Biography of John Banks 1st Baronet 1627-1699
In or before 1627 [his father] Caleb Banks of Maidstone in Kent and [his mother] Martha Dann were married.
In 1627 John Banks 1st Baronet was born to Caleb Banks of Maidstone in Kent and Martha Dann.
In 1654 John Banks 1st Baronet (age 27) was elected MP Maidstone which seat he held until 1659.
In Jul 1661 King Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland (age 31) created new Baronetcies and Peerages ...
10 Jul 1661 Christopher Guise 1st Baronet (age 44) was created 1st Baronet Guise of Elmore in Gloucestershire.
16 Jul 1661 Philip Parker 1st Baronet (age 43) was created 1st Baronet Parker of Arwarton in Suffolk. Rebecca Long Lady Parker by marriage Lady Parker of Arwarton in Suffolk.
21 Jul 1661 Charles Hussey 1st Baronet (age 35) was created 1st Baronet Hussey of Caythorpe in Lincolnshire.
21 Jul 1661 Edward Barkham 1st Baronet (age 31) was created 1st Baronet Barkham Waynflete.
25 Jul 1661 John Banks 1st Baronet (age 34) was created 1st Baronet Banks of London by King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland.
Pepy's Diary. 19 Feb 1664. By and by joyned with us Sir John Bankes (age 37); who told us several passages of the East India Company; and how in his very case, when there was due to him and Alderman Mico £64,000 from the Dutch for injury done to them in the East Indys, Oliver presently after the peace, they delaying to pay them the money, sent them word, that if they did not pay them by such a day, he would grant letters of mark to those merchants against them; by which they were so fearful of him, they did presently pay the money every farthing.
Pepy's Diary. 13 Oct 1665. To-night come Sir J. Bankes (age 38) to me upon my letter to discourse it with him, and he did give me the advice I have taken almost as fully as if I had been directed by him what to write. The business also of my Tangier accounts to be sent to Court is upon my hands in great haste; besides, all my owne proper accounts are in great disorder, having been neglected now above a month, which grieves me, but it could not be settled sooner. These together and the feare of the sicknesse and providing for my family do fill my head very full, besides the infinite business of the office, and nobody here to look after it but myself. So late from my office to my lodgings, and to bed.
Pepy's Diary. 26 Jan 1666. Thence with Sir J. Bankes (age 39) and Mr. Gawden to the 'Change [Map], they both very wise men. After 'Change [Map] and agreeing with Houblon about our ships, D. Gawden and I to the Pope's Head and there dined and little Chaplin (age 39) (who a rich man grown).
Pepy's Diary. 24 May 1666. Home, and Mr. Hunt come to dine with me, but I was prevented dining till 4 o'clock by Sir H. Cholmly (age 33) and Sir J. Bankes's (age 39) coming in about some Tangier business.
Pepy's Diary. 11 Jun 1666. He gone, at noon I home to dinner, and after dinner my father and wife out to the painter's to sit again, and I, with my Lady Pen (age 42) and her daughter, to see Harman (age 41); whom we find lame in bed. His bones of his anckle are broke, but he hopes to do well soon; and a fine person by his discourse he seems to be and my hearty [friend]; and he did plainly tell me that at the Council of War before the fight, it was against his reason to begin the fight then, and the reasons of most sober men there, the wind being such, and we to windward, that they could not use their lower tier of guns, which was a very sad thing for us to have the honour and weal of the nation ventured so foolishly. I left them there, and walked to Deptford, Kent [Map], reading in Walsingham's Manual, a very good book, and there met with Sir W. Batten (age 65) and my Lady at Uthwayt's. Here I did much business and yet had some little mirthe with my Lady, and anon we all come up together to our office, where I was very late doing much business. Late comes Sir J. Bankes (age 39) to see me, and tells me that coming up from Rochester, Kent [Map] he overtook three or four hundred seamen, and he believes every day they come flocking from the fleete in like numbers; which is a sad neglect there, when it will be impossible to get others, and we have little reason to think that these will return presently again. He gone, I to end my letters to-night, and then home to supper and to bed.
