HANKEY

Packet of six items, held together with a pin. Totalling 8pp., folio; 3pp., 8vo. In good overall condition, on aged and worn paper. ONE: Autograph Letter Signed from 'Wm: R: Myers | Secy' to Messrs Thomson Hankey & Co, London. Executive Committee Office; 26 December 1855. 2pp., folio. Giving details of five documents which he is forwarding, 'on the Chairs received from Messrs. Druce & Co'. He writes that he is 'directed to communicate through you, that the Chairs are not accepted and will not be paid for, but will be kept on the account and risk of Messrs.

63pp., foolscap 8vo. Stitched. In ruled 31.5 x 20 cm notebook with original marbled card wraps. Begun from both ends, with 40pp starting at one end and 23pp at the other. Internally in fair condition, on aged and worn paper; in damaged wraps with loss at foot of one cover, and to a printed item laid down inside it. The volume contains sixteen pages of double-entry family accounts, dated from 30 June 1864 to 31 September 1890. These begin with details of 'Cash at Bankers', 'Cash [at Alexanders]', 'Investments', 'Ships', 'West India Accounts', and later feature 'Merchandize' and loans.

The Countess of Clarendon had inherited the Mesopotamia Estate from her previous husband John Foster Barham (1799-1838), who had died a certified lunatic year before her marriage to the Earl. The Estate had been in the hands of the Barham family for more than a century. The four items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. All four with notes by the recipients. ONE: Letter signed by George J. Nicholson of the London soliticitors Vizard & Leman, in secretarial hand, to Messrs Thomson Hankey & Co. Lincolns Inn Fields; 7 July 1845 ('Mesopotamia Estate'). 1p., 4to.

The present item presents a double significance as a result of the circumstances in which it was composed. The author writes in a tone of forced levity to her two sons John Peter Hankey (1770-1807) and Thomson Hankey (1773-1855), grandsons of the banker Sir Thomas Hankey (1704-1770), from whom she is separated as a result of her divorce from their father, following a sensational adultery case, her marriage to Hankey having been dissolved by an act of parliament in the previous year, her hairdresser and maid having deposed that she was living in a state of intimacy with Lt-Col.

16pp., 12mo, each of the two letters cross-written on two leaves. Both in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Closely written in an idiosyncratic and difficult hand. Both letters are addressed to 'My d[ea]r. Hankey'. The first is incomplete (first bifolium only) and unsigned; the second carries a signature which it has not been possible to decipher, the candidates including Assistant-Surgeon Thomas Clark and Lieut. Alexander Bruce Wallis. The author is clearly both well-connected and well-informed, and writes in an entertaining and informative style.

Printed Hankey & Co. cheque for £156 17s 10d., on account of the 'Exors Sir Wm. Alexander', signed by 'Thomas Hankey Jnr. | Exor'. In fair condition, on aged paper. On the reverse: 'Travelling Expenses of | Mr. J. A Hankey | Coll. Hankey | J Hankey J. | R. Alexander | A. Js. Alexander | } and 3 Servants | from London to Edinburgh & back to attend the funeral Expenses of Sir W. Alexander. | £156. 17. 10. | J H Jnr'.

Full title: 'Comparative Statement of the Imports into Bristol from the West Indies of Sugar, Rum & Coffee, together with Sugar from the East Indies and Mauritius from the 1st. January to the 30th. Septr in the Years 1839 & 1840 shewing the Stocks remaining under Bond at the latter date.' 3pp., 4to. Bifolium. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Addressed (with two postmarks, one of them from Bristol) on reverse of second leaf: 'P.P. | Messrs. Hankey Wilson & Co | London', and docketed by the recipients: '496 | Ariel & Beloe | 30 Sept 1840 | recd 2 Oct [1840] | no answer'.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on aged paper. Small square cut away from second leaf of bifolium, not affecting text. Docketed: 'Pay Receivable 2 Monday in Augt.' and '663. | Captn. W. Trevelyan | 25 Aug: 1844 | Recd. 26 - - | Ansd 27 -'. The letter begins: 'My dear Thomson | There appears to be some mistake; what I wished to know was, "when my Pay was due at the India House", commencing from the 20th May last - my Pay certificate was included amongst the Papers I left at your House - the sum you mention recoverable on the 29th Inst.

1p., 4to. Bifolium, addressed on the reverse of the second leaf to 'Messrs. Thomson Hankey <& Co> | Merchants | 7 Mincing Lane | London'. The second leaf is also docketed, and carries two circular postmarks, one from 'WEST BROMWICH'. Williams writes that he has returned to find 'an enquiry about the nails & chains'. He gives a price below which he cannot go, adding: 'I must be paid for the Casks: but if a quantity of nails had been wanted I would have given my trouble on the other things, as I should have made a profit on the nails'.

The story of the Johnstone family has been told in Emma Rothschild's 'Inner Life of Empires' (Princeton, 2012). According to Rothschild, Alexander Johnstone 'became a soldier in the British army and was sent to North America.

