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Edward Backwell (c.1618 – 1683) was an English goldsmith, financier, and politician.
The son of Barnaby Backwell, of Leighton Buzzard, he became a resident of London, and was apprenticed to Thomas Vyner as a goldsmith in 1635. Like other goldsmiths of the era, he was also a banker and played a role in State finance during The Protectorate, when he profited considerably by the resale of former Royal lands. He continued to operate in finance during the reign of Charles II, and is frequently mentioned in the diary of Samuel Pepys. He had his goldsmith's shop in Lombard Street. He was selected an alderman for Bishopsgate 1660–1661. The stoppage of the Exchequer in 1672 badly damaged him financially. He and his son John were appointed comptroller of customs in the port of London in 1671, and with his old master Vyner, he was from 1671 to 1675 a commissioner of the customs and farmer of the customs revenue. He went bankrupt in 1682.
He owned land in Buckinghamshire and Huntingdonshire, and was twice returned for Wendover. By his first marriage, in 1657, to Sarah Brett, he had one son, John Backwell. In 1662, he married Mary Leigh (d. 1669), by whom he had three sons and two daughters. He died in 1683 in Holland, where he had gone after his bankruptcy, and was buried in London on June 13, 1683.
| Parliament of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Richard Hampden Robert Croke | Member for Wendover with Richard Hampden 1673 | Succeeded by Richard Hampden Hon. Thomas Wharton |
| Preceded by Richard Hampden Hon. Thomas Wharton | Member for Wendover with Richard Hampden 1679–1681, John Hampden 1681–1683 1679–1683 | Succeeded by Richard Hampden John Backwell |
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1893 text
Alderman Edward Backwell, an eminent banker and goldsmith, who is frequently mentioned in the Diary. His shop was in Lombard Street. He was ruined by the closing of the Exchequer by Charles II. in 1672. The crown then owed him 295,994l. 16s. 6d., in lieu of which the King gave him an annuity of 17,759l. 13s. 8d. Backwell retired into Holland after the closing of the Exchequer, and died there in 1679. See Hilton Price’s “Handbook of London Bankers,” 1876.
Annotations
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A banker who was involved in payment of the Dunquerke Garrison :
history of
http://heritagearchives.rbs.com/wiki/Edward_Backwell,_London,_1653-82
Portrait of the banker
http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp51485&rNo=0&role=sit“…Statements as to money received for pay of the garrison; May-June 1660 Records the remittance of £ 62,400 by Alderman Edward Backwell for the pay of the garrison and its receipt, by order of the Governor, Colonel Harley, by Mr Thomas Browne, Commissary. …”
from: http://mss.library.nottingham.ac.uk/cats/harley2cat.html[Changed the first link from http://www.royalbankscot.co.uk/Group_Information/Memory_Bank/Our_Archives/Our_Online_Archive_Guide/edward_backwell.htm 27 Sep 2009. P.G.]
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N Phil Gyford
on Thu 26 May 2005, 11:46pm. Flag this
Husband of Mary: http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/4900.php
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BACKWELL, Edward
Ald Bishopsgate, 13 Jan 1659/60- 13 Jun 1661, disch, F £720 (1) Co Co Langborn, 1676-81 ‘The Unicorn’, Exchange Alley, Lombard Street, 1650, 1672, St Mary Woolnoth, 1652-81, dwelling house in Mark Lane, AH Barking, by 1676 (2) GOLD, appr, 1635, to Thomas VYNER, fr, 1651, PW, 1660 (3) d 13 Jun 1683, bur St Mary Woolnoth, re-bur Tyringham, Bucks (4) Will copy in CRO dated 29 Dec 1679 (5) f Barnaby Backwell of Backwell, Som, m Jane, da of John Temple of Burton Dassett, Warw, and -, Bucks, esq, mar (A) 1657, at St Andrew Undershaft, Sarah, da of - Brett, merchant, (B) Mary, da of Richard Leigh of - Warw (6) Goldsmith, banker, and State financier to Cromwell and Charles II (7) He had £295,995 involved in Stop of Exchequer, 1672 This was paid back at the rate of £17,759 3s 8d p a He possibly broke in 1682 EIC stock £2,000, RAC stocks £1,000 of original stock, 1671 (8) City property, land Bucks, Hunts (9) MP Wendover, 1672/3 (unseated), 1679-81 (10) Commsr for Lieut, 1660, 1676, 1681 Son John (mar only da of Sir Edward Tyringham), MP Wendover, 1689-90, 1695, 1698 G’s Tyringham Backwell mar da (? Elizabeth) of Francis CHILD (11)(1) Beaven, I, p 40 (2) Heal, London Goldsmiths, p 98, Hilton Price, Handbook, p 182, Boyd 15726, VBk, St Mary Woolnoth, will, will of Henry MOSSE (3) Beaven, II, p 90, GOLD, Appr Reg, I, f 300, Index of Appr (4) Boyd 15726 (5) CRO, Deed 121 5 There is no indication of court or date of probate (6) DNB, Boyd 15726 (7) No attempt can be made here to indicate the scope of Backwell’s financial activities R D Richards, Economic History, III (1928), pp 334-55, surveys some sources for a study of Backwell’s dealings There is an article in DNB Backwell’s ledgers are now in the possession of Messrs Glyn-Mills, the London bankers See S Pepys, Diary, passim (8) DNB, will, R D Richards, loc cit (9) Will, see VCH, Buckinghamshire, II, p 324, III, pp 337-8, IV, p 482, for some of his Bucks property (10) Lipscombe, Buckinghamshire, II, p 478+n, Beaven, II, p 90 (11) Beaven, II, p 187, DNB, will of Francis CHILD, Boyd 15726
From: ‘Backwell - Byfield’, The Rulers of London 1660-1689: A biographical record of the Aldermen and Common Councilment of the City of London (1966), pp. 21-42. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=31878. Date accessed: 18 September 2005.
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from L&M Companion
(?1618-83). The most important goldsmith-banker of his day, and (with the Vyners) one of the founders of the modern banking system in England….He had acted as the government’s principal financial agent under the Commonwealth, and performed a similar function under Charles II…. -
Per L&M Companion (continuing Pauline’s annotation):
M.P. for Wendover 1673 - March ‘81. Pepys always refers to him as an alderman , although he held office only for about a year (1660-1). He had acted as the government’s principal financial agent under the Commonwealth, and performed a similar function under Charles II. He arranged foreign exchange transactions (such as the sale of Dunkirk, the payment of war subsidiaries and after 1670 the transfer of Louis XIV loans to Charles); managed the disposal of secret service money; above all advanced cash and credit. During the war the government relied largely upon him. At the time of the ‘Stop of the Exchequer’ in 1672 his loans to the government amounted to over 250,000 L. Apart from his considerable property in Lombard Street (Greatly extended after the Fire), he had , at different times, country houses in Middlesex, Huntingdonshire and Buckinghamshire.
Pepys dealt with him as a goldsmith, but principally in arranging his noticeably reluctant loans for the Tangier garrison. Blackwell’s assistant Robert Shaw was an old friend of his. Some of the Blackwell ledgers survive in the archives of Messrs Williams & Glyn, successors to the business.