Agency:
Derwent Bank
Agency Number:
Start Date:
01 Jan 1828
End Date:
31 Dec 1849
Description:
The Derwent Bank opened in January 1828. Its first Managing Director was William Hamilton, who was followed by Charles Swanston. The bank was a key financial instituion and prospered until the 1840s. It went into liquidation in 1849. Swanston died in 1850, and the affairs of the bank were wound up by another director, John Walker.;;The records continued to be stored in Walker's mill. Some of these records were acquired by the Royal Society of Tasmania during the 1940s. In 1961 a selection of these records (NS37 items 15-63) were transferred to the Archives Office of Tasmania; the rest were retained by the Royal Society and are now in the Special Collections at the University of Tasmania library.;;Dr W E L H (Sir William) Crowther took custody of the remaining records, which by then were in a poor state of preservation and badly disordered. Dr Crowther partially sorted and arranged them before donating them to the State Library of Tasmania in the 1960s. Detailed listing of these records is in progress, and new items will continue to appear during 2018.;;;;The Derwent Bank was a key financier of the Port Phillip Association. Records of the Melbourne branch of the Bank are held by the State Library of Victoria.;;The records in the Royal Society Collection at the University of Tasmania include Charles Swanston letterbooks and records of John Walker's business, as well as the Derwent Bank.
Information Sources:
S.J. Butlin, 'Charles Swanston and the Derwent Bank 1827-1850', Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealand, 2:7 (1943), pp.161-185; Australian Dictionary of Biography (Swanston) ; AE807/1/3;;Eleanor Robin, Swanston: merchant statesman (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2018)
Functions Performed:
Tasmanian businesses
Related Agencies:
Thomas Anstey (NG3347) | 01 Jan 1777 | 31 Dec 1851 |
Stephen Adey (NG3353) | 01 Jan 1781 | 31 Dec 1860 |
Swanston Family (NG3235) | 01 Jan 1789 | 31 Dec 2012 |
John Walker (2) (NG37) | 01 Jan 1799 | 27 Feb 1874 |
Port Phillip Association (NG3346) | 01 Jan 1834 | 31 Dec 1840 |
Series Created By Agency:
NS37 Records of the Rossbank Observatory, John Walker's Mill and Brewery, Bank of Vdl and the Derwent Bank. | 01 Jan 1824 | 31 Dec 1883 |
NS4983 Administrative Records - Derwent Bank | 01 Dec 1827 | 27 Apr 1850 |
ALL61 Derwent Bank Papers | 27 Dec 1827 | 27 Jul 1848 |
NS4978 Convict Bank Accounts | 01 Jan 1828 | 30 Jun 1851 |
NS4979 Derwent Bank - General Correspondence | 01 Jan 1828 | 31 Dec 1855 |
CRO24 Letterbook of Charles Swanston | 01 Jan 1830 | 31 Dec 1850 |
CRO31 Charles Swanston - Miscellaneous Correspondence | 01 Jan 1833 | 31 Dec 1851 |
NS305 Register of Deeds to Mortgaged Property received and Delivered. | 02 Sep 1839 | 31 Dec 1851 |
NS1427 Miscellaneous Documents | 01 Jan 1840 | 31 Dec 1840 |
NS1458 Deed of Settlement | 01 Jan 1843 | 31 Dec 1843 |