Henry Hoare (banker)

Henry Hoare by Michael Dahl

Memorial in St Peter's Church, Stourton

Henry Hoare I (1677–1725), known as Good Henry, was an English banker and landowner.

Career

Born the son of Sir Richard Hoare, founder of C. Hoare & Co bankers, Henry the Good became a Partner in the bank in August 1702. Together with his father, he became a commissioner for the building of 50 new churches in London in 1711. Following his father's death in 1719, he managed the bank through the South Sea Bubble of 1720, making a profit of over £28,000 from the crisis. He acquired the Stourhead estate in 1717 but died before the new house there had been fully completed.

In 1702 he married Jane Benson; they had three children:

• Jane (d.1762)
• Henry Hoare II (1705–1785)
• Sir Richard Hoare (1709–1754), Lord Mayor of London 1745–46

Further reading

• Dodd, Dudley, Stourhead, published by The National Trust, 1981
• Hoare, Henry Peregrine Rennie, Hoare's Bank: A Record 1672–1955, 1932, new edition 1955
• Hutchings, Victoria, Messrs Hoare, Bankers: A History of the Hoare Banking Dynasty, 2005