeenth century”. while Hilton Price, writing in 1890, stated that “The Nottingham Bank is the oldest existing county bank in England”. Funds came both from the original mercer trade and the collection of excise funds – Thomas had been appointed a sub-commissioner of excise in 1674. "In developing his banking business on the twin foundations of mercery and revenue remittance, he was anticipating by the better part of a century the technique employed by the founders of a number of the more successful eighteenth-century country banks."

On the death of Thomas senior in 1699, Thomas Smith II (1682–1727) succeeded to the business and it was only then that the bank was separated from the original mercer trade. Young Thomas extended the influence of the bank and one of its strengths was that "for want of banking accommodation elsewhere many firms from as far away as Leeds or Manchester came to Nottingham for banking business." As the bank grew, Thomas acquired land and status including the office of High Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1717. His memorial in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham, mentions his "exact integrity and skill in his extensive Business, by which he acquired an extensive Fortune".

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