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London Metropolitan Archives

DUNCAN MACNEILL AND COMPANY LIMITED


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0074 CLC/B/123-23

Held at: London Metropolitan Archives

Title: DUNCAN MACNEILL AND COMPANY LIMITED

Date(s): 1870-1974

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 120 production units.

Name of creator(s): Duncan Macneill and Co Ltd | general managers and agents
J B Barry and Son | traders

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Duncan Macneill and Company Limited was incorporated in London in 1951, giving limited liability and a new name to Macneill Barry and Company, a merger in 1950 of the old-established partnerships Duncan Macneill and Company and J B Barry and Son.

DUNCAN MACNEILL AND COMPANY: established in London in the 1870s by Duncan Macneill and John MacKinnon, nephews of Sir William MacKinnon (for details of the shipping, trading and agency firms established by MacKinnon, see the Inchcape Group introductory note in CLC/B/123). The firm handled the UK end of agency business in shipping, coal, tea and jute transacted by its associated firm, Macneill and Company of Calcutta.

NB: see also Rivers Steam Navigation Company (CLC/B/123-47) for records of Duncan Macneill and Co's management of Rivers Steam Navigation Company.

J B BARRY AND SON: set up in London in the 1860s by the son of Dr J B Barry, a tea garden doctor (or horticulturist) from Assam. Concerned initially with the sale of tea shipped to London by its sister firm Barry and Company of Calcutta, its interests expanded thereafter to include the handling of oil cake, jute and coal.

In 1915 Lord Inchcape, as commercial successor to Sir William MacKinnon, took over the Macneill and Barry partnerships in England and India. The firm was incorporated in 1951 in the period of company restructuring overseen by the third Earl Inchcape prior to the launch of Inchcape and Company Limited in 1958. It was included in the new enterprise as a principal subsidiary.

Duncan Macneill and Company had offices at 7 Lothbury, ca. 1880-6; Winchester House, 50 Old Broad Street, 1887-1926. J B Barry and Son had offices at 110 Cannon Street, c 1880-1918; Winchester House, 50 Old Broad Street 1919-26. Thereafter, both firms shared premises at 117-118 Leadenhall Street 1927-53; Dunster House, Mincing Lane 1954-61, and 40 St Mary Axe 1962-88.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of Duncan Macneill and Company, including partnership deeds; correspondence; financial accounts; annual reports; agreements; and valuations of tea companies managed by the company.

Records of J. B. Barry and Son, including partnership deeds, correspondence and financial accounts.

Records of both companies including articles of association; annual reports; financial accounts; maps of tea gardens; goods ledger; produce ledger; tea companies' ledger; correspondence and legal papers.

Also records of John Mackinnon's trusts and Duncan Macneill's trusts.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Records arranged by MS number, assigned during cataloguing at the Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section.

Conditions governing access:

Access by appointment only. Please contact staff.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to this collection rests with the depositor.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The archives were deposited in the Manuscripts Section of Guildhall Library by Inchcape Plc in 1987-88, together with those of other companies in the Inchcape Group. They were catalogued in 1988-9.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Related material:

This collection is a sub-fond within the Inchcape Group fonds. See CLC/B/123 for a list of all the companies represented in this collection and a history of the Inchcape Group.

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: January to May 2011.


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Business records | Documents | Information sources
Export trading companies | Trading companies | Companies | Enterprises
International trade | Trade
Overseas trade | Trade (practice)
Tea | Plant products | Agricultural products
Tea trade | Food trade | Trade (practice)

Personal names

Corporate names
Duncan Macneill and Co Ltd | general managers and agents
J B Barry and Son | traders

Places
Calcutta | West Bengal | India | South Asia
City of London | London | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe