Lord Wardington, who died on Monday, was the latest and
about the last of the long and remarkable line of Quaker bankers, or rather perhaps of bankers" of Quaker descent. The name—Pease- which he bore before his elevation to the peerage was as characteris- tically Quaker as that of the Hodgkin in whose bank at Newcastle he received his early training. And, of course, the Lloyds Bank of which he was chairman was as essentially Quaker in origin and name as its rival (if in fact there is any rivalry at all), Barclay's. Among private banks Hoare's and Gurney's*(of Norwich) and among discount-houses, Gillett's all bear the same stamp. All this is intelligible enough in view of the reputation Quakers in the eighteenth century bore for commercial integrity (by no means divorced from considerable business ability). What is more surprising is the attraction of brewing for so many Friends, notably among the Gurneys of Earlham, circle. It was to two Quakers, Barclay and Bevan, together with a third partner, Perkins, that the brewery owned by Johnson's Mrs. Thrale's husband was sold. Hence Barclay and Perkins, and Barclay's London Lager, as Quaker in ultimate origin as Barclay's Apology. The stimulants purveyed by Truman, Hanbury, Buxton had the same Quaker flavour. More recently, of course, the trend has been to biscuits (at Reading) and chocolate (at Birmingham, Bristol and York).
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