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London Metropolitan Archives

MULLENS AND COMPANY


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0074 CLC/B/165

Held at: London Metropolitan Archives

Title: MULLENS AND COMPANY

Date(s): 1810-1966

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 106 production units.

Name of creator(s): Mullens and Co | stockbrokers and H.M. Government brokers

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

For two hundred years from the appointment of Benjamin Cole as the first Government Broker in July 1786, the senior partner of the firm of Mullens and Company, stockbrokers, acted as Government Stockbroker. The formal title assigned to the Senior Partner of the firm was "Broker to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt". During this period the firm was one of the leading City stockbrokers, enjoying close relations with the Bank of England and the Stock Exchange in relation to its activities in the gilt-edged market. It also had a number of private clients. Mullens and Company remained a partnership except for a brief period from 1949 when, for tax reasons, it converted into a private unlimited company in common with other Stock Exchange firms. In April 1986 Mullens and Company was taken over by the merchant bank SG Warburg, and ceased to exist.

Mullens and Company traded under a variety of names, 1786-1810, and under the following names from 1810 onwards:
-Templeman, Cole and Ede, 1810-1811;
- Cole Jnr and Child, 1811-1813;
- Templeman, Cole Jnr and Child, 1813-1820;
- Cole and Child, 1820-1825;
- Templeman, Cole and Child, 1825-1829;
- Cole and Child, 1829-1831;
- Cole and Mullens, 1831-1843;
- Mullens and Marshall, 1843-1846;
- Mullens, Marshall and Daniell, 1846-1877;
- Mullens, Marshall and Company, 1877-1921;
- Mullens, Marshall, Steer Lawford and Company, 1921-1935;
- Mullens and Company, 1935-1986.

From 1810 the offices of the firm were as follows: 29 Princes Street, Lothbury, 1810-1815; 51 Lothbury, 1815-1834; 53 Lothbury, 1834-1836; 45 Lothbury, 1836-1837; 3 Lombard Street, 1837-1868; 4 Lombard Street, 1869-1906; 13 George Street, 1906-1952; 13 Moorgate, 1952; 35 Moorgate, 1952; 15 Moorgate, 1952-1986.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of Mullens and Company, stockbrokers and H M Government brokers, comprising: partnership deeds and related papers, 1862-1964; papers re the formation of an unlimited company, 1946-1965; operational records, c 1850-1954; financial records, 1815-1966; records relating to staff, 1916-48; property records, 1934-1951, and family papers, 1706-1922.

Information on access to records less than 40 years old is available from a member of staff.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Records arranged by MS number, assigned during cataloguing at the Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section.

Conditions governing access:

Access by appointment only. Please contact staff.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to this collection rests with the depositor.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The Mullens and Co archives were donated to the Manuscripts Section of Guildhall Library by Warburg Securities, per Roger Daniell, a former Mullens partner, in 1989 and 1991. The Guildhall Manuscripts Section accepted few records later than 1950. They were catalogued in circa 1993. The Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section merged with the London Metropolitan Archives in 2009.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Related material:

Further information about Mullens and Company can be found in the Bank of England archives.

Publication note:

For further details of the history of Mullens & Co see David Wainwright, Government Broker: the story of an office and of Mullens & Co (Matham Publishing, 1990).

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: January to May 2011.


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Business records | Documents | Information sources
Share dealing | Financial markets | Investment | Finance
Stockbrokers | People by occupation | People
Commodities

Personal names

Corporate names
Mullens and Co | stockbrokers and H.M. Government brokers

Places
City of London | London | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe