Newton & Cottrell, Female Investors 1 Female investors in the first English and Welsh commercial joint-stock banks. ∗ Lucy Newton University of Reading and Philip L. Cottrell University of Leicester During the mid-1850s economic and financial observers noted that gentlemen, spinsters and widows comprised a substantial part of London joint-stock banks’ proprietories. Indeed, a considerable number of these collectively significant shareholders were female. 1 Similarly, when the Northumberland & Durham District Bank failed in 1857, it was found that half of its shareholders were women. 2 Furthermore, those not indicating an income-generating occupation, including spinsters and widows, were prominent amongst the Liverpool Commercial Bank’s shareholders when its management decided in 1861 that their institution ∗ This contribution draws from some of the findings of a Leverhulme Trust-funded project ‘The constituencies of English and Welsh joint stock banks, 1825 to c.1885’. We are grateful for the support so generously provided, and also for the very valuable assistance of the archivist who so willingly gave of their time and informed guidance: John Booker and Karen Sampson (Lloyds TSB Archives [hereafter LTSBA]); Edwin Green and Sara Kinsey (Midland Bank/HSBC Group Archives [hereafter HSBCGA]); Jesse Campbell and Josephine Horner (Barclays Bank Archives [hereafter BBA]); Fiona MacColl and Susan Snell (National Westminster Bank); and Alison Turton and Philip Winterbottom (Royal Bank of Scotland). Since these archive holdings were consulted, the ‘NatWest’ historical material has been incorporated with that of RBS as a consequence of RBS’s acquisition of ‘NatWest’, and are now to be found in the Royal Bank of Scotland Archives [hereafter RBSA]. We also wish to acknowledge fully the generous help of Professor Josephine Maltby and Professor Janette Rutterford in the drafting of this paper, and of Edwin Green who commented on an earlier draft. A previous version of this paper was presented at the 2005 Business History Conference, Minneapolis, and we grateful for participants’ comments, in particular those of Mark Carlson, Larry Neal (designated commentator), Richard Sylla and Mary Yeager. 1 The Economist (13 Mar. 1856), p. 290. 2 Banker’s Magazine (1857), p. 540.