Petty and Postlethwaite, Ulverston

The Ulverston Bank of Petty and Postlethwaite, which was involved in banking by 1795, had its roots in trade. The Petty family had been merchants in cotton and wine and through their business contacts started providing banking services to other merchants. The Ulverston Bank focused on the cotton, wine and timber trades and was also closely linked with shipping and ship-building. Edmund Petty was the first partner, and William Postlethwaite entered the partnership circa 1820. The bank soon became a regional bank, serving an area much wider than Ulverston itself, with interests and customers in Coniston, Pennington, Preston, Lancaster, Bardsea, Aldingham, Broughton and even London, Liverpool and Glasgow. In 1863 the Ulverston Bank merged with the Kendal Bank.

Material available at Group Archives: partners' records including accounts of their non-banking business; correspondence 1840s onwards