Burton's Bank c. 1700-1733

[DOC]

Benjamin Burton established a bank in Dublin with Francis Harrison in the early 1700’s. Prior to this, he had been operating as a goldsmith banker. The bank thrived and became highly influential operating as banker to the government and Establishment of the time. Samuel Burton took over as lead partner in 1728 upon the death of his father. The bank failed on the 25th June 1733 due to a liquidity problem which resulted in a major shock to the Irish economy. It was one of the first major banks to fail in Ireland.

The earliest surviving examples of Irish banknotes are those of the partnership, Samuel Burton and Daniel Falkiner. The bankruptcy process most likely accounts for the survival of a few notes dated 1732-1733. Paper Money of Ireland illustrates a £20 note dated 21st February 1732, payable to Mr. James Ferall or bearer. The note is in free form style without printed denomination similar to the notes of the London banker Francis Child & Co. An example of similar design with a 1733 date for £12 is shown. An interesting feature is that this note is payable directly to bearer.

[DOC]

It is curious to see the annotation 1:4 under the £12 denomination in the lower left hand corner of the note. This denotes a payment of £1 4s on £12 to the creditors as part of the bankruptcy process and a return of just 10% on the nominal value of the note.

[Mac]

10% return is very low, even for this era.
The failure of Burton's was one of the more serious failures among the early Irish banks.

This note is a nice find.