British Provincial, Dorset, Weymouth, Weymouth Old Bank, Five Pounds, 26 November 1895, W 1041, for Eliot, Pearce & Co, signed by George E. Eliot (Outing 2336C; Grant 3174F). A couple of numbers on back and pinholes, otherwise good fine to about very fine, rare £500-600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of British and Irish Banknotes formed by the Late Edward Barnby.

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The Weymouth Old Bank was founded in 1791 but its fortunes changed in 1885 following the deaths of its two senior partners, William Eliot and Edward Pearce, within a few weeks of each other. Eliot’s sons, Richard Ffolliott Eliot (†1906) and George Edward Eliot (†1937, aged 91), carried on the business with Pearce’s son, Edward Robert Pearce-Edgcumbe, later Sir Robert Edgcumbe (1851-1929), mayor of Dorchester in 1891. The partners sold off a number of gilt-edged securities and began investing in risky speculative ventures overseas, while Edgcumbe agreed to buy himself out of the partnership in December 1896 but did not have the immediate funds available. The bank collapsed on 31 March 1897, a day recorded locally as Black Wednesday, with liabilities amounting to £500,000, eventually paying just seven shillings and eleven pence-farthing in the pound on its outstanding debts. Sold with an accompanying article by Maureen Attwooll