Baron Albert Grant

Albert Grant 1831-1899 One of the richest men in England of whom you have never heard.

• He was once so eye-wateringly rich, he bought Leicester Square when it was under threat of redevelopment, just to give it to the nation. He threw in a Landseer portrait of Walter Scott for good measure.
• He was the son of an immigrant from Poland who escaped the pogroms at the aftermath of Napoleon’s Russian campaign.
• He was twice Member of Parliament. He was kicked out of his seat after his second election — for promising the voters a party with penny buns if he won.
• For decade or more his one-man merchant bank financed the majority of foreign infrastructure projects seeking funding in the City of London
• He was bankrupted at least twice and fell from being the most famous banker to the most infamous.
• He owned a national evening newspaper and  a slew of magazines. He was perhaps the first person to consider that all-day news was a concept worth exploring.
• He built three grand houses — one of which was a 90 room palazzo in the centre of Kensington. Built and completed at huge expense, he never got to live in it before the creditors took it away. You can still walk up its marble staircase if you ever visit Madame Tussaud’s in London
• The king of Italy made him a baron for his financing of this magnificent shopping arcade next to the Duomo in Milan.
• He and his wife, the daughter of a slave-owning Dominica sugar planter from Northern Ireland, had 12 children. The boys became barrister, decorated soldier and tea planter, while the girls lived out their lives in genteel spinsterhood.
• He changed his religion. Born into a religious Jewish family, he had himself Christened before his marriage and was a devoted member of the Church of England for the rest of his life.
• He changed his name. He was born Abraham Gottheimer.
• In London as a child he worked for the family retailer that sold imported French musical boxes and other knick knacks.
• In his first office job was alongside a stutteringly shy West Country boy who would become the Victorian era’s most famous actor, Sir Henry Irving.
• In business life he had one vice. He paid off journalists to write up his new companies. He was by no means alone in this and the scribblers expected a little something, but it was the start of his undoing.
• He might now be seen as much a victim in some of the dubious ventures he floated as the hapless investors
• Even after his death he was vilified. The Dictionary of National Biography set the tone which has continued to this day that the man was a crook and shyster; he was neither. Source

GRANT, BARON ALBERT (Albert Gottheimer; 1831–1889), British financier. Born in Dublin, educated in London and Paris, Grant introduced in Britain the Crédit-Foncier type of mobilizing small investments for large projects. Many of his enterprises lacked solidity, and he was often attacked and lampooned. His companies, 37 in all, included public utilities and financial institutions in Europe and overseas. Their issued capital totaled 25 million sterling ($125 million), but eventu- ally were worth only 5 million ($25 million).

Grant also initiated slum clearance and collected paintings. He was member of Parliament for Kidderminster, 1865–68 and 1874–80. He purchased Leicester Square (London), then a garbage dump, converted it into a public garden, and handed it over to the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1874. In 1868 he was en- nobled by King Victor Emanuel of Italy.

He died in compara- tively poor circumstances at Bognor. One of the most visible and colorful Anglo-Jewish businessmen of his time, Grant is often said to have been the original of Auguste Melmotte in Anthony Trollope’s famous novel The Way We Live Now (1875).

Add. Bibliography: ODNB online; DBB, II, 623–29. [Joachim O. Ronall / William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]
Source

Name Change

July 11, 1863 Albert Gottheimer born in Dublin, late of Bedford Villas, Croydon, Surrey, and now of 80 Lombard street, and Stafford house, Carlton-road, Maida-vale, co. Middlesex, esq. takes the name of Grant in lieu of Gottheimer.Source

Baron Albert Grant (1831 – 1899) was one of the more colourful rogues of his period. A self-styled, curly-haired hoodwinker who started life in Dublin’s Jewish Quarter where he was known as Abraham Gottheimer. His father Bernard had moved from Prussia to Dublin during the 1820s and worked as a street-pedlar. When young Abraham was born, the Gottheimer’s were so poor that their neighbours had to club together to provide him with swaddling clothes.

By 1863, Gottheimer had changed his name by deed poll to Albert Grant and was operating as a wine merchant. He soon began to make his mark as a promoter of companies, talking them up, convincing investors to come on board. His targets were clergymen, widows, retired army officers and other small-time patrons.

By attracting large numbers of these relatively unimportant speculators, he was able to amass an astonishing fortune with great speed. He would have made a formidable player in 21st century Public Relations. He understood that presentation is the key to success. As such, he began engaging in what has been called ‘targeted philanthropy’, patronising all the right art galleries and earning a valuable thank you from Parliament when he purchased a portrait of Walter Scott for the National Gallery.

He published his own newspaper (The Echo) and, in 1865 and successfully stood for Parliament as Liberal MP for Kidderminster. In Italy, his patronage of slum clearances in Milan earned him a Baronetcy from King Victor Emmanuel which he rapidly inserted before his name. He simultaneously purchased a Portuguese baronetage for good measure.

In 1867, the Baron calculated his wealth at over half a million sterling.

By 1870, he was promoting mining and industrial companies across Europe, as well as foreign railways and public utilities such as the Lisbon Tramway.

