Exhibitions The first women at Barings

This exhibition marks the 150th anniversary of the first female clerks to be employed by Barings. On Wednesday 3 September 1873, J E Maryman, Laura Windus, Eliza Windus, Ellen Galer, E Campbell and MA Bentley arrived at 8 Bishopsgate and reported for their first day at work.

Surviving in the archive is the signing in book that records that historic moment. Miss J E Maryman was the superintendent of the department. By the end of the year there were 11 women signing in each morning.

The Coupon Department was set up to manage payments to investors resulting from bond issues and was staffed exclusively by female clerks.

The 1870s saw a general increase in the issuance of securities on the London market. In the 1860s Barings made 15 public issues. From 1870 to 1880 they made 30 issues while the 1880s they worked on 48 issues.

In 1873, the year that the first women joined Barings, the firm issued bonds for the Government of the USA, the State of Massachusetts, the Eastern Railroad Co of Massachusetts, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the Dominion of Canada and the City of Boston.

Pictured are a specimen bond and the prospectus for the City of Boston issue. The prospectus stated that interest payments were payable by half-yearly dividend warrants on 1 April and 1 October each year.

The counting house expenses account in Barings’ General Ledger shows that regular payments were made to the "Coupon Cutters" was made from 6 September 1873. This was recorded alongside payments relating to stationery, newspapers, candles, insurance payments and coal.

A further small notebook records the weekly salaries of the female clerks and covers the period 1877-1880. From this notebook it appears that Miss Maryman was the Superintendent of the Women Clerks, and that she received £1 10s per week. Goods and services costing £1 in 1877 would cost £95 today.

Annual lists preserved in the archive record the salaries of the male clerks each year. The document for 1873 records that the highest paid male clerk received £800 per annum while the lowest and most junior male clerk was paid £90 per annum.

The expansion of Barings' issuing business was reflected in the increase in numbers of staff in their building at 8 Bishopsgate. By 1880 there were 59 male clerks and 10 female clerks signing in to work each day and the increase in staff led to a redevelopment and extension of 8 Bishopsgate.

The architect Richard Norman Shaw was commissioned to build a new frontage to Bishopsgate in Queen Anne style. His design created a main entrance hallway to the building with a smaller side door that was used as a ladies' entrance. This led upstairs to the 2nd floor where the Coupon Room was located.

This photograph of Barings Bank on Bishopsgate was published in 1896 in Round London, an album of photographs of interesting places in London. The caption to the photograph specifically mentions this smaller entrance for women clerks.

This document records the career details of the first cohort of women who joined Barings in 1873. Some retired due to ill health, some left to be married, one left due to the Baring Crisis of 1890 and one was dismissed. Miss Fuller retired in 1905 and Miss Bentley remained until 1920.

These rules outline the regulations and systems which applied to the women clerks at Barings. Initially women had worked in the Coupon Department and then from the 1890s were employed in the Traveller's Letters and Typing Departments. By the time these rules were drawn up in 1915 they were also working in the General Office. Working hours were 10am to 5pm with 1 hour for lunch and the women clerks worked from Monday to Saturday. The rules were framed “With a view to the good conduct of the business, but also for the comfort and well-being of the ladies employed.” Click here to view the full document.

Kirsty Peacock is currently a DPhil student at the University of Oxford researching the topic of ‘Who performed the business of banking? Women’s work in the City of London, 1870-1930.’

Her research is supported by The Baring Archive working in partnership with Open-Oxford-Cambridge to offer a Collaborative Doctoral Award.

Kirsty began her research in Autumn 2021 working with historical records in Baring Archive dating from 1870s through to 1920s. You can find out more about her research in a poster prepared for the 2023 Association of Business Historians Annual conference.