HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1975-06-26, Page 70— Smith's Bank in London, next
Martin Tuchermnith
Canada Cothpany director
named the township
to the Lord Mayor's residence.
a-
By Dr. A. W. Currie, Parkhill
The director of the Canada
Company, prominent banker, and
member of the British Parliament
whose name is perpetuated in the
township near SeafOrth was,
legally known by the above name
in England.Even so, in the
Debates of the Commons he was
referred to as Tucker Smith and in
the index to. the Debates as
M.T.Sraith.'
In Canada his middle and last
names were run together,
probably to avoid confusion with
Smithville in the Niagara
peninsula, Smithfield near
Belleville, and with Smith's
Creek, now Port Hope. In the
remainder of this article the
411 godfather of the township will be
called TuckerSraith. Nowadays
his relatives in Britain go under
hyphenated names (Abel-Smith,
Ridley-Smith and Smith-Dorrien;,
titles4Lord-Bicester -and Baron--
C.arrington), and the quite
different names which women
acquire on marriage.
Tuckersmith's first ancestor of
whom we have record was
Thomas Smith (1‘1-99) of
Nottingham in central England.
He was a mercer who gradually
developed a banking business.
Talmically a mercer is a dealer in
silks, velvets, and other fancy
cloth .But since Nottingham was
one of the firstplaces in the world
to spin and weave, wool and cotton
by means of power-driven
machinery, it is probably not
unfair to call Thomas Smith a
manufacturer or a wholesaler of
textiles...Lt :was only.. after his
death when his family had come
up in the world that he became
connected with what the Bible
calls purple and fine linen.
During Thomas Smith's
lifetime, as earlier, well-to-do
people often left silver and gold
coins, plate and other valuables
with a trustworthy merchant for
safe-keeping. Sometimes they
paid him for his work as
custodian, just as today we pay
rent for a safe deposit box. But
frequently the merchant would
use the coins in his own business
or put them up as Security for his
promissory or bank notes. Soon,
these part-time bankers were
paying interest to depositors in
order to increase the, amount of
coin and other wealth at their
command. Moreover, Thomas
Smith had to arrange to pay for
the raw cotton and wool he used
In his factories and he had to
collect the proceeds of the sale of
finished textiles in England or
abroad. Accordingly, the
"mercer" was inevitably drawn
into finance.
One of Thomas Smith's
grandsons became associated
with John Payne (1708-64), a
linen draper of London. By 1758
the firm of Smith and Payne had
starting banking in Nottingham
taking over from a Smith's Bond
already decades old. By 1780 or
thereabouts Tuckersmith's
ancestors .were carrying on
banking in'Nottingham, London,
Lincoln, and Hull. Each of these
banks had the word Smith in its
title but the rest of the names
varied. The banks cooperated in
day-to-day business but none was
ever a branch or subsidiary of
another. Each was legally a
separate institution 'and a family
enterprise, in reality a sort of
partnership. By contrast, present-
day commercial banks in Canada
are specially chartered limited
liability companies. Any member
of the public can become a'
shareholder or part -OWner in them
•
ABEl, SMITH horn 1717, died 1788.
by buying shares in the market.
Driving Force
The driving force behind the
expansion of Tuckersmith's
family - enterprise was his
grandfather, Abel Smith
(1717-88), a grandson of the
original Thomas Smith of
Nottingham. In 1773 Abel started
the firm of Smith, Payne and
Smiths in London. After renting
various premises, in 1806 this
bank purchased land and in 1834
erected a new building at 1..
Lombard Street. This is more or
less directly across a square
westerly of the Bank ofEngland
and just south of a narrow lane
separating it from Mansion.
House, the official residence of
the Lord Mayor of London.
In 1902 the family-owned,-
financially-sound, and well-
known firm of Smith, Payne &
Smiths was acquired by a large
chartered bank, later called the
National Westminster. The
acquisition was part of a policy of
consolidation which had been
going on in England for some
years. , Moreover, some
sqhabbling had lately developed
between the four banks which
included the word Smith in their
title.
The bank which absorbed
Smith, Payne and Smiths retained
the latter's building and the word
Smiths still st ands above the
doorway. Inside is a plaque in
memory of the twelve lineal
descendants of Thomas Smith
who were killed in action in World
War I and eleven in World War II.
The original board room is
preserved. It is dominated by a
large portrait of Abel Smith, and
around the walls are numerous
other mementoes. Included
among them are two cheques
which H.M.Stanley cashed in
Africa while on his search for
David Livingstone. The directors'
table is also preserved. It is
square with one seat on each side
so that, presumably, no one
director could be said to dominate
the Board by sitting at the head of
the table.
The words Lombard Street are
often used to describe the
financial world of LAtion and in
fact of England generally, just as
Wall Street stands for big
business interests in New York
and Bay Street for those in
Toronto. It should be a matter of
pride to residents of Tuckersmith •
to know that the family name of
their godfather appears so
prominently at No. 1, Lombard
Street.
As already mentioned, Abel
Smith was the poWer behind the
expansion of his family's bank.
The maiden name of his wife was
Mary Bird. Her sister was the
mother of William Wilberforce,
the liberator of slaves in the
British Empire.
Abel Smith was a Member of
Parliament and so was every one
of his five sons. One of his sons
went to the House of Lords as
explained later. In the days when
-the-number of qualified-Via ers in
any riding was negligible judged
by today's standards and when
people voted openly, it was not
too difficult for a man with money
and a good family background to
be elected to the British House.