Pepy's Diary. 27 Mar 1667. Our business with the Duke being done, Sir W. Pen (age 45) and I towards the Exchequer, and in our way met Sir G. Downing (age 42) going to chapel, but we stopped, and he would go with us back to the Exchequer and showed us in his office his chests full and ground and shelves full of money, and says that there is £50,000 at this day in his office of people's money, who may demand it this day, and might have had it away several weeks ago upon the late Act, but do rather choose to have it continue there than to put it into the Banker's hands, and I must confess it is more than I should have believed had I not seen it, and more than ever I could have expected would have arisen for this new Act in so short a time, and if it do so now already what would it do if the money was collected upon the Act and returned into the Exchequer so timely as it ought to be. But it comes into my mind here to observe what I have heard from Sir John Bankes (age 40), though I cannot fully conceive the reason of it, that it will be impossible to make the Exchequer ever a true bank to all intents, unless the Exchequer stood nearer the Exchange [Map], where merchants might with ease, while they are going about their business, at all hours, and without trouble or loss of time, have their satisfaction, which they cannot have now without much trouble, and loss of half a day, and no certainty of having the offices open. By this he means a bank for common practise and use of merchants, and therein I do agree with him. Being parted from Sir W. Pen (age 45) and Sir G. Downing (age 42), I to Westminster Hall [Map] and there met Balty (age 27), whom I had sent for, and there did break the business of my getting him the place of going again as Muster-Master with Harman (age 42) this voyage to the West Indys, which indeed I do owe to Sir W. Pen (age 45). He is mighty glad of it, and earnest to fit himself for it, but I do find, poor man, that he is troubled how to dispose of his wife, and apparently it is out of fear of her, and his honour, and I believe he hath received some cause of this his jealousy and care, and I do pity him in it, and will endeavour to find out some way to do, it for him.
In 1668 John Banks 1st Baronet (age 41) was elected Fellow of the Royal Society.
Pepy's Diary. 04 Apr 1668. Thence home to the office by water, where we sat till noon, and then I moved we might go to the Duke of York (age 34) and the King (age 37) presently to get out their order in writing that was ordered us yesterday about the business of certificates, that we might be secure against the tradesmen who (Sir John Banks (age 41) by name) have told me this day that they will complain in Parliament against us for denying to do them right. So we rose of a sudden, being mighty sensible of this inconvenience we are liable to should we delay to give them longer, and yet have no order for our indemnity. I did dine with Sir W. Pen (age 46), where my Lady Batten did come with desire of meeting me there, and speaking with me about the business of the £500 we demand of her for the Chest. She do protest, before God, she never did see the account, but that it was as her husband in his life-time made it, and he did often declare to her his expecting £500, and that we could not deny it him for his pains in that business, and that he hath left her worth nothing of his own in the world, and that therefore she could pay nothing of it, come what will come, but that he hath left her a beggar, which I am sorry truly for, though it is a just judgment upon people that do live so much beyond themselves in housekeeping and vanity, as they did. I did give her little answer, but generally words that might not trouble her, and so to dinner, and after dinner Sir W. Pen (age 46) and I away by water to White Hall, and there did attend the Duke of York (age 34), and he did carry us to the King's lodgings: but he was asleep in his closet; so we stayed in the Green-Roome, where the Duke of York (age 34) did tell us what rules he had, of knowing the weather, and did now tell us we should have rain before to-morrow, it having been a dry season for some time, and so it did rain all night almost; and pretty rules he hath, and told Brouncker (age 48) and me some of them, which were such as no reason seems ready to be given.
Pepy's Diary. 23 Dec 1668. Met at the Office all the morning, and at noon to the 'Change [Map], and there met with Langford and Mr. Franke, the landlord of my father's house in Fleet Streete, and are come to an arbitration what my father shall give him to be freed of his lease and building the house again. Walked up and down the 'Change [Map], and among others discoursed with Sir John Bankes (age 41), who thinks this prorogation will please all but the Parliament itself, which will, if ever they meet, be vexed at Buckingham, who yet governs all. He says the Nonconformists are glad of it, and, he believes, will get the upperhand in a little time, for the King (age 38) must trust to them or nobody; and he thinks the King (age 38) will be forced to it. He says that Sir Prince is mightily troubled at Pen's being put upon him, by the Duke of York (age 35), and that he believes he will get clear of it, which, though it will trouble me to have Pen still at the Office, yet I shall think Prince do well in it, and what I would advise him to, because I love him.
In 1669 [his father] Caleb Banks of Maidstone in Kent died.
