C Hoare can boast of an illustrious list of clients, from Samuel Pepys to Jane Austin over the centuries.
What I find interesting is how many of the bank’s customers, relatively little known today, were so influential in shaping the development of Enlightenment in our society from the 17th century onwards.
One of the bank’s earliest customers was Mary Astell, whose advocacy of educational opportunities for women earned her the title of ‘first English feminist’.
A little aide memoir has just been issued by the bank marking the anniversary of her death, in May 1731.
Mary was born in ...
