DARLINGTON BANK £5 NOTE

Jonathan Backhouse was one of the most successful bankers of the Northeast, having banks in Darlington, Durham, Stockton-on-Tees and Sunderland. Darlington Bank was started in 1774 and was one of the founding partners of Barclays Bank in 1896.

Sometimes owing to personal differences a person, or group of persons, would deliberately set out to ruin a bank. One story of this kind is the reputed attempt by Lord Darlington to break the Backhouse bank in Darlington. Lord Darlington instructed his tenants to pay their rents in notes issued by the bank, with the intention of collecting a large sum and presenting the notes in one batch, for payment in gold. Jonathan Backhouse heard of this plan, however, and managed to obtain sufficient gold from London to meet the demand.

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