Ethical Banking

Samuel Shore Junior died in Meersbrook House on November 16 1828 at the age of  90. His life started just before Samuel Blythe’s life ended. His father had been a pupil of Samuel Blythes and together with families such as the Roebucks had helped found the Upper Chapel. Samuel Junior was a friend of Priestley who with Samuel Blythe Junior helped found the Unitarian Church in Birmingham. The Shores like the Blythes had a long history of non-conformity and radical politics.

With radical thinking also came initiatives such as banking. The most famous Bank started with these ideals was Barclays ironically. Started by Quakers. And the TSB started by a Church of Scotland Minister. Likewise the early banks in Sheffield were set up by Quakers and Unitarians. There was a strong sense of ethical banking driven by deep religious beliefs. Banking was there to encourage thrift in the labouring classes and help advance the small manufacturer or trader. They were not essentially  profit led organisations but seen more as a public service. This idealism was both the early banks strength and their downfall.

In Sheffield and the outlying areas trade frequently fluctuated. The commissioners for poor relief found generally that admission to a workhouse when a cutler was hard pressed was not the most appropriate response as it would actually prevent him getting work.  So many workers received assistance in their own home. Banking money in the good times to see them over the hard times was therefore a habit that especially needed encouragement in Sheffield.

Some time before 1778 T & J Broadbent founded a bank at Hartshead. The Broadbents were Quakers and steel manufacturers.   Around 1770  Benjamin Roebuck of Meersbrook also founded a bank from his old home in Sheffield. His house in Meersbrook having been improved by William Fairbanks.   Benjamin had bought the Meersbrook estate and most probably Bishops House from the Blythes around 1759. Benjamin was one of 5 brothers. He had with his elder brother John and another brother started the Carron iron works in Ayrshire, and backed James Watt in his work on steam engines. John Roebuck was a remarkable chemist and is often called the father of Industrial chemistry. The Roebucks were young vital and at the heart of industrial innovation but for some perhaps just a bit too cocky. When Benjamin lost his bid for  Town Trustee to Joseph Broadbent, the Rev William Guest commented.

I think all who joined him deserve commendation, not only by choosing a much fitter man than was offered, but also by that means clipping the wings of aspiring pride and pragmaticalness. I protest those young Roebucks have the ambition of a Csar or a Pompey.”

In 1778 the Roebucks bank collapsed and by many would be seen as an example of young reckless investments. However the Broadbents bank was to follow soon after. Also the Sheffield Old bank founded by Hannah Hazlehurst and Sons had but a brief life before collapsing.  In 1774 John Shore founded Shores Bank in partnership with William Shore of Tapton Hall at Irish Cross.

Samuel Shore formerly in partnership with the Roebucks and Parkers established a new partnership of  Parker and Shore. Samuel Shore was seen as a man of probity and integrity. The Shore estates were extensive and expanding. At the collapse of Roebucks banking aspirations Samuel Shore stepped in and bought Benjamins lands and moved into Meersbook House. He brought in William Fairbanks (the son of the previous Fairbanks) to build an extension similar to the one he had built at another Shore estate in Tapton. By many the failure of other banks was down to recklessness and inexperience. The Shore and Parker family were seen as a safe pair of hands.

In 1797 the master cutler and other prominent citizens had bolstered the bank by expressing their confidence in the Shores and the rival Walkers bank. In 1802 a run on the Shores bank was halted, and yet again in 1825 and 1826 once again the prominent citizens had to stave off a crisis.  But they were only staving off the inevitable. Letters in the archives give a flavour of the personal crisis which was now in the hands of Offley Shore after Samuel’s death. Letters to the Nightingales and others to help bolster the bank and a letter saying that if the Old man didn’t see sense he would lose his friends.

What sense he was to see I don’t know. Perhaps to file for bankruptcy or just to close the bank to new investors.

SHEFFIELD- A very copious account of the causes of which have led to the stoppage of the Sheffield Old Bank, known as the firm of Messrs. Parker  Shore and Co., appears in the Sheffield Independent of Saturday, which fully confirms its original statement in noticing their suspension of payments, namely, that their stoppage was caused by the decay of the trade of  the town. When the era of  bad trade commenced, many of their customers were in debt, and they took securities, which, a few years ago, would have been considered ample, but which now, for want of trade, have sunk so low that they will not fetch half their original value. It is stated that Sheffield decays for the want of  American markets, from which her manufacturers are excluded, because the corn- law forbids an entry, and monopoly is declared to be at the root of all the mischief. Our contemporary adds, that their prospects for the year, gloomy as they were before are fearfully darkened; and that increased misery, overwhelming poor-rates, bankruptcies and insolvencies without number may be expected. The favourable circumstances in the week is, that the other banks of the town have escaped a run. They are stated to have been well prepared to have outstood the panic. The liabilities of Messrs. Parker, Shore, and Co., are stated at about £600,000., and the apparent assets at £725,000.,  but the latter sum does not include bad debts.

