hich L5 per share was to be immediately
called up. The list of directors contained, among others, the names
of Charles Shaw, William Chance, Frederic Ledsam, Joseph Gibbins,
and John Mabson. The shares were readily taken by the public, and on
September 1st, 1829, the company commenced operations on the premises
of Gibbins and Lovell. It was decided, however, to build a suitable
banking house, and in a very short time the building standing at the
corner of Waterloo Street was erected. Before removing to the new
bank, the directors made overtures to Mr. Paul Moon James, of the firm
of Galton and Co., which resulted in that bank being closed, and Mr.
James becoming manager of the Banking Company. With such directors,
and with so able and so popular a man for the manager, the progress of
the bank was very rapid, and it soon had the largest banking business
in the town. In a few years the reputation which Mr. James had
obtained as a successful banker induced the directors of a new bank at
Manchester to make him a very lucrative offer. Much to the regret of
his Birmingham directors, and indeed to the whole public of the town,
he accepted the offer, and shortly afterwards removed to Manchester.
He retained the position of manager there until his death. Mr. James
was something more than a mere man of business. He had a cultured
mind, and took a very active part in educational questions. This very
day, on looking over an old book, I found his name as the Birmingham
representative of a leading literary association of my younger days,
the "Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge"--a society which,
with Lord Brougham for chairman and Charles Knight for its most active
member, did much to create good, wholesome, cheap literature, and
published, among many other works, the "Penny Magazine" and the "Penny
Cyclopaedia."

After Mr. James left Birmingham, the directors of the Banking Company
appointed Mr. William Beaumont to be his successor. A Yorkshireman
by birth, he had resided for some time in Wolverhampton, filling a
responsible position in one of the banks there. Mr. Beaumont remained
manager of the Birmingham Banking Company until his death in 1863,
having filled the office for more than a quarter of a century. During
his life the bank had a very high reputation, and paid excellent
dividends. It had squally weather occasionally, of coarse, but it
weathered all storms. It was in great jeopardy in the great panic
of 1837. It