Yeovil's Virtual Museum

George Tilley Gollop

Glover and Banker

 

George Tilley Gollop "of Strode" (that is, Strode Manor, Netherbury, Dorset) was born on 11 October 1791 in Sherborne. He was baptised at Sherborne on 29 August 1793, some six months after the death of his father. He was the elder son of Thomas Gollop of Sherborne (1745-1793) and Jane née Sawkins (1764-1824). George had a younger brother, Thomas (1793-1821).

Nothing is known of his early life, but he clearly was in possession of substantial wealth. On 19 September 1815 in Vienna (Roman Catholic rite), 23-year-old George married 26-year-old Christianna Vander Vliegen (1789-1865). They were married again the following year, on 16 August 1816, at St Marylebone, London. She was a British subject and daughter of John Hubert Vander Vliegen of Brabant (now parts of Belgium and Netherlands).

George and Christianna set up home in Yeovil, where George was already a partner in the Yeovil Old Bank, certainly from 1814 and was also a partner in the glove manufacturing firm of Carter & Gollop.

William Carter, glove manufacturer of Yeovil, was for many years in partnership with Charles Hutchings (father of John Hutchings - see below) but this partnership was dissolved prior to 1818 when, on 25 March 1818, William Carter entered a Deed of Co-partnership with George Tilley Gollop, Esquire, of Brympton. George Gollop agreed to become a partner for seven years for £3,500 of joint stock and capital being £1,500 by William Carter and £2,000 by George Gollop (£3,500 is about £2.7 million at today's value). The partnership of Carter & Gollop was dissolved in February 1820.

Yeovil Old Bank was a private bank established by 1774, by Samuel Daniell who was appointed to receive and exchange deficient gold coin. The firm was known as Samuel Daniell & Co by 1796. By 1812 it was known as Daniell & Hutchings and by 1814 was known as Yeovil Old Bank owned by Daniell & Co. From the names printed on their banknotes (see Gallery) the partners of Yeovil Old Bank were John Daniell the younger, John Hutchings and George Tilley Gollop.

Following the death of John Daniell the younger in 1819, banknotes were issued by surviving partners Hutchings and Gollop, certainly until 7 March 1820. Yeovil Old Bank was then acquired by Edmund Batten and his partner Samuel Sparkes, a banker of Crewkerne and Chard, and was known as Batten, Sparkes & Co.

I assume that George Gollop left the bank at the time of the takeover (coincidentally, the same time as the partnership of Carter & Gollop was dissolved), although he stayed in Yeovil for a while since his first child, Christina Georgina Jane (1821-1906), was born in Yeovil. A son, George Paulet (1825-1890), was born "in Somerset" and a second son John Paulet (1829-1907) was born after the family left Yeovil for their estate at Netherbury, Beaminster, Dorset.

Christianna died at Netherbury in 1865, aged 73. The following year, 75-year-old George married 26-year-old Sarah Christian née Monteith (1840-1869) at Beaminster. They seem to have had two children, both apparently born in 1866 - Ralph Josephus (1866-1920) and Jane Susanna (1866-1946). Sadly, Sarah died at Netherbury on 25 October 1869, aged just 29. George Tilley Gollop died at Netherbury on 22 February 1889, aged 97.

George Tilley Gollop in a colourised photograph of around 1860.

 

From my collection

A cut-cancelled £1 banknote (worth around £95 at today's value) issued by the Yeovil Old Bank, dated 27 February 1818. Partners in the bank were John Daniell, John Hutchings and George Tilley Gollop.