The Commercial (Branch) Bank, closed July 27, 1840.

Coates, Woolley and Gordon, who occupied the premises at corner of Cherry Street and Cannon Street in 1814, was joined to Moilliet’s, and by them to Lloyds.

Freer, Rotton, Lloyds and Co., of 1814, changed to Rotton, Onions and Co., then Rotton and Scholefield, next to Rotton and Son, and lastly with its manager transferred to National Provincial.

Galton, Galton and James, of 1814, retired in 1830.

Gibbins, Smith, and Co. failed in 1825, paying nearly 20s. in the L.

Gibbins and Lowell, opened in 1826, but was joined to Birmingham Banking
Co. in 1829.

Smith, Gray, Cooper and Co., of 1815, afterwards Gibbins, Smith, and
Goode, went in 1825.

Banknotes.—­Notes for 5/3 were issued in 1773. 300 counterfeit L1 notes, dated 1814, were found near Heathfield House, January 16, 1858.  A noted forger of these shams is said to have resided in the immediate neighbourhood about the period named on the discovered “flimsies.”  When Boulton and Watt were trying to get the Act passed patenting their copying-press the officials of the Bank of England opposed it for fear it should lead to forgery of their notes, and several Members of Parliament actually tried to copy banknotes as they did their letters.

Bankrupts.—­In the year 1882 (according to the Daily Post) there were 297 bankruptcies, compositions, or liquidations in Birmingham, the total amount of debts being a little over L400,000.  The dividends ranged from 2d. to 15s. in the L, one-half the whole number, however, realising under 1s. 6d.  The estimated aggregate loss to creditors is put at L243,000.

Baptists.—­As far back as 1655, we have record of meetings or conferences of the Baptist churches in the Midland district, their representatives assembling at Warwick on the second day of the third month, and at Moreton-in-the-Marsh, on the 26th of the fourth month in that year.  Those were the Cromwellian days of religious freedom, and we are somewhat surprised that no Birmingham Baptists should be among those who gathered together at the King’s Head, at Moreton, on the last named date, as we find mention made of brethren from Warwick, Tewkesbury, Alcester, Derby, Bourton-on-the-Water, Hook Norton, Moreton-in-the-Marsh, and even of there being a community of the same persuasion at Cirencester.  The conference of the Midland Counties’ District Association of Baptist Churches met in this town for the first time in 1740.—­For Chapels see “Places of Worship.”

Barr Beacon.—­A trial was made on January 10, 1856, as to how far a light could be seen by the ignition of a beacon on Malvern Hills.  It was said to have been seen from Snowdon in Wales (105 miles), and at other parts of the country at lesser distances, though the gazers at Worcester saw it not.  The look-out at Dudley Castle (26 miles) could have passed the signal on to Barr Beacon, but it was not needed, as the Malvern light was not only seen there, but still away on at Bardon Hill, Leicester.—­Many persons imagine that Barr Beacon is the highest spot in the Midland Counties, but the idea is erroneous, Turners Hill, near Lye Cross, Rowley Regis, which is 893 ft. above mean sea level, being considerably higher, while the Clee Hills reach an altitude of 1,100 ft.