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Auction: 19022 - Historical Documents, Postal History and Autographs
Lot: 2036

Autographs
Early Cheque
1663 (24 November) payment order for £20 address to Mr (John) Morris, "Pray send me twenty pounds by this bearer my man; take this for your ... charge" and signed Sara Leyws; Underneath is the clerks notification of the order being completed. A rare and early banking document, the first ever cheque written was in 1659. Photo

Payment slips something like cheques probably existed in the ancient world, but in Britain the story goes back less far, to the birth of London's first banks in the mid-17th century. Those early bankers, mainly goldsmiths and scriveners, wanted to make payment processes easier and less risky. They developed a way for customers to make payments using paper instructions, leaving their gold and silver safely tucked up in the vaults. In so doing, they gave ordinary citizens access to a service previously available only to international merchants through bills of exchange.

Sir John Lewys was a London merchant and ship owner who made his fortune in the East Indies in Persia. He was made an alderman in 1656. He married Sarah Foot, the third daughter and co-heir of Sir Thomas Foot, in 1654. His father-in-law, Sir Thomas Foot, was a London merchant who had been Lord Mayor of London 1649/50

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