Pepy's Diary. 24 Mar 1669. Up, and walked abroad in the garden, and find that Mrs. Tooker has not any of her daughters here as I expected and so walked to the yard, leaving Middleton at the pay, and there I only walked up and down the yard, and then to the Hill-House, and there did give order for the coach to be made ready; and got Mr. Gibson, whom I carried with me, to go with me and Mr. Coney, the surgeon, towards Maydston [Map] which I had a mighty mind to see, and took occasion, in my way, at St. Margett's, to pretend to call to see Captain Allen (age 57) to see whether Mrs. Jowles, his daughter, was there; and there his wife come to the door, he being at London, and through a window, I spied Jowles, but took no notice of he but made excuse till night, and then promised to come and see Mrs. Allen again, and so away, it being a mighty cold and windy, but clear day; and had the pleasure of seeing the Medway running, winding up and down mightily, and a very fine country; and I went a little out of the way to have visited Sir John Bankes (age 42), but he at London; but here I had a sight of his seat and house, the outside, which is an old abbey just like Hinchingbroke [Map], and as good at least, and mighty finely placed by the river; and he keeps the grounds about it, and walls and the house, very handsome: I was mightily pleased with the sight of it.
Pepy's Diary. 24 Mar 1669. Thence to Maydstone, which I had a mighty mind to see, having never been there; and walked all up and down the town, and up to the top of the steeple, and had a noble view, and then down again: and in the town did see an old man beating of flax, and did step into the barn and give him money, and saw that piece of husbandry which I never saw, and it is very pretty: in the street also I did buy and send to our inne, the Bell, a dish of fresh fish. And so, having walked all round the town, and found it very pretty, as most towns I ever saw, though not very big, and people of good fashion in it, we to our inne to dinner, and had a good dinner; and after dinner a barber come to me, and there trimmed me, that I might be clean against night, to go to Mrs. Allen. And so, staying till about four o'clock, we set out, I alone in the coach going and coming; and in our way back, I 'light out of the way to see a Saxon monument [Map]1, as they say, of a King, which is three stones standing upright, and a great round one lying on them, of great bigness, although not so big as those on Salisbury Plain; but certainly it is a thing of great antiquity, and I mightily glad to see it; it is near to Aylesford, where Sir John Bankes (age 42) lives.
Note 1. Kits-Cotty House [Map], a cromlech in Aylesford parish, Kent, on a hillside adjacent to the river Medway, three and a half miles N. by W. of Maidstone. It consists of three upright stones and an overlying one, and forms a small chamber open in front. It is supposed to have been the centre of a group of monuments indicating the burial-place of the Belgian settlers in this part of Britain. Other stones of a similar character exist in the neighbourhood.
Pepy's Diary. 27 May 1669. Thence to her husband, at Gresham College, upon some occasions of Tangier; and so home, with Sir John Bankes (age 42) with me, to Mark Lane [Map].
Around 1670 Peter Lely (age 51). Portrait of John Banks 1st Baronet (age 43).
In 1673 John Banks 1st Baronet (age 46) was appointed Governor of the East India Company.
Evelyn's Diary. 25 Aug 1676. Dined with Sir John Banks (age 49) at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, on recommending Mr. Upman to be tutor to his son going into France. This Sir John Banks (age 49) was a merchant of small beginning, but had amassed £100,000.
In 1678 John Banks 1st Baronet (age 51) was elected MP Winchelsea.
On 16 May 1678 [his son-in-law] Heneage Finch 1st Earl Aylesford (age 29) and [his daughter] Elizabeth Banks Countess Aylesford were married. He the son of Heneage Finch 1st Earl Nottingham (age 56) and Elizabeth Harvey Baroness Finch.
In 1679 John Banks 1st Baronet (age 52) was elected MP Rochester which seat he held until 1690.
In 1690 John Banks 1st Baronet (age 63) was elected MP Queenborough which seat he held until 1695.
In 1695 John Banks 1st Baronet (age 68) was elected MP Maidstone which seat he held until 1698.
On 18 Oct 1699 John Banks 1st Baronet (age 72) died without surviving male issue. Baronet Banks of London extinct.
[his daughter] Elizabeth Banks Countess Aylesford was born to John Banks 1st Baronet and Elizabeth Dethick.
[his daughter] Mary Banks was born to John Banks 1st Baronet and Elizabeth Dethick.
