LOYD, Samuel Jones (1796-1883).

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

20 May 1819 - 1826

Family and Education

b. 25 Sept. 1796, o.s. of Lewis Loyd, banker, of London by 1st w. Sarah, da. of John Jones, banker, of Manchester. educ. Kentish Town 1804, Chiswick (Rev. Thomas Horne) 1809; Eton 1809-13; Trinity Coll. Camb. 1814. m. 10 Aug. 1829, Harriet, da. of Ichabod Wright, banker, of Mapperley Hall, Notts. 1s. d.v.p. 1da. cr. Baron Overstone 5 Mar. 1850; suc. fa. 1858.

Offices Held

Sheriff, Warws. 1838-9.

Biography

Loyd’s father, the son of a Carmarthenshire farmer, became a Unitarian teacher and preacher in Manchester, where he met his first wife. Before marrying Sarah Jones, he left the ministry and joined the banking house run by her brothers in Manchester and London, where he went to assist in running the branch at 43 Lothbury. He became the driving force behind the firm, subsequently known as Jones, Loyd and Company, turned it into one of the leading banks of the day and prospered handsomely. At his death in 1858 he left £701,000 in securities, real estate valued at £1,172,091 and personal effects worth £5,639.1

The birth of Samuel Jones Loyd was registered with the Unitarian authorities, but he was brought up as a member of the Church of England. In 1814, Charles Blomfield, later bishop of London, who gave him private tuition to complete his preparation for Cambridge, reported to Lewis Loyd:

I entertain confident hopes that your son’s good talents and good principles ... will enable him to acquit himself in such a manner as will do honour to himself. ... There himself is certainly something of ambition roused in him of late, and I trust that the encouragement and commendation which he has deserved and received from me, will give him what is all he wants, a little more confidence in his own powers.

He became a partner in the bank in December 1816, but does not appear to have become actively engaged in the business until the early 1820s.2

Loyd, standing on the ‘independent’ interest, successfully contested a vacancy for Hythe, where wealthy outsiders were always popular, in May 1819. He is not known to have spoken in the House before 1820 and his only recorded vote in this period was in favour of limiting the duration of the seditious meetings bill to three years, 6 Dec. 1819. Lord Teignmouth, his contemporary at Trinity, later recalled him as a member of a London debating society formed in 1819:

One of our best speakers was Lord Overstone, then a Member of the House of Commons, though rarely attending, and never, I believe, taking any part in the debates. Most felicitous was the language which conveyed the thoughts and arguments suggested by his clear, powerful, and well-informed understanding; but his address was unimpassioned and his manner diffident ... [He] was wont to give the Tories of our Society credit for making better defences than the ministers themselves of their own policy.3

Loyd came to public notice as an authority on banking and finance in the 1830s and subsequently exercised very considerable influence on the fiscal policy of Victorian governments. He took over from his father as head of the bank in 1844, disposed of it in 1864 and died, a multi-millionaire, 17 Nov. 1883.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: David R. Fisher

Notes

See Correspondence of Lord Overstone ed. O'Brien, 3 vols. (Cambridge, 1971).

  • 1. Ibid. i. 12-14; ii. 856.
  • 2. Ibid. i. 14-16, 151.
  • 3. Reminiscences, i. 217-19.