Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pennington, James
PENNINGTON, JAMES (1777–1862), writer on currency and banking, born at Kendal, Westmoreland, on 23 Feb. 1777, was son of William Pennington, a bookseller, and his wife Agnes Wilson. Educated at first at Kendal grammar school, he afterwards became a pupil of John Dalton (1766–1844) [q. v.] of Manchester. Subsequently Pennington engaged in business in London. At the end of 1831 he was appointed by the president of the India board to investigate the accounts of the East India Company, but the appointment was cancelled on the change of administration. Thrown out of employment, Pennington devoted himself to the study of currency and finance, and attracted the favourable notice of Huskisson, Ricardo, and Tooke. On the recommendation of the last-mentioned, he joined the Political Economy Club in 1828; he also contributed appendices to Tooke's ‘Letter to Lord Grenville,’ 1829, and to his ‘History of Prices’ (vol. ii. App. C). When, on the emancipation of the negroes in 1833, it became necessary to regulate the currency of the West Indies, Pennington was engaged for that purpose by the treasury, and framed the measures which were adopted. In 1848 he published ‘The Currency of the British Colonies,’ 8vo, which was printed for official use, and which contains much that is of permanent value.
As early as 1827 Pennington had urged, in a paper submitted to Huskisson, the desirability of some restriction on the issue of notes by the Bank of England. He had further explained his views in ‘A Letter to Kirkman Finlay, Esq., on the Importation of Foreign Corn, and the Value of the Precious Metals in Different Countries. To which are added Observations on Money and the Foreign Exchange,’ London, 8vo, 1840. During the preparation of the Bank Act (1844) he was confidentially consulted by Sir Robert Peel. Though he accepted the principle of that measure, he was not in entire agreement with its advocates, and he disapproved of the separation of the banking and issue departments of the Bank of England. From this time until his death he was frequently consulted by the government on currency and finance, on which he was regarded as one of the leading authorities. He died, on 23 March 1862, at Clapham Common. He married, in 1811, Mary Anne, eldest daughter of John Harris of Clapham, by whom he had four sons and three daughters. His son, Arthur Robert, became canon of Lincoln and rector of Utterby, Louth.
[Annual Reg. 1862, p. 390; Economist, 19 April 1862; Times, 25 March 1862; McCulloch's Lit. of Political Economy, p. 80; Canon Pennington's Recollection of Persons and Events, pp. 109–11; private information.]