The Hammonds of St. Alban’s Court-revised 20.5.2013
As well as being land-owners, the Hammonds of St. Alban’s Court and the Plumptres of Fredville were partners in Plumtre, Hammond & Co., a Canterbury bank, from at least 1824. By 1830 the bank had become Hammond & Co., the partners then being: William Osmond Hammond, John Plumptree, Deane John Parker and John Furley ……Glyn & Co.
In 1845- The Bankers Magazine recorded that Hammond & Company’s partners were:-William Osmund Hammond, of St. Alban’s Court,Nonington,Kent; John Pemberton Plumptre, of Fredville, Nonington, and M.P. for Kent; John Furley, of Canterbury, who had replaced the late William Foord Hinton; and William Henry Furley, of ,Canterbury.
A decade later in 1850 the banks partners were listed as: William Osmond Hammond, St. Alban’s Court,Nonington,Kent, Esquire; John Pemberton Plumptre, Fredville, Nonington, Esquire; William Henry Furley, Canterbury, Esquire; Thomas Hilton, Nackington House, near Canterbury, Esquire; and John Furley, Jun.,Canterbury, Esquire.
By the late 1880′s Hammond & Co’s Canterbury Bank had premises at 51, High Street with George Furley and McMaster as managers. These premises are the present Lloyds Bank building on the corner of the High Street and St. Margaret’s Street.
The 1901 census records both Charles J. Plumptre of Fredville and William Oxenden Hammond of St. Alban’s Court as being a “partner in bank”. William Hammond, then aged 86, was recorded in the same census as residing at St. Alban’s Court with seven “live in” servants.
The 1903 Kelly’s Directory for Kent, the Canterbury section reports: ”There are three banks , viz.: the Canterbury bank, carried on under the firm of Hammond, Plumptre, Hilton, McMaster & Furley, and branches of the London and County Banking Company and Lloyds Bank.” By 1904 the bank had become the Capital and Counties Bank.