Robert Pearce

Awarded the compensation for Farm Hill in St David, where he claimed with Henry Turpin, as 'surviving executor and devisee in trust under the will of the late Henry Stanley Esq. decd'. Robert Pearce was in the 1840s a partner in a Southampton bank that was a successor to the banking firm in which Bryan Edwards (q.v.) was a partner in the 1790s with Martin Maddison the elder.

1. The will of Henry Stanley of Kennington, Surrey (q.v.) proved in 1826 shows Robert Pearce of Kennington as executor, trustee, contingent legatee (after Henry Turpin) of the Farm Hill and Gales Mount estates in Jamaica and residuary legatee (with Henry Turpin), and includes as beneficiaries under part of the will Henry Stanley Robert Pearce and Henrica Stanley Leger Pearce, children of Robert and Elizabeth Mary Pearce (the latter identified as Henry Stanley's niece).

2. By 1844, Robert Pearce was in partnership with Martin Maddison as bankers in Southampton, when the average of the notes in circulation was reported as £18,589.

3. The will of Robert Pearce banker of Southampton who died 16/03/1861 at Highfield South Stonham was proved 03/06/1861 by Henry Stanley Robert Pearce of Loperwood House, Eling Co. of Southampton banker the son and Hannah Pearce the widow [his second wife], effects under £50,000. Henry Stanley Robert Pearce left £100,000 (resworn in 1871 from £80,000 at probate) when he died in 1868.

4. There is an English Heritage Grade II listed memorial to the Pearce family, Faith, Hope and Charity (1861) by the sculptor Robert Cockle Lucas in Southampton Old Cemetery.

1. PROB 11/1710/53. The identification of Robert Pearce' of Kennington' in this will with the later Southampton banker is cemented by the presence of Henry Stanley Robert Pearce in both the will of Henry Stanley of Kennignton and in the National Probate Calendar as executor of Robert Pearce of South Stoneham, where he was identified as the son.

2. London Gazette 20374 16/08/1844 p. 2857. He was shown as aged 58 and born in Paddington in the 1851 census.

3. National Probate Calendar 1861 and 1869.

4. http://www.southampton.gov.uk/policies/Descriptions-listed-buildings-in-Southampton.pdf [accessed 29/07/2015]. The entry itself on p. 50 describes the sculptor as unknown but elsewhere in the text [pp. 52-54, p.95] the attribution to Richard Cockle Lucas is given.

We are grateful to Denise Sanford for her help with this entry.