1651: 'Mr. Backhouse told me I must now needs be his son, because he had communicated so many secrets to me.' 10 March 1652: 'This morning my father Backhouse opened himself very freely, touching the great secret.' And finally, under date 13 May 1653, Ashmole writes: 'My father Backhouse lying sick in Fleet Street, over against St. Dunstan's church, and not knowing whether he should live or die, about eleven of the clock told me, in syllables, the true matter of the Philosopher's Stone, which he bequeathed to me as a legacy.' It is almost superfluous to add that no hint is given as to the nature of this wonderful secret. Backhouse died at Swallowfield 30 May 1662. He married Ann, daughter of Bryan Richards of Hartley Westfield, Hampshire, by whom he had two sons (who predeceased him), and a daughter. Flower, who married, first, William Bishop, of South Warnborough, Hampshire, and secondly, her father's kinsman, Sir William Backhouse, Bart., who died 22 Aug. 1669.
Backhouse left in manuscript:
- 'The pleasant Founteine of Knowledge: first written in French anno 1413, by John de la Founteine of Valencia in Henault;' translated into English verse in 1644. MS. Ashmol. 58.
- A translation of 'Planctus Naturæ: The Complaint of Nature against the Erroneous Alchymist, by John de Mehung.' MS. Ashmol. 58, art. 2.
- 'The Golden Fleece, or the Flower of Treasures; in which is succinctly and methodically handled the stone of the philosophers, his excellent effectes and admirable vertues; and, the better to attaine to the originall and true meanes of perfection, inriched with Figures representing the proper colours to lyfe as they successively appere in the pratise of this blessed worke. By that great philosopher, Solomon Trismosin, Master to Paracelsus; 'a translation from the French. M S. Ashmol. 1395. Wood adds that 'he was also the inventor of the "Way wiser" in the time of George Villiers, the first duke of Bucks.'
[MS. Addit. 14284 f. 20; Lives of Ashmole and Lilly (1784), 313, 314, 315, 319, 329, 335; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 86, iii. 575, iv. 355, 361, 715, Fasti, i. 422; Black's Cat. of Ashmol. MSS. 94. 221, 222, 514, 529, 533, 1089.]
BACKWELL, EDWARD (d. 1683), alderman, a celebrated London goldsmith, and the principal founder of the banking system in England, was descended from a family which at a very early period had settled at Backwell, Somersetshire. The earliest member of the family of whom there is special mention is Roger de Backwell, who was one of the squires to Lord James Audley at the battle of Poictiers in 1356. Edward Backwell was the second son of Barnaby Backwell of Backwell, who, after his marriage to Jane, daughter of John Temple, Esq., of Burton Dasset, Buckinghamshire, settled in that county (Pedigree from manuscript in possession of William Praed, Esq., of Tyringham, printed in Libscomb's Buckinghamshire, iv, 376). Possibly the father had some business connection with London, for John, the eldest son, like his younger brother Edward, married the daughter of a London merchant. The earliest mention of Edward Backwell in the State Papers is under date 30 April 1650, as having been asked to 'provide 500l. in pieces of eight.' In 1653 he has a bill of 1,380l. for the victualling of ships. That he was already a person of considerable wealth and enterprise is proved by his purchase from the parliament of Old Bushy Park and other grounds connected with Hampton Court Palace, which after a long negotiation were rebought from him by the Commons, in the beginning of 1654 for 6,202l. 17s. The principal causes of the rapid fortunes made at this time by the more enterprising of the goldsmiths are stated, in a curious pamphlet, published in 1676, entitled 'The Mystery of the New-fashioned Goldsmiths or Bankers discovered,' to have been the facilities afforded them for obtaining large profits by melting down money of more than the proper weight, and the introduction of the system of taking money on deposit and lending it again at a higher rate of interest. The deposit system may be said to have originated about the time of the civil war. After Charles I in 1640 seized 200,000l. which, according to the custom of the period, was lodged for safety in the Tower, it gradually became a habit to lodge money with the goldsmiths. The goldsmiths,who already were money changers, now became money borrowers and lenders. For the money deposited they gave receipts called 'goldsmiths' notes,' the earliest kind of bank notes issued in England. There is every reason to suppose that Backwell was the chief originator of the system, as he was undoubtedly the most successful and best known banker of his day. Besides the rents of the country gentlemen, the goldsmiths received clandestinely from servants the money of their masters, which was lent them at the rate of 4d. per cent, per day. The deposits were lent out by the goldsmiths at a high rate of interest to necessitous merchants; and in addition to this, as is stated in the pamphlet above quoted, 'when Cromwell usurped the government, the greatest of them began to deal with him to supply his wants of money upon
