Charlotte Matthews (born Charlotte Marlar; 1759 – 9 January 1802) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

businesswoman who was a member of Lloyd's of London and a banker. She was a close business associate of

Boulton and Watt Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the Engl ...

Life

Matthews was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

as Charlotte Marlar, the daughter of Ann and John Marlar. Her father was a merchant and banker and she was baptised at All-Hallows-the-Great in London on 23 March 1759. She had an elder sibling and in time four more were born. There is no detail of her education but she was known to be literate. A John Marlar is surmised to have owned a book collection which included a book printed by Caxton in 1481. On 1 August 1776 she was at

Monken Hadley Monken Hadley is an area in the London Borough of Barnet, at the northern edge of Greater London, England, lying some north north-west of Charing Cross. Anciently a country village near Chipping Barnet in Middlesex, and from 1889 to 1965 in Her ...

where she married William Matthews. Her father died in 1791 and her husband followed in 1792. They had no children and she had become very involved with her husband's business before he died. She had obtained enough experience and training to continue to organise his business. The most notable of his customers was

Matthew Boulton Matthew Boulton ( ; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English businessman, inventor, mechanical engineer, and silversmith. He was a business partner of the Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the par ...

and

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was f ...

. Her husband had been a member of

Lloyd's of London Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is a insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gover ...

and as his widow and business executive she was also elected a member. Like her husband she corresponded with Matthew Boulton and she would take a holiday at his house each year. The business between them was based on trust and their business borrowed thousands of pounds with no security or contract being recorded. She inherited two clerks, John Woodward and John Mosley, and a

counting house Counting is the process of determining the number of Element (mathematics), elements of a finite set of objects; that is, determining the size (mathematics), size of a set. The traditional way of counting consists of continually increasing a (men ...

where she would work a long day which included walking to meetings to discuss business. She sold her husband's house and moved to live in the Fenchurch Street area where she also had an office. The business also changed as she specialised in banking, bill discounting and insurance where membership of Lloyds was important. Her support of Boulton and Watt is thought to have been essential to their business. She received money on their behalf and advised them about potential businesspeople and kept them aware of markets and current events. The value of their business is evidenced by Boulton taking on the manufacture of copper coinage and when the coins were ready, they put into circulation, via their mint and her premises in London.

Death and legacy

In 1802 she died after a short illness aged 43, and she was buried on 16 January 1802 at Croydon Minster. She left an estate valued at £5,000 to her nieces, nephews and sisters. At some time her body was moved elsewhere. After she died her business was taken over by the families of Watt and Boulton named ''M. and R. Boulton, J. and G. Watt, and Company''. The Boultons owned two thirds of this company and the Watts owned the remaining third. Her house, Croydon Lodge, was bought by Thomas Bainbridge (1749-1830).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, Charlotte 1759 births 1802 deaths Businesspeople from London British businesspeople Bankers from London