Barclays Bank History Series III-B

A Genealogical Study of the Families Who Created the Bank  

Part III-B -- JOSIAH CHILD AND HIS FAMILY

CONTINUED from Part I, Part II, Part III, Part III-A 

 

The Anchor Brewery's Other Owners

In previous posts we indicated that the Anchor had been previously owned by a family named Child, then by one Edmund Halsey. Since publishing that, we did additional research, which indicates how the change in owners transpired:

Ralph Thrale born in 1672 was left an orphan at nine years old, and went to Offley to live with his mother, who had remarried. His uncle Edmund Halsey, who was to become proprietor of the Anchor Brewery in Southwark and M.P. for Southwark, befriended the boy. Ralph went to London and eventually succeeded Halsey as owner of the Brewery. Ralph was the father of Henry Thrale. 

At that same website, we also read:

In 1692 Halsey [Ralph Thrale's uncle] was receiving £1.00 a week - half the salary of his master [his father-in-law, James Child] and within 20 months had become a partner. There is no evidence that he purchased his partnership and, as the partnership deed was drawn up on the 6th November 1693, only ten days before his marriage to one of James Child’s daughters - Anne. It might well have been his wife’s dowry.

From the date of the partnership, Halsey ran the business efficiently, as the cash bulletin for the years 1693 to 1702 shows regular sums of up to £100 per week, large amounts in those days, were paid in excise duty; and in May, 1695, both he and Child drew £400 each in profits.

Sir Josiah Child, EIC

James Child, possibly the brother of Sir Josiah Child, operated the brewery after "two generations of the Monger family" ran it from 1616-1670. James Child died on 22 February 1696, at the age of 66, and he was buried in St. Dunstan-in-the-East Church in London. He served as President of the East India Company from 1686 to 1690, according to same website. King Charles granted two brewing licenses to the Anchor Brewery in 1690, although in April 1666 the king had recommended "James Child, merchant of London," to the Brewer’s Company. His widow retained her husband’s interest in the brewhouse, Halsey paying her a weekly sum until her death in 1701.

Josiah at Portsmouth was appointed "victualler to the Navy," and accumulated a significant fortune which he invested in a joint stock company called The East India Company. Josiah became a director of the East India Company in 1677,  according to one website, and was

"elected governor of the East India Company in 1681, serving in that post for most of the decade. For a time he was virtually the sole decision maker for the company, directing policy as if it were his private business. He was often openly accused of using the company to aggrandize his social, economic, and political position. He received his baronetcy in 1678."

Josiah Child was married first to Hannah Boate, the mother of Elizabeth Child, born before her mother's death in 1662. He quickly remarried Mary Atwood, with whom he had a daughter and son, Josiah Child, Jr., born 1668. His third wife, Emma Barnard, was the daughter of Sir Henry Barnard, "one of the leading Turkey merchants in London." Emma gave birth to  Josiah's second son, Richard Child, in 1680. 

The Josiah Child Heritage 

Sir Josiah Child died in 1699, leaving a son, Josiah II (c.1668-1704),  succeeding as "2nd Baronet, his father’s will left him no more than had been settled upon him at the time of his marriage in 1691. His sister Mary, who had married against their father’s wishes, was similarly treated, being left only £5. It was Josiah’s younger half-brother, Richard (1680-1750), who had been made their father’s principal heir, and it was he who came into possession of the Wanstead estate."

 

The 2nd Baronet died young and childless in 1704, having briefly represented Wareham in the House of Commons from 1702, and was succeeded by his half-brother, Sir Richard Child, 3rd Baronet, whose name was suddenly changed in 1731, when he became Viscount Castlemaine, a title purchased in Ireland from the estate of his mother-in-law, Dorothy Tylney Glynne. 

 

2nd Earl Tylney (John Child)

Created as Earl Tylney, of Castlemaine in the County of Kerry, also in the Peerage of Ireland, Richard Child demonstrated “a certain political flexibility,” which enabled him to make a smooth transition between the Stuart and Hanoverian regimes, according to "The Owners of Wanstead Park Part 8: 1699-1750." The writer of the website adds, somewhat intriguingly:

 Richard Child’s elevation prompted some grumbling, on the ground that it “was making a man that’s no gentleman a lord”. Robert Harley described him as “a jobber” who had “made a prey of the poor”.

