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Joseph Chaplin Hankey (1727-1773)

 

Joseph Chaplin Hankey was the eldest son of Sir Joseph Hankey and Elizabeth nee Johnson; baptised on 20 Aug 1727 at Clapham and named after his great-grandfather Joseph Chaplin (1645-1728).

 

He was married at St Paul’s Cathedral on 23 Feb 1754 to Catherine Gale (1738-1805), the officiating minister being the bridegroom’s brother Rev Harry Hankey, Rector of East Bergholt.

Catherine was a daughter of Isaac Gale (1702-1750) of Jamaica and his wife Dorothy Orgill (1708-1750).

Joseph and Catherine  had thirteen children, of whom three sons and six daughters survived:

 

A banker, Joseph Chaplin Hankey became a partner of Hankey & Co in or before 1763, and succeeded his uncle as head partner 1770-73.

Many of his children were baptised at St Katherine Colman in Fenchurch Street. He spent part of his time with his family in Suffolk, and is recorded as being “of Barfield, Suffolk; on his father’s death in 1769 he inherited Old Hall, East Bergholt, with other property at East Bergholt, and at Stratford, Holton, Capell and Great Wenham, and a half interest in four properties in Fenchurch Street (two in his own possession, one of his partner Stephen Hall and the fourth let to James Green, watchmaker).

He made his will on 8 Jul 1773 (witnessed by John Rhodes, George Garthorne [some time partner of Hankey & Co] and William Harvey) and shot himself fifteen weeks later on 18 Oct 1773 at Old Hall, for reasons which are not known. His funeral was on 25 Oct 1773 at East Bergholt, when he was ‘bury’d in linnen’ and not in the woollen normally required by law.

In 1775 his widow Catherine made her will at 10 Great George Street, Westminster (a leasehold property which her late husband had purchased from Henry Drummond in 1771), but soon moved with the children to Northampton.

The Suffolk estate was leased, and in 1777 sold, thus ending the Hankey connection with Old Hall. But the decision to leave had already been taken when Joseph Chaplin Hankey drew up his will; in it he required his cousin and partner, Thomas Hankey, to sell all the lands and invest the funds in trust for his grand-children.

For Joseph Chaplin 50 years earlier the acquisition of land and property as well as adding to his social status had provided an investment for his accumulated wealth; the Hankeys, with their roots in city banking, seemingly had other ideas on investment. Joseph Chaplin Hankey is remembered as a benefactor of the parish church at East Bergholt, having presented the greater part of the church plate which is still in use today, engraved ‘Gift of Joseph Chaplin Hankey Esq. 1768’.