Ennis Banks

[Mac]

Ennis was home to several note issuers in the early 1800s, one of them at least was a bank, Francis McMahon, and registered as such (1805-1816).

The note issuers appear to have all used a similar design for their notes, differing only in their logo and in their name printed along the left side in a sometimes illegible uppercase script typeface.

Below are two similar notes from different issuers.

I cannot identify the issuer on the issued One Guinea note, dated 10 July 1815. Unfortunately I don't have a better image of the note.

Under it is an unissued note for One Guinea with the name John O'Donnell along the side. O'Donnell appears to have never been registered as a banker, and was probably a merchant who issued notes. Another such merchant was Michael O'Brien, which is not the name on the issued note above.

Ennis-Bank-1-pound-2-shillings-and-9-pence-10-July-1815.jpg (63.1 KiB) Viewed 193 times

Ennis-bank-1-guinea-O-Donnell.jpg (46.46 KiB) Viewed 193 times

[Mac]

Comparing the letters of the mystery note with the John O’Donnell note, it looks like P E T E R . K E- - E
.

Ennis-Bankers-names.jpg (79.5 KiB) Viewed 190 times

[DOC]

Looks like Peter Blake !

The promissory statements on these items suggests that they could be post bills.

[Mac]

We'll go with Peter Blake! That would make it a currently unrecorded issuer for Ennis.

[DOC]

Great to see a note from a new issuer turn up.

I did some searching for a Peter Blake and close variants of this name and eventually stumbled upon this interesting article about three notes acquired for The Clare Museum (Ennis) in 2001 by Roche Corporation.

https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/clare ... knotes.htm

Images of two of these notes are on the museum website, link below. The 1 guinea note is similar to the one posted earlier (not an issue of the Ennis Chronicle Office as mentioned) and the £1 note indicates that Peter Blake owned a tannery.

https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/clare ... knotes.htm

[Mac]

Thanks for that DOC!
I will add these 'Ennis' issues to the main web site in the next update of banks.

[DOC]

Here is an unissued Ennis Mills 1 guinea note with the name of Michael O’Brien who presumably was the owner of these mills. An interesting feature is the early use of colour. The promissory statement “seven days after date I promise to pay ............ or order in Limerick Bank Paper” suggests that this is a sight bill.

[Mac]

He was doing alright to be able to afford to go for 2 colour printing on his notes!