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Charles Stanley was born in 1814, the year before the Battle of Waterloo
A Victorian Stockbroker
Richard Stanley died on 24th July 1835, just before the bank was incorporated. He was succeeded at once by his son Charles.
Charles Stanley was born in 1814, the year before Waterloo. That year witnessed a spectacular Stock Exchange fraud; handbills were circulated announcing the death of Napoleon, causing widespread chaos in the market. The perpetrator, Charles de Berenger, made a substantial profit before he was finally tracked down.
Charles Stanley was just 21 when he became a partner in the bank. It was a challenging period. The country was in the grip of the greatest explosion of capital investment it has ever experienced - the 'Railway Mania'. Banks lent funds on an unprecedented scale for their customers to buy railway shares. They were sold in huge numbers at 'enthusiasm meetings' in towns and villages, often on rigged allotments, and often on false prospectuses. Out of this maelstrom came our great railway network. Promoters sought London stockbrokers to give respectability to their issues, and for a period the interests of banks and London brokers became intertwined.
Charles Stanley spent increasing time in London, handling the bank's investment affairs and also supervising the bullion movements between London and Sheffield - gold was stored at the Bank of England but could be drawn on demand by the customers. Stock Exchange Membership records of the time were fluid, and so were the qualifications; but by 1852 Charles Stanley appears as a Member in his own right.
The greater part of the business continued to be for the bank and its customers; it is impossible to date the transition from banker to broker. Probably in Charles Stanley's mind he always remained a banker. And throughout his career he continued to handle the bank's bullion shipments.
The first offices were at 31 Throgmorton Street. He was joined there, three or four years later, by his first partner, Alexander Grant, and the surviving records suggest that an increasing proportion of business came now from non-bank sources. By the 1860s the partnership was dealing for a range of other banks, including Barclays, Bevan & Co and Childs Bank; and the ledgers show a great kaleidoscope of gentlefolk who might have sprung from the pages of Jane Austen. The stockbroking business was well set on its future course.
1837 - Accession of Queen Victoria
1840 - Rowland Hill introduces the Penny Post
1851 - The America's Cup (the world's oldest sporting trophy) first raced