| Level | Group |
| Reference Number (click to see whole series/group) | 20A67 |
| Extent | 7 series; 126 items |
| Title | PAPERS RELATING TO FORMER GOVERNOR HUMPHREY MORICE |
| Date | [1545] - 1835 |
| Admin History | The Humphrey Morice papers are held in the Bank of England Archive as a consequence of fraudulent activity uncovered following his death. It was found that during his time as Governor he had defrauded the Bank by more than £29,000 by using fictitious bills of exchange to convince his business partners of his credit. A litigation case involving the Bank and his widow took place, resulting in a final pay out being reached forty-three years later. As part of this settlement the Bank seized many of Morice's assets from his estate including these papers. |
| Description | A collection of material relating to Humphrey Morice and his family members, friends, business contacts and political associates. The material covers a wide range of topics including personal affairs and contemporary business and politics. Items include title deeds, letters and business papers.
For items that were formally part of collection ref. 16A2 (original reference) please note: modern spellings have been used, for example 'the' has been used instead of 'ye'. Old Style dates, with the year beginning 25 March, have been converted to New Style dates, with the year beginning 1 January. This is indicated by square brackets.
Key figures in this collection include:
1. Judith Sandes was Humphrey Morice's first wife. She died in 1720.
2. Thomas Sandes was Judith Sandes' father. He was also heavily involved in trade and business ventures.
3. Tomas Browne was Judith Sandes' uncle. He appears to have partnered some of Thomas Sandes' ventures and is mentioned in several family letters.
4. Sir Nicholas Morice was Humphrey Morice's cousin. Nicholas Morice was a Tory MP for Newport, Cornwall and frequently clashed with Humphrey Morice on matters of politics. The series of letters between the two is the largest group of letters from one individual in the collection.
Note: Both the spelling of 'Humphry' and the more modern 'Humphrey' had previously been used when cataloguing the Morice papers. At the time of re-cataloguing, all catalogue entries were updated to use only the spelling 'Humphrey' so they were consistent and helped improve searchability; unless directly quoting from a document that used a contemporary spelling. |
| Related Material | F13/56 (Freshfields Papers relating to Civil Court actions: Henchkell and others versus Morice and others) |
| Custodial History | Items with original reference 16A2 were given to the Archive from the Museum in September 2015. |
| Keyword | Humphry |