British Provincial, Yorkshire, Hull, Old Bank, Five Guineas, 17—, unissued, for Messrs Joseph Pease & Son (Outing 1019A; Grant 1455A). Missing top left corner and small holes in body, otherwise about fine, rare £300-400

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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A notation on the bottom right of the note reads ‘This Firm to March 1772, when Robert P. the son of Joseph P. the father then being 84 years old’.

Joseph Pease (1688-1778), son of Robert Pease, a merchant in Amsterdam, came to England in 1709 and by the 1730s had established his oil and paint business in Hull, which provided the financial basis for the formation of what is believed to be Yorkshire’s first bank, in 1754, in partnership with his son Robert (1717-70). Robert’s death meant that Joseph had to choose between an orphaned grandson, Joseph Robinson, later Pease (1752-1807) heir to a cotton business in Manchester, and his bastard grandson, Robert Copeland Pease, the product of a union between Robert Pease and Margaret Copeland. He chose the former and the notation on the note refers