Lloyds Weekly London Newspaper Sunday January 29^th 1843

Within the city and beyond there was a great deal of sympathy for the Shores who were seen as honest hardworking people who were fighting against impossible odds. Rallies were held with Montgomery the poet, and  newspaper editor  spoke highly of the Shores and attributed it directly to the corn laws. Which for the most part was true though the decline had started at the end of the Napoleonic wars when demand dropped. The embargo on trade with the Americans did the rest as Sheffield’s principle market was America and Europe’s economies were far from stable in the aftermath or war and civil unrest.

Locally the aftermath of Shore/Parker bankruptcy changed the face of Norton and Heeley forever

Sheffield and Rotherham Independent reported blow by blow the demise of the Estates

The Norton Hall Estates

Fifth Day’s Sale

The sale of the extensive estates of Offley’s Shore Esq.,  was continued by Mr. Nicholson, on Saturday, at the Council Hall. The attendance was not so numerous as on some of the preceding days, but the competition for the various lots was of a more animated character. Mr. Nicholson opened this days sale by offering the whole of the estate situate in Yorkshire, and containing 124 acres , in one lot, but there being no bidder, the estate was the offered in the following 17 lots :-

Lot 1.-About 270 yards of land, near the Heeley toll bar, occupied as a garden. The biddings for this small lot commenced at £10, and lay between Mr. W. Boot  and Mr. Siddall, until they reached £20. Mr. John Smith then competed against Mr. Boot, and by alternate biddings between them, the price was increased to £45, (or after the rate of £800 per acre,)  at which Mr. Boot became the purchaser.

Lot 2.-  Six houses and butcher’s shop, and 19 1/2 acres of land, at Heeley, with timber valued at £350. Mr. Charles Milner, (Fargate,) opened the bidding at £800. The competition, principally between Mr. Milner and Mr. Shortridge, continued until the latter gentleman was the highest bidder at £1,850. This Lot was then withdrawn, the sum offered not being equal to the reserve.

Lot 3.- Land containing 11a. 1r. 30p., at Upper Heeley, occupied by Mr. James Shipman. The highest bid was by Mr. C. Milner, £500.-Withdrawn.

Lot 4.-Cat Lane wood, at Upper Heeley, occupied by Mr. Joseph Shipman, containing 2 roods 25 perches, was bought by Mr. Boot, for £43.

And so it went on. Heeley and Norton broken up into small lots. Many did not sell immediately due to the receivers reserve on the land.

The total amount of the sale of the Shore’s estates at Broadfield and at Norton was between £50,000 and £60,000, and the offers  for lots not sold, the biddings not reaching the reserve by the Master in Chancery, was about £50,000. These offers do not include the several lots for which no offer was made, amongst which class were Norton Hall, which the park, &c., and 330 acres of land surrounding it, which formed lot one of the first day’s sales , and several other important lots. We understand that since the sale, the auctioneer has received offers for several of the lots withdrawn that exced   the amount of the reserve, and when the consent of the Master in Chancery shall have been obtained, they will be sold to the parties.      

 

Meersbrook Estate was not sold. The Misses Shores lived out their days peacefully. Bishops House and its lands seems to have been bought by them to keep it with the estate. Eventually Meersbrook was eroded away by land being sold to the developers. Plans were put forward for a housing development which would have left Meersbrook House with only a small garden and Bishops House was to be knocked down to built an access road to the new houses. Public pressure was put on the Sheffield Corporation to buy the land and create a public park. More land was sold round the edges but Sheffield Corporation bought the central core of the Estate, with Meersbrook House to become the new Ruskin Museum and also Bishops House which became the residence of Parks employees. The estates of Norton were fast disappearing. Norton Hall and estates became Graves Park. The Oaks estate, home of the Bagshawes lasted longer but is now used by a Christian Charity. The independent scythemaker/farmer disappeared as economic pressure resulted in larger manufacturing units where the skilled guild member was not required. So the Norton full of small smithies and dairy farms became no more. Only at Bolehill next to Graves Park can you get a clue of the metal working community, and nearby Cowmouth farm a glimpse of the dairy industry now gone.