1p., 8vo. Bifolium, addressed on reverse of second leaf 'To Thomson Hankey Junr.' In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter begins: 'Dear Thomson, | I give to you as a free Gift the Sum of Four Thousand Pounds & authorize you on 30th. of this Month to place that Sum to your Credit with our House by the Debit of my private Account. I also give you the one fourth Share of my two thirds Share of the Ship Elizabeth Capt.

3pp., folio. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Signed 'Isabella Hankey' and witnessed by 'John fforster Carey Street'.

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Newcastle has already been informed of Price's wish to be placed in the Colonial Office by 'the Duke of Roxburghe and others, whose interest in his wefare, would have great weight with me, if I felt that I could consistently with the present claims upon me, hold out any hope of complying with Mr. Price's request'.

On one side of a 47 x 20 cm piece of paper. Docketted on reverse. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. In part a form, printed in copperplate, with the details completed in manuscript, and signed on behalf of the firm 'Bristol 3rd December 1822 | Errors Excepted | Gibbs Son & Bright'. Included on the debit side are: Duty; Entry Fees, Wharfage, Town & Dock dues; 95 day's Interest; Freight; Warehouse Rent, Porterage, Weighing & Hauling; Insurance from Fire; Brokerage; Commission, leaving 'Nett Proceeds' of £257 18s 10d on £819 5s 0d.

Fifteen partnership agreements (indentures, memoranda, articles of copartnership) relating to the London banking firm of Thomson Hankey & Co., dating from between 1825 and 1929.Having traded with Jamaica, Antigua and the Leeward Islands in partnership with John Houblon. Captain Samuel Hankey commenced in business as a City of London banker-goldsmith in 1685. The firm prospered to such an extent that his son Henry owned Jonathan's Coffee House in Exchange Alley, the precursor of the London Stock Exchange, and was knighted in 1732.

On 29 November 1856 The Times had reported that 'The 26th company of the Royal Engineers, under the command of Captain G. E. L. Walker, R.E., will leave the head-quarters of that establishment at Brompton Barracks, Chatham, this morning for Gravesend, where they will embark on board the Appoline, [sic] for Bermuda.' Both items in good condition, on lighty aged and worn paper. Both docketed by the recipients. ONE: Tomlins to Hankeys, 13 December 1856. 3pp., 4to. Bifolium.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Docketted 'Answered same date G H'. The letter begins: 'As the time is approaching when another instrument will be due to <?>, I should be much obliged to you if you could send me the amount of the balance due to you at the time the arrangement was made, & the different payments that have been made since'. The letter continues on the same subject. The postscript reads: 'Please mention what are the profits of the price of W. India produce'. From the Hankey & Co. banking archive.

2pp., 4to. Bifolium. Addressed on reverse of second leaf 'To | John Hankey Esqr'. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper.

3pp., foolscap 8vo. 90 lines of text. Bifolium. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The signature, in a different hand from the rest of the document, is difficult to decipher: '<?> | Barrister at Law'. (The Paterson family were prominent on the island.) The document begins: 'The question submitted to me for an opinion is whether Messrs Thomson Hankey & Co. are entitled to a right of way for carts drawn by cattle &c along a passage lying between a lot of land in the Town of Grenville the property of the firm, and a lot in the occupation of Mrs. V. Morrison.?>

3pp., foolscap 8vo. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. The letter begins: 'Gentlemen, | I am directed to inform you that a Bill of Exchange drawn by His Excellency the Governor and the Members of the Executive Committee, on the Lords of the Treasury, for the sum of £10.822 .. 9 ..

The two items are in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Accompanying the two items is the envelope in which they were contained, docketted: 'Letters. | Duckinfield [sic] Hall Estate | { | Meylersfield Estate & Friendship Estate Trust'. Both items are signed 'Cyril Gurney | H. A. Trotter | L. M. Harvey'. ONE (Duckenfield Hall Estate letter): 1p., 4to.

The connection between the two firms of London bankers Thompson Hankey & Co., and Plummer & Wilson & Co. is unclear, but after the bankruptcy of John Plummer and William Wilson of Fenchurch Street 1831, a new firm named Hankey, Plummer & Wilson was formed, Plummer & Wilson bringing to it a number of clients including Beckford. The source of Beckford's vast wealth was of course the family's sugar plantations in the West Indies, and this document dates from before the abolition of slavery. 3pp., foolscap 8vo. Bifolium. Very good, on laid paper with Britannia watermark of 'E SMITH | 1828'.

4pp., 4to. 112 lines of text. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged paper, with closed tears along fold lines. Addressed, with two postmarks (one of Trinidad) to 'W. Wilson Esqr. | 7. Mincing Lane | London | Packet'. A closely-written letter, well-written and filled with content, and with a few clues about the identity of the writer. It begins: 'A merry Xmas to you & all my friends in England. I remembered you in my cups, but the liquor was only water for I have become almost a teetotaller of late, having had a little about me when I left St Kitts.?>