Chapter IV / Osterley Walk
The Child Family Patriarch
Beyond the blades of tall grass, a view of the house unfolds. On these waters that you see once floated wooden boats called Sampans brought here from East Asia.18
Following the passing of Blanchard, Francis Child I inherited all of Blanchard’s assets along with the company that he renamed Child & Co. Child’s bank was one of the most successful goldsmith banks of the time and also one of the few that would survive the first ever financial crash: the infamous South Sea Bubble of 1720.
© Library of Congress.
The stockholdings of Child & Co. which included the shares held by the Child family, together with another goldsmith-bank partnership named Swordblade, had accounted for a third of all goldsmith bank holdings for East India Company stock - so, this institution held a substantial amount of East India stock and concentrated power.19
By way of a mortgage default from its previous owner, the house and estate of Osterley Park too became a part of the banker’s wealth.20
Francis Child was a man of many titles:
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A leader in jewellery trade at the time,
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Jeweller in ordinary to King William I,
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A councillor, alderman, Sheriff and Lord Mayor of London,
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A Member of Parliament,
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Owner of the house and estate at Osterley Park,
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Head and co-founder of Child & Co.
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An investor in the South Sea Company: an English corporation that enslaved over 42,000 Africans and caused the ‘Bubble’ of 1720,20
- A committee member and a heavy investor in the the East India Company,
- A billionaire by today’s standards,22 and
- The patriarch of a dynasty of imperial agents, bankers and politicians.23
Kneller, Godfrey. Sir Francis Child (1642–1713). Wikipedia.
Keep walking until the paths diverge. There, turn left and play the next audio. Follow the map on the webpage (below) in case you are lost.
Images:
1. Moll, Herman. 1732. A new & exact map of thecoast, countries and islands within ye limits of ye South Sea Company, from ye river Aranoca to Terra del Fuego, and from thence through ye South Sea, to ye north part of California &c. with a view of the general and coasting trade-winds and perticular draughts of the most important bays, ports &c. © Library of Congress. (Public Domain)
2. Kneller, Godfrey. Sir Francis Child (1642–1713). Wikipedia. (Public Domain)
18 Porten, Lucy. 2017. Osterley Park and House: National Trust Guidebook. N.p.: National Trust. pg. 54.
19 Mays, Andrew, and Gary S. Shea. 2012. "A social network for trade and inventories of stock during the South Sea Bubble" CDMA Working Paper , no. 1110. University of St. Andrews Research. pg. 31-32.
Bell, Stuart. 2012. “‘A Masterpiece of Knavery’? The Activities of the Sword Blade Company in London’s Early Financial Markets.” Business History 54 (4): 623–38. doi:10.1080/00076791.2012.683416. Pg. 625.
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The Hollow Sword Blade Company was the foundation for the creation of the South Sea Company (SSC) and played a role in the collapse of the Company in 1720, dubbed the “South Sea Bubble”. Although founded to manufacture hollow blades, the business was transformed into a joint-stock company for which Sir Franchis Child funded the charter. Today, the institution exists in the form of a financial advisory firm of Swordblade & Co, based within the Royal Exchange in London.
20 Sir John Soane’s Museum Collection Online. “Osterley House”. Robert and James Adam Office Drawings. Accessed September 5, 2024. https://collections.soane.org/SCHEME929
21 Moll, Herman, and H. Moll. n.d. “The South Sea Company and the Slave Trade.” CURIOSity Digital Collections. Accessed October 1, 2024. https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/south-sea-bubble/feature/the-south-sea-company-and-the-slave-trade
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“Over its entire trading lifetime, the [South Sea Company] forced nearly 42,000 people to leave the African coast. It disembarked almost 35,000 people meaning that just over 7,000 people died on the crossing,” economic historian Helen Paul writes. “Their bodies would have been thrown to the sharks. These facts are at odds with some of the contemporary satires and entertainments about the SSC, none of which deal with the horrors of the trade.”
- Britain granted the South Sea Company a monopoly on trade with the Spanish footholds in South America (the “South Seas”) and supplied 4800 slaves per year to work in Spanish colonies, including their gold and silver mines.
Sharma, Yuthika et.al. op.cit. Pg. 7.
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“...when he died in 1713 Sir Francis Child was a very wealthy man, with assets of £250,000 – assessed by Philip Beresford to be equivalent to £3.8bn today.”
23 Natwest Group Heritage Hub. “Francis Child”. Accessed Aug 15, 2024. https://www.natwestgroup.com/heritage/people/francis-child-i.html