Harman and Co. was a well-known and respected English banking firm in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

. It was founded around 1740 by

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

partners Jonathan Gurnell (1684-1753) (who married in 1711 Grizell Wilmer of

Pitzhanger Manor Pitzhanger Manor is an English country house famous as the home of neoclassical architect, Sir John Soane. Built between 1800 and 1804 in what is now Walpole Park Ealing, to the west of London, the Regency Manor is a rare and spectacular exa ...

) and Joseph Hoare (d. 1729), and was in business until 1846. The firm traded extensively with Portugal and were agents for the Russian Imperial Court in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

. The firm had close ties to the

Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, also known as the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and sometimes referred to as the Abolition Society or Anti-Slavery Society, was a British abolitionist group formed on ...

The only surviving brother of one of its founders was the abolitionist

Samuel Hoare Jr Samuel Hoare Jr (9 August 1751 – 14 July 1825) was a wealthy British Quaker banker and abolitionist born in Stoke Newington, then to the north of London in the county of Middlesex. From 1790, he lived at Heath House on Hampstead Heath. He wa ...

Jeremiah Harman Jeremiah Harman (1763-1844) was chief of a family known in the commercial world for nearly a century, and highly esteemed both in England and abroad. He may himself be said to have stood at the head of London city, both as to mercantile and pri ...

, son of one of the early investors, was one of the first merchants to support the abolition movement.

Henry Hope Henry Hope (1735–1811) was an Amsterdam merchant banker born in Braintree, Province of Massachusetts Bay. He emigrated to the Netherlands to join the family business, the Dutch bank Hope & Co., at a young age. From 1779, Henry became the man ...

, later a significant international merchant banker, apprenticed in the firm during 1754-1760

Family Relations of the Company

Founder Jonathan Gurnell had left a quaker farming background in Westmorland to try is fortune in London. By his mid twenties he was established as a Portuguese merchant. William Penn and other leading Quakers had attended his marriage in 1711 to Grizzle Wilmer of a family highest Quaker and earlier Puritan credentials. This marriage brought Jonathan Grendel three sons and three daughters. Hanna, one of his daughters married Jeremiah Harman in 1732, she later died young in 1741. The Harmans and Hoards were descended from military officers who had served in Ireland before the families became Quaker. After the death of Jonathan Gurnell and two of his sons, in the early 1750's the firm was reorganized as a partnership of his remaining son, Thomas Gurnell and is son-in-law Samuel Hoare. Soon after in 1762 the grandson John harman would join the partnership. When Samuel Hoare retired in 1774 his place in the firm was replaced with his son, Jonathan Hoare, who was considered to be a disappointment as a merchant. Jonathan moved into "fast society" in a rather "un-Quakerly" fashion, becoming a close friend of the Price of Wales. This left more and more of the firm to be run by his cousin John Harman. After the deaths Thomas Gurnell and Samuel Hoare Sr. The Harmans eased Jonathan Hoare out of the firm, which then became Harman & Co. Jonathan's other business ventures were also unsuccessful and he was eventually dependant on his brother Samual Hoare Jr. After the death of John Harman in 1817, his son Jeremiah Harman would then become the sole principle partner until his death in 1846, at which time Harman and Co. would shortly after shut its doors in the hands of the two remaining patterns: Edward Harman and Henry Harman.

Name Changes

* Jonathan Gurnell & Co., The firm was started by Jonathan Gurnell and was named after him for many years. * Gurnell and Hoare c. 1750 - c. 1754 at Frederick Place in

Old Jewry Old Jewry is a one-way street in the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London. It is located within Coleman Street ward and links Poultry to Gresham Street. The street now contains mainly offices for financial companies. ...

, London. Samuel Hoare Sr (1716–1796), son-in-law, was involved in the company from the beginning. When his grandson John Harman joined the firm, the name was changed to Gurnell, Hoare, and Harman. * Gurnell, Hoare, Harman & Co. (Sometimes Gurnell, Hoare, and Harman or Gurnell, Hoare & Co) c.1754 - c. 1783 at Frederick Place in Old Jewry, London. * Harman, Hoare, and Co. c.1786 - c.1792 at Frederick Place in Old Jewry, London * Harman and Co. c.1804-1846 at Adam's Court of

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, London. John's son

took over as a principal partner. He was a well-known banker, from 1816-1818

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, and remained a partner of the firm until his death in 1844.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harman and Co. Private banks History of banking Defunct banks of the United Kingdom