David Barclay of Youngsbury

David Barclay was an English Quaker merchant and banker and one of the founders of the present-day Barclays Bank. He is known as ardent abolitionist and philanthropist.

Born in a merchant family, David became a partner in the family firm in Cheapside that owned ships that traded linen with New York, Pennsylvania, the Chesapeake area and the West Indies. Through his mother David inherited share in Barclay, Bevan & Bening bank and became a partner. Bank financed, among other things, slavers and slave owners. Although Quaker beliefs disapproved slavery, other partners in the bank were non-Quakers so the bank continued to finance slave activities. Except of banking, David also owned Barclay, Perkins & Co. that would become one of the three greatest breweries of the 19th century London. When he inherited a small property with 32 slaves in Jamaica he decided to free them and take them to Philadelphia where he found them an employment. David was a good friend of Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.