great advantage, especially after they had bought those dollars whereof he robbed the Spaniards to about the value of 300,000l.' The 'dollars' referred to are the 'eight-and-thirty wagonloads of real silver' (Carlyle, Cromwell, iv.:224) taken by Blake when he captured and burned the Plate fleet, and which Cromwell sold to Sir Thomas Viner and Edward Backwell, who together paid for it 130,000l., and coined it at the Tower mint on their own charge.
The dealings of Backwell with Cromwell were not remembered against him at the Restoration, for he was not only able to carry on a much more lucrative banking business under the auspices of Charles II, but was employed to negotiate the king's principal money transactions. 'As soon,' we are told, 'as the parliament had voted the king certain sums of money out of particular taxes, the bankers advanced at once the money voted by parliament, and were repaid in weekly payments at the exchequer as the taxes were received.' In 1660 (or 1666) an accusation was brought against Backwell for concealing large sums from the king; but, as it had no result, it probably originated in envy. In addition to the king and the queen mother, most of the nobility and persons of celebrity, the farmers of customs, the excise, several city companies, the East India Company, and all the leading goldsmiths had accounts with Backwell. His shop, which bore the sign of the Unicorn, was situated at the south end of Exchange Alley, next to Lombard Street, its site being now probably occupied by No. 70. In 1663 his premises were greatly extended, but they were burned down in the great fire of 1666, when, at the request of the king, he obtained accommodation in Gresham House. Pepys, who was on intimate terms with him and mentions him frequently in his 'Diary,' refers to his having a residence in Mark Lane. He was the owner of several farms, one of which was at Crestloe near Aylesbury, and he also bought in 1668 an estate at Buckeworth, Huntingdonshire, in addition to which his name several times occurs in county histories as the temporary possessor of estates which doubtless had come into his hands through the pecuniary difficulties of their owners. The wife of Backwell, whom Pepys praises for her beauty and sprightliness, was his second wife Mary, daughter of Richard Leigh of Warwickshire, who died in 1670, and was buried in St. Helen's Church, Bishopsgate (Malcolm, Londinum Redivirum, iii. 556). Of the death of his first wife, Alice Brett, the daughter of a London merchant, there is no record.
In October 1662 Backwell was sent to Paris to receive the money (180,000l.) for the sale of Dunkirk to the French; and for discharging this duty he obtained from the king in 1664 a present of 1,500l. That he was employed by the king in negotiations of even greater importance, is evident from a entry in the State Papers in 1664 of 12,000l. paid to him for secret services without account, and in 1665 of 1,750l. After the treaty of Dover in 1670 he was also a frequent intermediary in the money transactions between Charles II and Louis of France. Under date of 21 Jan. 1666, there is an entry in the State Papers of a 'warrant for Edward Backwell to be a baronet;' but possibly he declined the honour. The prediction of Pepys that 'the king and kingdom must as good as fall with that man' was scarcely fulfilled; for when Charles in 1672 found himself involved in hopeless money difficulties he had recourse to the expedient of closing the exchequer. Of the l,328,526l. in the exchequer, the amount borrowed from Backwell was 295,995l. In the same year as appears from the 'Commons' Journal,' h name was sent to the House of Commons as elected to represent Wendover, but on petition the name of Thomas Wharton was inserted instead. Towards the close of the year, we find from 'Hatton's Correspondence' (Camden Society, 1878, i, 101) that he had been sued by several of his creditors and judgment given against him. Indeed was currently, though erroneously, reported that it was for refusing to interfere on his behalf that Sir Orlando Bridgman, the lord keeper, was removed from office. 'Backwell says Hatton, 'moved the late Ld Keeper upon pretence yy he had lent all ye money to ye king, whose exchequer was now shut up, to grant him an injunction to stop e proceedings of all his creditors, and for denying this it is generally reported ye seales were taken away.' Whether Backwell subsequently obtained an injunction to stop the proceedings of his creditors does not appear, but possibly it was at this time that, as tradition has it, he took refuge in Holland. He discontinued in any case his banking business, and in the list of the merchants and bankers of London for 1677 (the oldest printed list, republished in 1878) the name of John Ballard appears as occupying the shop at the Unicorn, Lombard Street. In whatever way he satisfied the claims of his creditors, he continued till 1674 comptroller of the customs at a salary of 250/l a year and he was also frequently employed by the king in receiving sums of money from abroad.
The letters patent granted under the great
