Moss and Co (later North Western Bank)

Moss and Co was established in Liverpool in 1807, later becoming the North Western Bank. It was acquired by Midland Bank (now HSBC UK) in 1901. Midland was acquired by HSBC Holdings plc in 1992.

The private banking firm was opened as Moss, Dales and Rogers at 4 Exchange Buildings in Liverpool. Business reflected the city’s commercial focus with corn, tobacco and cotton merchants among the early customers. John Moss was only in his mid-twenties when he started the new bank. He had been born in Liverpool and joined his father’s merchant firm as a young man.

Recent research has deepened our knowledge of the historical links of some predecessor banks to the transatlantic trade in enslaved people. The Moss family’s wealth was already partly derived from transatlantic slave-trading and John Moss continued to profit from slavery whilst running the bank. In 1820, for example, he co-inherited 1,000 enslaved people in the Bahamas from his uncle and received compensation for slave ownership at abolition. He went on to play a major role in the emerging railway sector and was the first chairman of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

Other partners of the bank had links to the transatlantic trade in enslaved people. Roger Newton Dale was part-owner in two slave voyages that departed from Liverpool in 1799. Henry Moss, half-brother of John, co-inherited a plantation and enslaved people from his uncle. Thomas Edwards-Moss, son of John, inherited much of his father’s estate, including half of the Anna Regina plantation in Guyana. Moss and Co included Liverpool slave traders and plantation owners amongst its clients.

In 1811, the bank moved to purpose-built premises in Dale Street, and after a number of partnership changes it became known simply as Moss and Co in 1826. Following a run of successful decades, profits dipped in the wake of the 1860s cotton famine and additional capital was required. The partnership converted into a shareholder-owned joint stock bank in 1864 and took on the new name of North Western Bank. The 1880s saw the start of a branch network developing in and around Liverpool. In 1897 the firm was acquired by London and Midland Bank at a cost of GBP580,000.