Financial History | Collection of 14 exceptionally early cheques, with other documents, 1660-65

History of Finance

Clayton and Morris, bankers, a group of 14 early cheques

all signed by Thomas Yates, Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford, each instructing payment on his account (e.g. "I pray pay unto mr Thomas Rowney or to his order the summe of one hundred pounds and put it upon the Account of your very affectionate friend Tho: Yates"), addressed to "Mr John Morris and Mr Robert Clayton at the signe of the Flying-Horse in Cornehill", subscribed and countersigned on receipt, and docketed on the verso, ordering payments as follows:

£100 to Clement Farnham, 22 November 1660

£200 to John Cary, 27 November 1661

£100 to John Cary, 28 December 1661

£70 to John Jackson, 13 February 1660/61

£9 to Mary Barkesdale, 4 January 1661/62

£6 to James Lapley, 17 July 1662

£211 to John Cary, 24 November 1662

£50 to David Walter, 7 July 1663

£50 to Thomas Lamphugh, 17 June 1664

£300 to George Hill, 6 July 1664

£8 10s. to Alexander Dyer, 25 August 1664

£100 to John Cary, 20 February 1664/65

£100 to Thomas Rowney, 17 June 1665

£5 to Thomas Byrone, 26 June 1665

[with:] 16 further items addressed to Clayton and Morris, comprising receipts, letters, declarations, and memoranda, all relating to banking, 1660-1680, damp staining affecting some items, with repairs to three documents

A SUBSTANTIAL GROUP OF EARLY CHEQUES. Although financial instruments such as bills of exchange had been issued for centuries, primarily to facilitate international trade, the cheque was invented in England in the mid-seventeenth century. These handwritten cheques allowed an individual to draw on their own funds held in a bank account in order to make an immediate payment to a third party.

The earliest known cheques were all issued by the company founded by Robert Clayton (1629-1707) and John Morris (1625-82). Morris and Clayton, who went into business together in 1658, were the first bankers to use the mortgage as a long-term security for loans. As a result of this innovative practice the company became for forty years the largest lender to landowners in England. These cheques were all written by Thomas Yates, Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford, from 1660 to 1681.

The earliest cheque in the series has a subscription in the hand of John Morris, one of the firm's founders, who seems to have been stuggling with staff shortages: "Mr Colville/ I have noe body at home and therefore pay the hundred pounds above and take in this note with his aquittance hereunder/ your friend/ John Morris". For an earlier Clayton and Morris cheque see lot 196.

PROVENANCE:

"Clayton MSS" (stamp); Phillips, London, 10 November 1994, lot 335