Quaker / East Anglia interest

1858 entire. SG40. LONDON to BUNGAY. Quaker interest. FASCINATING contents 👀

Sent London to BUNGAY in Suffolk. To Harvey & Hudson Crown Bank. This was a banking house founded in Norwich in the 1790s by a couple of prominent Quaker families. The original Robert Harvey was known as ‘the father of the city’ due to his philanthropy. The Harvey share was eventually inherited by a later Sir Robert Harvey, who managed to bankrupt the bank by betting on France in the Franco- Prussian war and speculating a fortune on the stock market in French ventures. As a result he shot himself. The bank was rescued by another east Anglian Quaker bank Gurneys, the biggest bank outside London. They were later involved in the merger that formed Barclays.

The contents are intriguing: a transcript of ledger entries from the 1570s showing payments and ‘taskes’ to various individuals and businesses in Beccles, Harleston and elsewhere. I can’t make all of them out but one is a payment to a proctor for storing a corpse prior to burial!