Sir Charles Duncombe

Sir Charles Duncombe came from minor country gentry, but was apprenticed to Edward Backwell (q.v.) sometime in the early to mid sixteen hundreds as a goldsmith. But by 1672, Duncombe was independent and trading from the Grasshopper in Lombard Street.

Banker to the Earl of Shaftesbury, he received a timely warning of Charles II's plan to close the Exchequer, and was able to withdraw his cash and clients' deposits in time. When he retired from banking in 1695, he sold his shares in the Bank of England for £80,000. Earlier he had bought the largest estate in England ever bought by a commoner, Helmsley in Yorkshire, for £90,000.

Duncombe was an MP and held a variety of revenuegenerating posts in government. He was, like the other great city magnates, elected Lord Mayor in 1708.

When he died in 1711, he was worth about £350,000 according to contemporary record. This was 0.53% of net national income of £65m at the time. In today's money he would be worth £5.8bn.