Joseph Gibbins (banker)
Joseph Gibbins, junior | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1787 Birmingham, England |
| Died | 1870 |
| Occupation(s) | Industrialist, banker |
| Known for | Founder of the Birmingham Banking Company |
Joseph Gibbins, junior (1787–1870), was an English Quaker industrialist and banker who established the Birmingham Banking Company along with several other regional banks.
Life
Born to Joseph Gibbins, senior (1756–1811), a button manufacturer from Birmingham, and Martha Bevington, he began his banking career in 1804 through a partnership with Samuel Galton Jr., a fellow Quaker entrepreneur.[1]
Family industrial and banking interests
His father held investments in the Rose Copper Company located in Swansea and co-founded a bank there in 1811 alongside Robert Eaton. Joseph junior inherited shares in the Gibbins & Eaton bank and became involved as a partner.[1] By 1818, he had also assumed his father’s interest in the Birmingham-based bank Gibbins, Smith & Goode.[1] Both institutions failed amid the financial crisis of 1825.[1]
In 1813, Gibbins purchased a chemical manufacturing facility at Melin Crythan near Neath.[1] The family’s stake in Rose Copper concluded in 1823 when it was acquired by a group led by John Williams III, Pascoe St Leger Grenfell, and Lewis Fox.[1] Nonetheless, the associated Birmingham Battery and Metal Company eventually came under control of the Gibbins family.[1]
Banbury
In 1821, Gibbins’s sister Martha wed Joseph Ashby Gillett, who was then employed at Banbury Old Bank. This connection enabled Gillett to become a partner in Whiteheads Bank at Shipston, Warwickshire. By late 1822, Gibbins financed the acquisition of Banbury New Bank from the Tawney family, with Gillett acting as managing partner, Gibbins serving as a silent partner, and Henry Tawney as a third partner. However, due to substantial borrowing against the bank by Gibbins, it was forced to suspend payments on 21 December during the banking panic of 1825 triggered by London failures.
On that same day, facing collapse at Birmingham’s Gibbins, Smith & Goode, Gillett and his associates sought financial support in London. A customer confidence statement was issued on 28 December, enabling the bank to reopen on 25 January. By this point, Gibbins had withdrawn from the partnership. Gillett observed that debts linked to Gibbins in Birmingham had undermined trust and delayed recovery efforts. The bank changed its London agents from Esdailes to Glyn's and experienced growth throughout the 1830s under the management of Gillett & Tawney. In 1826, it provided funding for Gibbins’s Melin Crythan chemical enterprise.
During the financial panic of 1847, Gibbins supported the Banbury bank by depositing funds and collaborated with Gillett in negotiations with Glyn's over significant overdrafts. When the Gillett family launched a London branch in 1867 through Joseph Ashby Gillett’s sons, Gibbins extended conditional loans requiring employment of his nephew Thomas Aggs at Gillett Brothers & Co.
Birmingham Banking Company
In 1825/6, Gibbins established a private banking firm known as Gibbins & Lovell. Following the enactment of the Country Bankers Act 1826, he ended his partnership with Edward Bourne Lovell in 1829 and transformed the business into a joint-stock company, operating under the name Birmingham Banking Company with Paul Moon James as one of its directors. James had been affiliated with the Galton bank since 1812 until it closed in 1831 after his departure.
The Bank of Birmingham, founded in 1832, was acquired by the Birmingham Banking Company in 1838. The institution expanded through multiple acquisitions throughout the Midlands until it encountered difficulties during the panic of 1866. After undergoing restructuring due to management challenges, it was renamed Metropolitan and Birmingham Bank following its acquisition of the Royal Exchange Bank. The company continued to grow before being purchased by the London City and Midland Bank in 1914.
Family
In 1823, Gibbins wed Elizabeth Clarance at Deptford Meeting House. Following her passing in 1826, he entered into marriage with Sarah Lowe from Ettington in 1840.
Elizabeth Clarance was the offspring of Richard Clarance, who specialized in manufacturing bed furniture in London. Sarah Lowe, Gibbins's second cousin through his maternal lineage, was the daughter of Jeffery Bevington Lowe (1774–1864), a Quaker banker based in Ettington. Jeffery Lowe was involved in a Midland banking partnership alongside Joseph Ashby Gillett and others until Gillett's departure in 1824.