whole of the Bank of England’s valuable patent process for the manufacture of the new watermark is (in 1855) executed in the premises of the Bank in London, by Mr. John Smith of the Engineering Department, under the superintendence of Mr. Hensman, the Engineer-in-Chief. By the latter it is transmitted to Mr. V. S. Portal, at the mill, when Mr. W. Brewer places the different portions together on the mould frames, superintending any repairs, &c, that may be necessary. About 50,000 notes are made daily.
On 20th December 1854, before the Society of Arts in London, Mr. Alfred Smee, F.R.S., Author of “Elements of Electro-Metallurgy,” read a paper “On the New Bank of England Note, and the substitution of surface printing by electro-type for copper-plate printing.” He incidentally mentions that the Bank has twelve sets of notes, namely, for London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Leicester, Bristol, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Hull, and Swansea. There are thus sixty-six kinds of Bank of England notes, and 9,000,000 (equal to nearly £300,000,000) are issued in a year. In the manufacture of the paper every sheet must be accounted for, and it is a felony to manufacture paper like it. All kinds of precautions, in the way of counting and accounting, are used on the arrival of the paper in London, on its being stored, on its being delivered to the printer, and on its actual conversion into bank-notes. Each note circulates under the protection of the laws, “When a note returns to the Bank in Threadneedle Street, it dies.” “The registry of its death is taken by a system devised by my brother, Mr. William Smee.” “After the death has been registered, the note is deposited in the vaults for reference, for ten years, when it is burnt.”
III. Courtauld.
The Courtauld family was cradled in the Province of Saintonge. Its early members, settled in England, are described as merchants, goldsmiths, and jewellers. But ultimately the family became eminent in the silk-manufacture, and introduced silk-tlirozviiig into the county of Essex, where they built throwing-mills. The sites of their mills were Pebmarsh and Braintree. They are now represented by the opulent firm of Samuel Courtauld & Co., crape-manufacturers, of Halstead, Braintree, and Booking.
Colonel Chester, with his usual generosity, furnished me with a Memoir of this family, the result of researches in the Isle of Oleron, and of most persevering searches in English archives. The following details are extracted from it.
Pierre Courtauld was the first of his family who settled at St. Pierre, in the Isle of Oleron. Official papers prove him to have become the principal merchant, and, through successful industry, the monopolist of the trade and manufactures of the island. His first wife was Judith Gibaud, the mother of his children. [Before 19th September 1686, he had married a second wife, Anne Cagna; this lady made her will on 19th August 1689, and in it she says:— “First, I recommend my soul to God the Father Almighty, who hears this prayer for the sake of His dear Son my Saviour Jesus Christ, who has shed His precious blood upon the cross for our sins, to have pity and compassion upon it, and at its departure from the body to receive it graciously into His holy paradise in the ranks of the faithful, to the enjoyment of eternal life.”]
The children of Pierre Courtauld and Judith Gibaud were two sons, Augustine and Pierre, and a daughter, Judith, wife of Gedeon Gannet. Of these, only Augustine came to England as a refugee.
Various documents, signed by the Courtaulds, indicate the superior position and culture of their family. Clerks, notaries, and official persons, took great liberties with their surname spelling it in every imaginable way, Cortald, Cortauld, Courtald, Courtaud, Courtault, Courtaut, Courtaux, Courteau, Courtcauld, Courteault, Courthould, Courfauld, Courtland. “But whenever the actual signatures of the Courtaulds themselves have been obtained, the orthography has been, without a single exception, Courtauld, and the handwriting is invariably and remarkably excellent.”
Augustine Courtauld made his will on the 5th September 1706; it was written in French, and an English translation was made for the Probate Court. He is described as “Mr. Augustine Courtauld, born in St. Peter in the Isle of Oleron, in France, and then residing in the parish of St. Anne in Soho, in the Liberty of Westminster.” He made a formal declaration that he had been twice married, first to Julia Giron, by whom he had one son, Augustine; and that by his second wife, Esther (still living), [she survived him until May 1732] he had also one son, Peter. His will directs that his wife and two sons shall each have one-third of his “inheritance,” his wife to be executrix for Peter; while for the elder son, Augustine, the testator’s brother, Pierre Courtauld, was to be executor. He also mentions his estate in France; “for the estate in France, he giveth it to his two children for to share them by equal parts and portions.”
