J. S. Morgan & Co.

J. S. Morgan & Co. was a merchant banking firm based in London and New York City founded by Junius Spencer Morgan, father of J. P. Morgan.

History

The business had originally been started by the American merchant George Peabody conducting business on his own account when he took up residence in London in 1838. The business was formally incorporated as George Peabody & Co. in 1851. Peabody's American agent was the New York bank, Duncan, Sherman & Company.[1]

J. S. Morgan & Co.

Upon Peabody's retirement in 1864, control was assumed by Morgan who had joined the firm as a partner in 1854. As a consequence the firm was re-styled J. S. Morgan & Co.[2] The firm's New York agency was later to become J.P. Morgan & Co. (under the leadership of Junius' son J. Pierpont Morgan, who had apprenticed as a cashier at Duncan, Sherman & Co.) a predecessor firm of JPMorgan Chase.[3] A distant relative of Peabody, Massachusetts banker and merchant Samuel Endicott Peabody, became a partner in the firm around 1875.[4][5]

J. S. Morgan & Co. came to real prominence in 1871 when they undertook the issue of a French war loan during the Franco-Prussian War.[6][7] On the death of Junius in 1890, Pierpont became the senior partner of the London firm.[8] By 1910, all the firm's Morgan family partners were resident in the U.S. and to reflect this the London partnership was restructured with J. P. Morgan & Co. in the U.S. assuming a 50% ownership of the London business which was reconstituted as Morgan Grenfell & Co. in recognition of the senior London-based partner, Edward Grenfell.[9]

References
  1. Carosso, Vincent P. (1987). The Morgans: Private International Bankers, 1854-1913. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  2. Burk, p. xiii
  3. "Three generations of bankers". www.jpmorgan.com. J. P. Morgan & Co. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  4. "COL. S. E. PEABODY DEAD. Well Known Boston Banker Dies at His Residence in Salem, Mass". The New York Sun. October 31, 1909. p. 16. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  5. "SAMUEL ENDICOTT PEABODY". Boston Evening Transcript. November 1, 1909. p. 10. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  6. Burk (1989), p. xiv
  7. George Peabody and Co. : J. S. Morgan and Co. : Morgan Grenfell and Co. : Morgan Grenfell and Co Ltd. 1838-1958. Oxford University Press. 1958. OCLC 83721702.
  8. Burk, p. 51
  9. Burk, Kathleen (1989). Morgan Grenfell 1838-1988: The Biography of a Merchant Bank. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-828306-5.
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