The man who saved our gold
Lord Overstone, where art thou? If you were here today do you think would you be able to advise our Government over the present financial situation? I bet you could.
You see, Samuel Jones Loyd was raised to the peerage as 1st Baron Overstone and Fotheringhay in 1850, quite simply because he was a genius, a financial theorist par excellence, a brilliant banker and a very canny politician.
He was commonly regarded as the largest purchaser of land in the country and was described, in 1865, as "one of the wealthiest subjects in the world".
Samuel advised several Chancellors of the Exchequer and a couple of Prime Ministers, all of whom relied on his wisdom and he was lauded as the saviour of Britain's gold reserves.
He got Great Britain out of a terrible credit crunch; I wonder what he would be thinking in 2008 because the similarity between the two financial situations is amazing.
It may come as no surprise that Karl Marx didn't think too highly of Samuel.
In Das Kapital in a couple of chapters he demolishes every aspect of "Mr" Overstone's political and financial theories, even though Marx flatteringly refers to him at one point as "the first among bankers".
So who was this remarkable man? Well, Samuel was the son of the Rev Lewis Loyd, a Welsh classical tutor and Unitarian preacher who married the daughter of a Manchester banker.
He joined his father-in-law in the business and converted what was a small private bank into Jones, Loyd & Co, that became a huge success in the City as The London and Westminster Bank.
It seemed that mammon took over from God and he gave up his Ministry and concentrated on banking.
When in 1832 he learned that the manors of two Northamptonshire villages, Fotheringhay and Overstone, were up for grabs, he grabbed them!
He decided to settle at Overstone, for which he paid 117,000 and where there was already an 18th century house set in 40 acres of parkland.
Then in 1796, his son, Samuel, was born.
The lad went to Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge and in 1844 his father retired from the bank and handed it over to Samuel along with a vast personal fortune.
His 0.4 per cent of Britain's national wealth would now be worth a mere 3 billion at least!
Samuel junior died in London in 1883, leaving one daughter, who married Robert James Loyd-Lindsay, who became Lord Wantage and who won a VC.
The Overstones and the Wantages were great benefactors to Northamptonshire, and their names crops up all over the place.
And what of the great house that Lord Overstone built? Well it has earned a grade two listing, probably because it is so outrageously ghastly! It is said to have 120 rooms and was designed by W M Teulon.
Since the Overstone/Wantages left the house it has had several owners and is probably best remembered as a school for girls, a role it fulfilled from 1929 to 1979.
I visited it once or twice during the 1980s when it was the home of the New Testament Church of God. So mammon had been defeated and God was in charge once again!
Tragically in 2001 most of the interior was destroyed by fire.
But as you drive down Overstone Lane and see the house through the magnificent gates that once belonged to Pytchley Hall, it is worth recalling the man who introduced the Bank Act in 1844, saved the nation's finances, rebuilt Sywell and gave so much to Northamptonshire.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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