Milford, Snow & Co

Milford, Snow & Co (1786-1901), established in Exeter, was a past constituent of NatWest.

This private bank was established in 1786 by Samuel Milford and Richard Hall-Clarke trading as Milford, Clarke & Co; it was also known as Exeter City Bank. Milford was from a leading family of wool merchants.

In 1800 a new partnership of John Milford (Samuel's son), John Hogg and William Nation was formed, which was styled Milford, Hogg, Nation & Co. Milford remained senior partner until 1829. His family led the bank until the 1890s, when the Snow family, which had been involved in the firm since 1833, assumed leadership. The firm was called Milford, Snow & Co from 1833.

In 1901 the bank amalgamated with Sanders & Co of Exeter, to form Sanders, Snow & Co.

Detailed list of partnership changes

• Samuel Milford and Richard Hall-Clarke 1786-1800
• John Milford, John Hogg and William Nation 1800-4
• John Milford, William Nation and John Hutchings 1804-20
• John Milford, John Milford junior and William Nation 1820
• John Milford, John Milford junior and C Milford 1820-33
• John Milford, Thomas Snow and Henry Collins-Splatt 1833-c.1855
• John Milford, Thomas Snow, Frederick Milford and Thomas Maitland Snow c.1855-c.1873
• John Milford, Thomas Snow, Frederick Milford, Alfred Milford and Thomas Maitland Snow 1873-84
• John Milford, Thomas Maitland Snow, Alfred Milford and Thomas Snow 1884-c.1888
• John Milford, Thomas Maitland Snow and Thomas Snow c.1888-9
• Thomas Maitland Snow, Thomas Snow, Henry Drew
• Thomas and Sebastian Cosens Snow 1889-1901

Detailed list of name changes

• Milford, Clarke & Co 1786-1800
• Milford, Hogg, Nation & Co from 1800
• Milford, Snow & Co 1833-1901

Also known as Exeter City Bank.

Published histories

• J Ryton, Banks and Banknotes of Exeter 1769-1906 (Exeter: privately published, 1984)

Summary of our archive holdings

Our archival records of Milford, Snow & Co have the reference code MIL.

For help understanding words used here, check our glossary of banking record types (PDF 68 KB).

Partnership records

• copy letterbook, London agent 1800-2
• papers of chief clerk 1827-43, 1879
• private letterbook 1843-87

Financial records

• general ledgers 1816-28, 1846-83

Customer records

• cheques 1823-94, 1862-94
• customer correspondence 1824-9
• customer passbook 1829-53
• bills of exchange 1833-51

Note issue records

• banknote 1889
• list of banknotes 1914-23

Summary of archive holdings elsewhere

• Devon Archives and Local Studies: partnership agreement and papers 1786, 1800 (Ref: DD 4429)