Abel's, youngest son (end 'the
father of Tuckersmith) was John
(1767 - 1842). He was a member
for 33 years and was active in
banking. He was the husband of
Mary Tucker, the daughter of
a lieutenant-colonel. In its
obituary of John Smith, The
Times of London stated that he
had died "extremely wealthy,"
the bulk of his estate going to his
eldest son, John Abel Smith,
(1802-71)) M.P., of Belgrave
Square which was then, as now, a
rather exclusive residential area
in London.Even so, John Abel
was looked upon as a radical for
he advocated reform of the House
of Commons, the abolition of
pocket boroughs, and the removal
of legal disabilities against
Roman Catholics and Jews. One
of his sons becarne (Governor 'of
the Bank of England, and a
grandson was created Lord
Bicester whose descendants still
hold that title.
Tuckersmlth
John Abel's younger brother,
whom we have decided to call
Tuckersmith, was born in July
1803, either in London or at his
parent's country home at Dale
Park in Surrey, south of
metropolitan London. In 1831 he
married Louise, the third
daughter of Matthew White
Ridley, M.P. for Newcastle-on-
Tyne. In the same year he was
elected to Parliament for
Midhurst but retired in 1832,
probably as a result of the famous
Reform Bill of that year.
Meanwhile, Tuckersmith had
been elected a director of the
Canada Company which had been
set up in 1825 as a result of the
efforts of John Galt, a Scottish
novelist The crash of theLondon
money market in that year nearly
ruined the Company and It did not
really get underway until later in
the decade. In order to scrape
enough capital together, Galt
tried to attract men of wealth and
high reputation in the financial
world of London.This accounts for
Tuckersmith becoming a director
of the Canada Company while still
barely in his t wentles.
The company's first Board
contained a number of prominent
figures whose names, like that of
Tuckersmith, have been given to
townships in Huron, Perth,
Middlesex and Lambton counties,
the area originally called the
Huron Tract. John Fullarton,
Henry Usborne and Wins T.
The township had a considerable
stream offering great advantages
for mill-seats (now called mill-
sites) and for hydraulic purposes
(that is, for water-wheels). Land
was available' from" the Canada
Company at an average price of
ten shillings ($2.50) an acre, a
little more being charged for
exceptionally,good locations. The
minimum purchase was 200
acres. Payment could be spread
over five years without, as we
would say, interest or carrying
charges.
$15 Fare
Acdrding to the Report, the
adult fare across the Atlantic
to Quebec City was about three
pounds sterling or $15, children
half price, provisions not
eincluded. Immigrants had to
supply their own food for a
voyage that would take a month
or more, and cook it aboard a
rolling, pitching shipas best they
might. Other sources state that
the cost including food of
travelling up the St. Lawrence
River and westward across lake
Ontario would cost another three
pounds. For the last ,part of their
journey to the Huron Tract,
immigrants walked with whatever
supplies they had been able to
bring strapped to their backs. The
road, which the Canada Company
said had been built, was likely
little better than a winding trail
between stumps.
The Report of 1830 asserted
that comfortable accommodation
was available at the taverns in
York, now called Toronto. Board
and lodging for a grown-up
person cost about six shillings
($1.50) a week. Perhaps all these
prices were slightly on the low
side for the Company was anxious
to induce settlers into the Huron
Tract and sell its lands at a
profit. Emigrants were advised to
leave their homeland early in the
year in order to complete their log
cabins' before cold weather set in.
The Canada Company soon
discovered that both its price per
acre and its minimum-sized lot
weretoo high and so it reduced
both. Nevertheless, it remained
unpopular in Canada as the
care of Tiger Dunlop proved.
et it con 'nued to make money,
often eying substantial
dividends until about the end of
the cen ry. After 1900 its
earnings s eadily declined but by
this tune i had paid back almost
all the capital its shareholders
(Continued-on Page 31)
, JUNE 29, 9975 —29
Hibbert had been active in the
export' of Canadian timber
through the port of Quebec to
Britain. Hart Logan was a Scot
whose firm acted as agents for the
Canada Company in Montreal. Sir
Robert Wilmot-Horton went on to
become a leader in the affairs of
the East 'India Company. I have
been unable to discover the main
business of James McKillop but
Sir John Easthope was the
wealthy founder of a newspaper,
the London Chronicle, later called
the News-Chronicle, which folded
up barely a decade ago. His
son-in-law, Simon McGillivray
was a fur-trader with the North-
West Company of London and
Montreal. Robert Downie was
M.P. for a Scottish riding. The
other directors, Charles
Bosanquet, William Williams,
Robert Biddulph and John Hullett
were all bankers while .Th omas
Henry Blanshard owned 14 or 15
ships trading' with the East
Indies.
Officials
Stephen and Hay were officials
in the Colonial Office and may
have been of help to Galt when he
applied for a charter for the
Canada_ Company. Mr. Under-
Secretary Stephen, as he was
commonly called, was the
grandfather of the novelist,
Virginia Woolf.
The Report of the Court of
Directors of the Canada Company
to the Proprietors (shareholders)
dated June, 1830, and signed by
Tuckersmith and his associates
states that .a road had been
completed from Goderich through
Wilmot and Guelph to the head of
Lake Ontario (Burlington or
Hamilton) and Yorktoronto).
Goderich already had a tavern
and a sawmill. Its people were
planning a brewery, distillery,
brick kilns, a grist mill, and
harbour works. Its harbour could
accommodate vessels of 200 tons
burthen or carrying capacity. In
,this connection a ton means 40
cubic feet but the scheme of
measurement used by the British
Admiralty was so complex that to
state that the hold or cargo space
of such a vessel was 8000 cubic
feet is only a very rough
approximation of the truth.
The Report goes on to state that
the scenery on the River Maitland
had been described as more
English than any other in North
America. A large block in the
Township of Wilmot had already-
been surveyed. Schools, churches
and roads were being built there.
THE HURON EXP.OSOTO