Martins Bank

The history of Martins Bank is intertwined with the Grasshopper, the sign under which the Bank traded and was known in its early years. Tradition has it that Thomas Gresham, whose family crest included a grasshopper, founded the bank in 1563. However, although he is believed to be the first to use the sign of the Grasshopper on a goldsmith's shop in Lombard Street he does not appear to have had any connection with the Martins. Chandler states that there are differences of opinion as to when the Grasshopper became a bank and John Martin did not purchase the freehold of the Grasshopper until 1741.

The Martin family were among the early London Goldsmiths. In 1558 Richard Martin was elected a liveryman of the Goldsmiths Company and later a Master of the Mint and Lord Mayor of the City of London. Successive generations of Martins ran the bank that was popularly referred to as "The Grasshopper" but the partnership went through various incarnations, including Martins, Stone and Blackwell, and Martin Stone and Foote in the eighteenth century; and Martin and Company in 1844.

The London private bankers typically confined themselves to their one office, although Martins did have the occasional branch where individual partners lived. It meant that, compared with the joint-stock banks, Martins' growth was limited. Following the panic that followed the collapse of Barings Bank in 1890, Martins finally decided to become a limited company (1891). This prompted a more expansionist approach but the bank "thought only of amalgamations with other private banks". There was an unsuccessful approach to Cocks Biddulph, with which there were family links, but the realisation that "expansion to the provinces was now essential" led to the bank agreeing, in 1914, to its acquisition by the Bank of Liverpool, which had been founded in 1831 in Liverpool, England. The Martins name had valuable prestige and a seat on the London Bankers' Clearing House; when the delayed "merger" was consummated in 1918 after the conclusion of the First World War, the family name was retained in the title Bank of Liverpool and Martins.

The name was subsequently shortened to Martins Bank Limited in 1928. The change of name was at the insistence of the directors of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank, whose former HQ at 43 Spring Gardens Manchester became Martins' Manchester district office. By 1928, the bank had expanded to some 560 branches and had a logo featuring a grasshopper, which was the crest of Sir Thomas Gresham, and a Liver bird, the logo of the Bank of Liverpool. The combined coat of arms was duly registered by the College of Heralds. The heraldic description of the coat of arms is as follows: "Or, a Liver bird (or Cormorant) Sable, holding in the beak a branch of Laver (or Seaweed) Vert, on a Chief of the third a Grasshopper of the first."

Directors of Martins Bank included Edward Stanley, 18th Earl of Derby, The Queen Mother's younger brother The Hon. Sir David Bowes-Lyon and Colonel Robert Buxton DSO MA-Oxon (Imperial Camel Corps friend of T. E. Lawrence).

Between 1958 and 1967 Martins Bank owned and operated Lewis's Bank which had branches in each of the Lewis's Department Stores (not to be confused with John Lewis) and also in Selfridges in London. Lewis's Bank was sold to Lloyds Bank in 1967 and lasted until at least the 1980s.

A new headquarters building for Martins Bank Limited was designed by the architect Herbert James Rowse in the classical revival style and opened in 1932 at 4 Water Street, Liverpool, replacing the previous headquarters at 7 Water Street.

The bank was bought by Barclays Bank in 1969, when all of its 700 branches became branches of Barclays. Around 30 branches closed immediately, and ten were downgraded to sub-branches. Some, such as the sub-branch at Eaton, Norwich, Norfolk were brand new and handed over to Barclays on the day appointed by Act of Parliament for the merger of the two banks, 15 December 1969. The Martins grasshopper logo was retained for part of the combined business until the early 1980s, with "Martins Branch" and a small grasshopper appearing first on both statements and cheque books, later cheques only.