Interestingly, the Castlemaine title was regarded by some as tainted by its association with the notorious Barbara Villiers, mistress to Charles II, and her cuckolded husband Roger Palmer. In 1731 Child was promoted in the Irish Peerage as Earl Tylney of Castlemaine. In 1733, he assumed the surname Tylney by Act of Parliament, to comply with the terms of an inheritance from his wife’s uncle, Frederick Tylney of Rotherwick. Tylney had died in 1725, his property passing to Dorothy Child after the death of his daughter, Anne, Baroness Craven.

Amusingly, when Richard purchased an Irish peerage (Viscount Castlemaine) that had previously been awarded to Roger Palmer, Barbara Villiers' cuckolded husband, some members of Parliament became concerned. Their concern was not one of morals, but of politics.They feared Richard Child, a Tory, might replace his Whig father-in-law, Frederick Tylney, and that might upset the political balance. Once in Parliament Richard Tylney quickly learned on which side his bread was buttered and began voting with the government in power.  

After the Death of Oliver Cromwell 

When Oliver Cromwell died, England was left to face a predicament that had never occurred before. Suddenly, the country had no way to raise military armaments and had no funds to attract warriors.They were without a king. The reign of Charles I ended with his defeat in battle in Scotland, as we described earlier when David Barclay avoided being tainted by following orders of his commanding officer, John Middleton, who in 1554 was defeated by Cromwell's General Monck.

 

Part of Braganza's Dowry given to Charles II

Charles II had gone into exile in Holland, under protection of John Granville, later to receive the title as 1st Earl of Bath, who was, coincidentally, a cousin of George Monck, who had been appointed commander of all Parliamentary military forces in Britain. After Cromwell's death, George Monck, later raised as the 1st Duke of Albermarle, led his troops from Scotland to London, then suggested to Parliament through Granville in May 1660 that Charles II should be restored as King. Some might call that behind-the-back planning a conspiracy.

 

Enough time had passed since the bloody beheading of Charles I, however, that Britons were happy to accept a new, if somewhat tarnished king, to, hopefully, straighten out the chaos that was already beginning. Charles II was restored to the throne and, following previously laid plans of his now dead dad, it was decided he should marry a foreign princess. Bids were accepted. The winner was the one whose father could offer the greatest bounty.

 

Barbara Villiers, though married to Palmer, had five children with King Charles II both before and after he was married to Catherine of Braganza, the daughter of Portugal's king, in 1661. During the Anglo-Dutch Wars, England contracted the marriage of Charles with Portugal and received as her dowry "Seven Islands of Bombay," soon leased to the British East India Company, as well as the Port of Tangier and a great deal of gold. 

 

The Restoration period during Charles' reign appears in retrospect as though those in power were simply making things up as they went along. 

As for the Child family, the remnants of them kept their original name, not hidden behind Richard's titles. Parliament agreed to pass an Act changing Child's surname to Tylney in 1733, and the title was passed to his son, the 2nd Earl, an overweight man easily caricatured, who died single in Italy without children. It was rumored he had connections to the scandalous homosexual Captain Robert Jones, who was sentenced to death for sodomizing young boys in 1772.

Josiah Child II had married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Cooke, one of his father’s East India Company associates, who earned his knighthood in 1692 for his work in the Royal African Company, noted for shipping more slaves to America than any other company. Cooke was infamously notorious for paying prolific bribes, albeit without penal consequence, and was actually named as the replacement for Josiah Child as East India Company governor after his death in 1699.

Sir Josiah Child II also had no children, and Richard succeeded him as 3rd baronet, inheriting £4,000 per annum which had been settled upon Josiah for life, bringing his own annual income to some £10,000. Richard also served as Member of Parliament for Wareham between 1702 and 1704, but he did not maintain his father’s active connection with the East India Company. 

Nevertheless, it was by the act of restoring Charles II to the throne and marrying him to Britain's then ally Portugal that the British East India Company not only received a foreign base of operations for its trade, but a new headquarters building in Bombay, India, as well

King Charles II died in 1685 with no legitimate children, so it was determined he would be succeeded by his brother, James II (James VII of Scotland), known as Duke of York since 1644 and Duke of Albany after 1660. That same year he married Anne, daughter of Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon--a member of the privy council and chancellor of the Exchequer until 1667, whose grandchildren would later become Queen Mary II and Queen Anne. He was dismissed as Chancellor in 1667 and forced to flee to France in exile.