Samuel Gurney (1786–1856)
Samuel Gurney (18 October 1786 – 5 June 1856) was an
Early years and marriage
Gurney was born at
Gurney was educated at
Overend, Gurney and Company
The wealth that came to Gurney from his father-in-law and what was bequeathed to him by his father, helped him to make rapid progress as a partner in Richardson and Overend, with which he had become connected in 1807.
Soon after Gurney entered the firm, it began to assume proportions that made it, for about forty years, the largest discounting house in the world. At first only discounting bills, it soon began to lend money on all sorts of securities. In the panic of 1825, the firm was able to lend money to many houses to tide them over their difficulties; this brought them into even greater favour. Gurney became known as "the bankers' banker", and many firms which had previously dealt with the Bank of England now began depositing their surplus cash in its hands. At the time of Gurney's death in 1856, it was calculated that the house held deposits amounting to £8 million sterling.[8] Nonetheless, the bank collapsed in 1866, owing millions.
Philanthropic interests
During the later years of his life, charitable and philanthropic undertakings almost monopolized Gurney's attention.[9]
- Penal reform and criminal justice
Gurney took a part in the efforts of Joseph John Gurney,
- Anti-slavery
Gurney attended the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London and he was a prime figure in the painting which is now in the National Portrait Gallery in London.[1] He is in the foreground of the painting on the left.
The second international Anti-Slavery convention was in 1843 when Gurney was the chairman of the convention.[10] Richard Peek took the chair of the convention when Gurney had to leave.
- Africa
He also interested himself in the
Gurney was a liberal patron of the infant colony of Liberia, kept up a correspondence with President Roberts, and for his many gifts was rewarded by his name being given to a town of Gallenas in 1851.
- Education and the Great Hunger
He became treasurer of the British and Foreign School Society in 1843, and held that post till his decease.
In 1849, Gurney undertook a tour of Ireland, where he made considerable gifts to poor people still suffering from the effects of the
- Peace mission to France
In 1853 he accompanied a deputation sent to Napoleon III to express a desire for a long continuance of peace and amity between England and France.
- Poplar hospital
On the initiative of Gurney, the
- St Paul's Church, Stratford
In 1853 he assisted in the construction of a mission building, which later became the parish church of St Paul's Church, Stratford.
Death and burial
Samuel Gurney's wife died at Ham House, Essex, on 14 February 1855, and in the autumn of that year, his own health being much broken, he moved his residence to Nice. Getting worse in the spring of 1856, he hurried homewards, desiring to end his days in his own country among his kindred. He reached Paris, but could go no further and died in an hotel in that city on 5 June 1856, at the age of 69.[8]
He was buried in the Friends' cemetery at Barking on 19 June, when an immense concourse of people attended the funeral. He left nine children and upwards of forty grandchildren, but his eldest son, John Gurney (1809–1856) of Earlham Hall, did not long survive him, dying on 23 September 1856. Gurney was the author of a pamphlet To the Electors of South Essex 1852, in which he recommended the election of his son-in-law Sir Edward North Buxton.
Legacy
In 1861, a memorial drinking fountain, in the form of a tall granite obelisk, was unveiled in Gurney's memory. Designed by John Bell, it stands in the middle of the Broadway in Stratford. It bears the inscription (a paraphrase from the Book of Job, Chapter 29 verse 11) IN REMEMBRANCE OF SAMUEL GURNEY / WHO DIED THE 5TH OF JUNE 1856 / ERECTED BY HIS FELLOW PARISHIONERS AND FRIENDS / 1861 / "When the ear heard him then it blessed him"[12][13]
Failure of Overend, Gurney and Co.
The great commercial establishment of
Family
On 7 April 1808, Gurney married Elizabeth, daughter of James Sheppard of
Notes
- ^ Benjamin Robert Haydon, accessed April 2009
- ^ See Richard Davenport-Hines, "Gurney, Samuel (1816–1882)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 Accessed 23 January 2008. From 1857 until 1865 Samuel Gurney, junior, was MP for the borough of Penryn and Falmouth.
- ^ Earlham Hall now houses part of the University of East Anglia.
- ^ His ODNB article gives father's dates of birth and death.
- ^ M. W. Kirby, "Gurney, Daniel (1791–1880)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004) Retrieved 1 February 2017.
- ^ Susan Drain, "Hoare, Louisa Gurney (1784–1836)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004) Retrieved 1 February 2017.
- ^ Joseph Fry (1777–1861), husband of Elizabeth Gurney.
- ^ a b c d Boase 1911.
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911.
- ^ "Proceedings of the General Anti-Slavery Convention, called by the committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and held in London from Tuesday June 13th to Tuesday June 20th, 1843", accessed April 2009
- ^ National Maritime Museum catalogue of Charts & Maps: Niger expedition of 1841: "Captain Henry Trotter commanded the British government expedition devised by The Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade and for the Civilisation of Africa. The plan was to establish trade with African rulers so that, having an alternative source of wealth, they would be more willing to give up selling slaves. The expedition succumbed to tropical fever and was aborted."
- ^ Visual Arts Data Service – Public Monuments & Sculpture Association: Samuel Gurney Memorial
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2017. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ISBN 0-521-79035-2
- ^ See the ODNB article on the second son, Samuel.
- ISBN 9781904880318.
- ISBN 0-8476-6187-3.)
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53188. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32170. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16251. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Attribution
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Boase, George Clement (1911). . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 366–367.
References
- ISBN 1-898030-84-7