Shrubsole & Co

This private bank was established in c.1792 as Rowlls & Co by William Rowlls, a draper, and run alongside his existing drapery business. The firm was subsequently carried on by a Mr Clarkson (possibly at his home, Clattern House) during the 1790s and was later known as Clarkson, Knight & Pratt and subsequently as Knight, Haydon & Shrubsole. The firm was formally known as bank by 1804. William Shrubsole (c.1774-1848) was a partner with Henry Knight in the drapery business and later married his daughter. By 1816 the bank was styled Haydon & Shrubsole and by 1821 Shrubsole & Lambert.

The bank appears to have failed in 1825, but later resumed business operating from premises at the southern end of Shrubsole's drapery shop at 9 Market Place. It moved to 7 Market Place in about 1860. Following the death of partner Robert Lambert in 1869, the business was known as Shrubsole & Co. In 1873 John Shrubsole retired from the drapery business which was sold to Joseph Hide, although the bank was unaffected as it was managed independently by Edward Shill Phillips. Shrubsole died in 1874 and Shrubsole & Co was thereafter managed by his brother Henry Shrubsole, his brother-in-law Samuel Barker Booth and Edward Shill Phillips, who was admitted as a partner in 1874. Henry Shrubsole died in 1880 and the bank was subsequently run by Booth and Phillips and, on Booth's death in 1881, by Phillips with assistance from John Drewett. The bank was acquired by Parr's Banking Co & Alliance Bank Ltd of Warrington and London in 1894.

Detailed list of name changes

• Rowlls & Co in c.1792
• Clarkson, Knight & Pratt 1790s
• Knight, Haydon & Shrubsole
• Rowlls & Knight by 1808
• Knight Haydon & Co by 1809
• Knight, Haydon & Shrubsole by 1810
• Haydon & Shrubsole by 1816
• Shrubsole & Lambert by 1821
• Shrubsole & Co from 1869

Published histories

• The Kingston Bank. The early history of Westminster Bank Limited in Kingston-upon-Thames (Privately published by Westminster Bank, n.d.)

Summary of our archive holdings

Our archival records of Shrubsole & Co have the reference code SHR.

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

• banknotes 1808-17
• photographs of partners 19th cent
• amalgamation papers 1894