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Early American Checks: Forms and Functions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

James P. Baughman
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Abstract

In the manner of the Creole tradesmen of Louisiana, whose lagniappe to their patrons is legendary, the Editor offers a similar bonus to readers of the Review. Instead of trifling presents added to a purchase, however, our lagniappe will be notes and documents illustrative of the evolution of business enterprise.

Type
Lagniappe
Information
Business History Review , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , Winter 1967 , pp. 421 - 435
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1967

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References

1 “Early American Checks and an Example of Their Use,” Business History Review, XLI (Autumn, 1967), 285–302.Google Scholar

2 Type I was addressed to the cashier of the bank upon which it was drawn and was made payable to “AB” or bearer. Type 2 was addressed to the bank itself rather than to the cashier and was made payable to “AB” or bearer.

3 The dependence of the Massachusetts Bank upon the Bank of North America for information concerning banking forms and usages is well-known, see Gras, N. S. B., The Massachusetts First National Bank of Boston, 1784–1934 (Cambridge, Mass., 1937), 3–212.Google Scholar

4 Domett, Henry W., A History of the Bank of New York, 1784–1884 (New York, 1884), illustrations between 48 and 49.Google Scholar

5 Buse, Elliott, 150 Years of Banking on the Eastern Shore: A History of the Easton National Bank of Maryland, 1805–1955 (Easton, Md., 1955)Google Scholar, illustration on 10.

6 Hubert, Philip G. Jr., The Merchants' National Bank of the City of New York, 1803–1903 (New York, 1903)Google Scholar, illustrations on 88.

7 On display in First Bank of the United States Building (Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, Pa.).

8 The Hartford National Bank, 1792–1801 (Hartford, Conn., 1901), illustrations on 50–51, 56–57.Google Scholar

9 On display in First Bank of the United States Building (loc. cit.).

10 Reproduced in Van Fenstermaker, J., The Development of American Commercial Banking, 1782–1837 (Kent, Ohio, 1965), 37.Google Scholar

11 Type 3a was a Type 1 or Type 2 check in which the printed word bearer was crossed out and the handwritten word “order” was substituted.

12 Cook, Joel, The Philadelphia National Bank: A Century's Record, 1803–1903 (Philadelphia, 1903), illustration between 60 and 61Google Scholar; Wainwright, Nicholas B., History of the Philadelphia National Bank (Philadelphia, 1953), illustration between 60 and 61Google Scholar; Ashmead, Henry G., History of the Delaware County National Bank (Chester, Pas., 1914), illustration between 26 and 27Google Scholar; The Life Story of a Bank: The Bridgeport National Bank, Founded 1806 (Bridgeport, Conn., 1926), illustration on 8.Google Scholar

13 Knight, Harry S., One Hundred Years of Uninterrupted Banking Service: The First National Bank of Sunbury (Sunbury, Pas., 1931), illustrations on 18 and 20.Google Scholar

14 Type 3b was a check in which Pay to and or were printed, leaving it up to the drawer to write in “bearer” or “order.”

15 On display, First Bank of the United States Building, (loc. cit.).

16 Gras, op. cit., 633; Hartford National Bank, illustration on 50; Burnham, Smith, First Hundred Years of the National Bank of Chester County, 1814–1914 (West Chester, Pa., 1914), illustration on 29Google Scholar; Lunt, Dudley C., The Farmers Bank: An Historical Account of the President, Directors and Company of the Farmers Bank of the State of Delaware, 1807–1957 (Philadelphia, 1957), illustration on 211.Google Scholar

17 Incredibly, this check is signed “Thos. Housman his + mark” — which should testify to the local, and probably face-to-face, nature of the transaction. History of the Chemical Bank, 1823–1913 (New York, 1913), illustration between 26 and 27.Google Scholar

18 Gras, op. cit., 341.

19 Ibid., 633–36.

20 Woolsey, Theodore S., A Story of Interest to our Friends and Customers (New Haven, 1942), 7, 12.Google Scholar

21 In describing the original policy of the Bank of North America, its president, Thomas Willing wrote on January 6, 1784, as follows: “‘As to the Cash'rs Ch[ec]k [Type 1] or drafts on the Bank, we pay at our own Risque, the money drawn for by our Customers; first taking their firms in a book kept for that Purpose as a Rule to Judge of their several Signatures; & to which the Cash'r or Teller resort, if they doubt the Signature of a Ch[ec]k presented at the Table.’ ” Gras, op. cit., 211.

22 Ibid., 393, 402.

23 Ibid., 393.

24 One check drawn on the Cashier of the Bank and made out Pay to “—” or Bearer, April 2, 1791, is among the records of the Bunk of New York, Domett, op. cit., illustration between 48 and 49.

25 Gras, op. cit., 390.

26 Ibid., 393n.

27 Ibid., 402.

28 Ibid., 425.

29 Ibid., 428.

30 An Act to Incorporate the Stockholders of the Mechanics' Bank of Baltimore… with the By-Laws of Said Institution (Baltimore, 1821), 52.Google Scholar

31 Dennis, Albert W., The Merchants National Bank of Salem, Massachusetts: An Historical Sketch (Salem, 1908), 44.Google Scholar It is noteworthy that the great American legal authority on business instruments, Judge Joseph Story, was president of this bank from February 21, 1815 to August 22, 1835. For Story on checks, see Redlich and Christman, loc. cit.

32 Gras, op. cit., 487.

33 History of the Chemical Sank, illustration between 26 and 27.

34 [Pelatiah Webster], An Essay on Credit… And Some Remarks… on the Present State of the Bank of North-America (Philadelphia, 1786), 11.Google Scholar

35 Hammond, Bray, Banks and Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War (Princeton, 1957), 434.Google Scholar Hammond quotes a slightly different version of Webster's statement which appeared in his Political Essays (Philadelphia, 1791).Google Scholar

36 As late as October 15, 1831, a new bank published the following information to be followed by its customers (with no further explanation as to why):

An Act to Re-Charter Certain Banks… and the By-Laws of the Miners' Bank of pottsville (Pottsville, Pa., 1831), 24.Google Scholar

37 One anticipation of this ultimate function came in 1839. On October 9, the banks of Pennsylvania, rather than cashing their depositors' checks during a specie suspension, merely marked them “‘Good — payable in current funds’” and returned them to circulation. Wainwright, op. cit., 81–82, quoting Philadelphia Pennsylvanian of March 7, 1840.

38 Quoted in Hammond, op. cit., 434.