MORGAN GRENFELL AND COMPANY

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0074 CLC/B/163-01
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: MORGAN GRENFELL AND COMPANY
Date(s)	: 1854-1958
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 1471 production units.
Name of creator(s)	: George Peabody and Co | merchant bankers J S Morgan and Co | merchant bankers Morgan Grenfell and Co Limited | merchant bankers

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

George Peabody, a partner in Peabody Riggs and Company, merchants of Baltimore, with offices at 31 Moorgate, established his own business as a merchant at the same address in 1838. He ended his association with the American firm in c 1843 and removed to 6 Warnford Court in 1845. In 1852 he took Mr O C Gooch into partnership and the style of the firm changed to George Peabody and Company, merchants.

In 1854 it moved to 22 Old Broad Street. In the same year Junius Spencer Morgan became a partner and upon Peabody's retirement in 1864 the style of the firm became J. S. Morgan and Company (London Directories refer to it as Junius Spencer Morgan and Company until 1895). Edward Grenfell became a full partner in 1904 and the style Morgan Grenfell was adopted on 1 January 1910. Between 1918 and 1934 the bank was a private unlimited company, and in 1934 it became a private limited company.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of Morgan Grenfell and Company Limited, merchant bankers, and their predecessors; comprising ledgers, journals, letter books, correspondence and other papers.

Access to all the records is restricted to persons with written permission from the depositor (contact details may be obtained from a member of staff).

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Records arranged by MS number, assigned during cataloguing at the Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section. Some correspondence and loose papers (Ms 21760-763) were listed in detail prior to deposit, and the numbers allocated to classes and individual items have been incorporated into the Guildhall Library scheme of numbering. Ask a member of staff for the detailed calendar of these Ms numbers.

Conditions governing access:

Access by written permission only.

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:

The early business and personal records of George Peabody were taken to America in 1864 and were later deposited in the Essex Institute at Salem, Massachusetts. The archive deposited in the Manuscripts Section of Guildhall Library relates primarily to the period 1854-c 1925 and consists of the surviving records of George Peabody and Co and J S Morgan and Co, and those of Morgan Grenfell and Co until c 1925 (the later records are still held by Morgan Grenfell and Co). Note that many of the records used by K. Burk in Morgan Grenfell, 1838-1988 (1989) up until c 1925 and sometimes later, and seen by her at the bank, have since been deposited at Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section [now LMA].

Immediate source of acquisition:

The records were deposited at the Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section in 1984, 1990 and 1992. The Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section merged with the London Metropolitan Archives in 2009.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Histories of the company can be found in George Peabody & Co, J. S. Morgan and Co, Morgan Grenfell & Co, Morgan Grenfell and Co Ltd, 1838-1958 (privately printed, Oxford, 1958) and Morgan Grenfell, 1838-1988 by Kathleen Burk (Oxford University Press, 1989), copies of which are available in the Printed Books section of Guildhall Library.

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.