Ricketts, Thorne & Courtney

This private bank was established in 1810 as Ricketts, Thorne, George, Wait, Dymock & Courtney; it was also known as Bristol Castle Bank. The partners were Jacob Ricketts, George Thorne, James George, Daniel Wait, William Dymock and John Courtney. William Dymock died in 1815, Daniel Wait in 1813 - he was succeeded by his wife, Mary - and James George in 1822. The firm was styled Ricketts, Thorne, George & Courtney from 1817 and Ricketts, Thorne & Courtney from 1822.

In 1826 the bank was acquired by S & G Stuckey & Co of Langport, and combined with Stuckey, Lean & Co of Bristol and Stuckeys & Woodlands of Bridgwater, to form a joint stock bank, Stuckey’s Banking Co. It was not until 1828, however, that the varying titles used at Bristol, Bridgwater and Taunton were discontinued and the business carried on as Stuckey's Banking Co.

Published histories

• C Cave, A history of banking in Bristol from 1750 to 1899 (Bristol: privately printed, 1899)
• T E Gregory, The Westminster Bank through a century (London: Oxford University Press, 1936)
• P T Saunders, Stuckey’s Bank (Taunton: Barnicott & Pearce, 1928)

Summary of our archive holdings

Our archival records of Ricketts, Thorne & Courtney have the reference code RIC.

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

• cheque book, cheques and cheque forms 1810s
• letter to customer re dividends 1826