alone; and you do not know how many such others there may be if those that now come among you, who may produce many to be as great blessings to the next age, as this family is to the present.' 1 Mr. Houblon was nearly ninety when he died on the 20th of June 1682. He was buried eight days later under the chancel of St. Mary Woolnoth in Lombard Street, on the north side of the altar.' His will, dated the 12th of January 1681, was witnessed by his son. Jacob, by James Lordell, his son-in-law, and his old friend Isaac Jurin. After enumerating various sums left for charitable purposes, including one to the parish of Moreton in Essex,-'where my son Jacob is rector,'and to 'Bovinger3 where my grandson Butler is rector, -for the schooling of poor children,' he gave special legacies to his sons and daughters. To his eldest son Peter he left his 'sapphire ring,' and we afterwards find this ring mentioned in the will of another Peter, his grandson. To his 'loving son' James, he bequeathed 'one of my silver fflaggons,' and to his son John the other. His large fortune he divided equally amongst all his six sons then living, 'share and share alike.' Legacies were also left to two ladies of the name of Durand, said to have been his sisters; but they were probably his nieces, daughters of one of his sisters, both of whom had married early in the century brothers named Jean and Benjamin Durand, members probably of a Flemish branch of the distinguished French family of Dauphiny of that name, some of whom afterwards settled in the island of Guernsey. 1 Bishop Burnet practised what he preached. Dr. King eulogises him as 'a good pastor,' and tells us that unlike many prelates of his day who amassed large sums of money from the revenue of their Sees, Dr. Burnet at his death had nothing to bequeath to his children but their mother's fortune. See King's Anecdotes. See also for an interesting portrait of this great churchman: Lecky, England in the Eighteenth Century, i. 80-83. * Registers of St. Mary Woolnoth. Edited by Mr. Philips. Pronounced Bovinger; but spelt to this day: Bubbing worth (Essex). 1682 The parish registers of St. Mary Woolnoth up to the date of 1760 have been printed, and contain a vast number of entries relating to the Houblon family, which was now extremely numerous. The editor of the work states that At St. Mary Woolnoth is an inscription to the memory of Mr. James Houblon,' whose 'epitaph was composed for him by Samuel Pepys, Esq., Secretary to the Admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James II.' He adds that the tablet has now disappeared.1 Pennant, writing in 1793, also affirms that this epitaph was written for Mr. Houblon by Samuel Pepys, and that it was placed on the tablet in this church. It was probably displaced early in the nineteenth century when many alterations were made in the church and crypt, and the coffins moved. The epitaph, of which several contemporary copies exist, is as follows: Jacobus Houblon Ob fidem Flandria exuiantis Ex c nepotibus habuit LXX superstites: Ao D. MDCLXXXII.3 Mr. Houblon requested that after his death each of his children should possess his picture, and owing to this wish copies were made of the miniature we have 1 Registers of St. Mary Woolnoth. Edited by Mr. Philips. 2 See Pennant, Some Account of London, p. 455, 3rd Edition. 1793. Pennant was descended through his mother from Arabella, daughter of Sir John Houblon; she married Richard Mytton of Halston, Esq., M.P. for Shrewsbury. 3 (Translation): James Houblon of London, Son of Peter, who for faith's sake fled out of Flanders. Ao D. 1682. already described. The original of these copies is unfinished, but it is by a master hand, and almost certainly the work of Samuel Cooper, 'the great limner in little,' as Pepys calls him. One of the copies made after the death of Mr. Houblon is a good specimen of miniature painting on vellum like the original, ivory not having yet been used at that date for miniatures. It belonged, in the eighteenth century, to a grandson of Mr. James Houblon, and was left by him to his nephew, the greatgreat-grandfather of the present head of the family and direct descendant of Mr. James Houblon. The portrait itself occupies the centre of the picture, the upper portion of which consists of arabesque ornamentation chiefly composed of the hop or houblon plant, and a shield bearing the arms of the family. Below is the blue sea in which two dolphins disport themselves, while on either side of an illuminated inscription a merchant galley is depicted, her sails furled and laid up in harbour. The inscription consists of the epitaph written by Samuel Pepys and quoted above. Another of these pictures, and exactly similar, hangs in one of the anterooms in the Bank of England. In addition to his portrait, each of his children and grandchildren received a MS. copy of James Houblon's Pious Memoirs. One of these at Hallingbury is in a beautiful contemporary binding. And so the Father of the Exchange-that great Burse of Elizabeth, of which he was the oldest living member—slept in peace, full of years and honour; leaving behind him a memory and example to his children and children's children, and their children after them. The mild eyes in the tender old face still look wistfully out of his picture and carry on the appeal they made in his parting words to his own 'sweet ones'; preaching the patience, the duty, the justice and integrity of his own life to the young ones of this day and their elders, of whom he was the ancestor more than two hundred years. ago. Perhaps the saintly Jeremy Taylor may have had such another good man as James in his mind, when he wrote the following in the epistle dedicatory to his Holy Living and Dying: 'No man is a better merchant than he that laies out his time upon God and his money upon the Poor.'1 1 Chap. i. p. 3, edition of 1703. CHAPTER XII 'BROTHERS HOUBLON' 'For the King's ships went to Tarshish; ... every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.'-2 CHRON. ix. 21. THE banking accounts of the brothers throw some light upon their mercantile undertakings, especially with regard to Portugal. It appears from the earliest books belonging to Messrs. Child and Co., that the Houblons were among the first customers of their predecessors in their business, at a time when banking in this country was still in a very early stage of development. In days yet earlier, the care of wealth was often most embarrassing to its possessors; and ancient cabinets and escritoires with ingenious secret drawers, as well as iron strong-boxes with intricate locks, bear witness to this fact. For people were forced to keep their money en cassette, hidden away as best they could; while in time of danger they generally buried it, as did Mr. Pepys his hoarded wealth at the time of the Great Fire. The City Company of Goldsmiths were the first bankers in this country; and in London they kept the money and bullion deposited in their hands for safe custody, in the Exchequer, or at the Mint. Alderman Edward Backwell was a great merchant and goldsmith on his own account, and he also kept the cash accounts of a number of the wealthy London citizens, while on his books many of the most distinguished names of the day are likewise to be found. It was with him that the |