British Provincial, Herefordshire, Hereford, Hereford, Ross & Archenfield Bank, Twenty Pounds, 1 November 1862, no. 1219, for Joseph Morgan & Francis Hamp Adams, signed by Hamp Adams (Outing 935C; Grant 1338). Pinholes and spots, otherwise good fine, scarce £200-250

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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Printer’s imprint of Perkins & Bacon on front and Perkins & Heath on back. Francis Hamp Adams (1821-99), the estranged eldest son of Francis Hamp (1786-1849), banker and serial adulterer, of Bacton Villa, was brought up by an artisan family and articled by his father to a Mr Collins, a solicitor, in Ross in 1837, being ‘set free’ after his father’s death. He joined the bank but, over the next few years his younger half-brother, John Hampden Hamp (†1864), inheritor of the family fortune, ran up a series of bad debts, for which he was arrested and jailed. On 13 March 1863 the Hereford, Ross & Archenfield Bank had to suspend payments with a deficiency of £30,000, caused by the defalcation of a clerk in the Hereford branch by the name of Fryer over several years. The Hereford branch was the prime responsibility of Joseph Morgan, whose personal wealth was declared as £6,000; F.H. Adams ran the Ross and Archenfield office and his wealth was declared as £24,650. Adams emerged from the bank crash with his reputation, if not his fortune, intact and he began to practice as a solicitor in Ross in 1864, living at Upton Bishop