In 1874, he became the talk of Disraeli’s London when he purchased Leicester Square and gifted it to the City as a public garden. However, things were beginning to slide for the Dublin-born financier and, the day after Leicester Square officially opened, he was unseated as MP on a charge of bribery and kicked out of Parliament.

The Baron managed to hold his head above water until 1879 when the Emma Silver Mines Scandal broke. He had been the foremost promoter of this grand scam, exaggerating the company profile to off-load one million shares at $100 each. Within a year, the Utah mines were proved to be completely empty. It emerged that Grant had been paid $500,000 for his promotional role. His company was declared bankrupt. Everything he owned was sold including his large estate in Norfolk and a splendid marble palace in London’s West End. He lived the remainder of his day ‘in utter seclusion and comparative poverty’. Source

Albert Grant (18 November 1831–30 August 1899) (born Abraham Gottheimer); Baron Grant in the nobility of Italy, was an Irish born British company promoter.

Born in Dublin, Abraham was the son of Bernard Gottheimer, a poor Jewish pedlar from Central Europe. The family subsequently moved to London where his father became a partner in a business importing fancy goods.

Abraham Gottheimer was educated in London and Paris, and assumed the name "Albert Grant" prior to his marriage to Emily Isabella Robinson in 1856. He entered employment as a clerk, later becoming a travelling salesman of wines.

In 1859 Grant established the first of a number of companies which were to fail at the expense of the shareholders. This was the Mercantile Discount Company which failed in 1861. In 1864 he established Crédit Foncier and Mobilier of England which was used as the vehicle to launch a number of ventures. Grant actively courted investors by using directories and targeting financially naive groups such as members of the clergy and widows. He established a number of companies between 1864 and 1872 each of which collapsed in controversial circumstances with allegations of fraud made against Grant.

In 1872 he financed construction of the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways (Moel Tryfan Undertaking), the narrow gauge railway from Dinas, near Caernarfon, to Brygwyn and Rhyd Ddu. He put the railway company into receivership in 1877 but lost most of his £83,500 investment.

Member of Parliament 1865–1868

In 1865 Grant was chosen as Conservative candidate for the parliamentary constituency of Kidderminster, in opposition to the sitting Liberal Member of Parliament (MP), Colonel Luke White. The election generated great interest as a letter had been sent to all members of the electorate denouncing Grant as "a fraudulent adventurer". Grant and White were nominated at Kidderminster Town Hall on 11 July in front of a huge crowd. Grant was proposed and seconded by two local carpet manufacturers, who dismissed the charges against him at length and read out a number of character references defending his reputation. Grant unseated White to become Kidderminster's MP when the poll was held two days later. Three years later another general election was held, but Grant did not stand.[6] The seat was regained by the Liberals, with Thomas Lea becoming member of parliament. Italian and Portuguese honors.

In 1868 Victor Emmanuel II of Italy created Grant a hereditary baron. This was declared to be due to his services to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan. In 1872 Grant was made a Commander of the Portuguese Order of Christ.

When a general election was called in 1874, Grant was once more the Conservative candidate at Kidderminster, and succeeded in winning the contest by 111 votes when the poll was held on 31 January. However, a petition against his election was lodged on 24 February by a number of local men. The petitioners alleged that Grant and his election agents were guilty of bribery, treating and undue influence and had made corrupt promises of "money, meat, drink and provision and other reward" to electors in exchange for their votes. They described how between 40 and 50 local public houses offered free drink to those wearing Conservative colours, and having their names entered on a list of Grant's supporters. Grant vigorously contested the petition, dismissing its promoters as a "clique". However, it was discovered that although his declared expenses were only 300 pounds, expenditure of more than £1,200 could be demonstrated. The petition came before the courts in July 1874, and the evidence against Grant was found by Mr Justice Mellor to be compelling: he was unseated and ordered to pay costs.

Leicester Square

 Statue of William Shakespeare in Leicester Square bearing an inscription recording the gift by Albert Grant During 1873 the Metropolitan Board of Works had been attempting to acquire Leicester Square for use as a public gardens. In January 1874 they were unexpectedly informed that Grant had "for some months past been in negotiation with the owners for the purchase of the ground with a view to laying it out as a garden, and handing it over to the Board as a gift to the Metropolis". The square was laid out at Grant's expense, and the deeds formally handed over to the board on 3 July 1874.

Bankruptcy

From 1876 until his death, Grant was constantly being pursued by creditors in the courts. While most of his failing companies were British, he was involved in an international scandal involving the fraudulent sale of shares in the exhausted Emma Silver Mine at Alta, Utah. He was declared bankrupt in 1877, but attempted to regain his fortune by establishing a new bank in 1878. This failed, and he was again in the bankruptcy court in 1885. A third and final receiving order was made against him a few days before his death in 1899.

Kensington House

A large house he had built for himself in Kensington was demolished in 1883, with the site sold. The marble staircase was acquired by Madame Tussaud's. Horstead Hall, Norfolk, which Grant had purchased from Baron Suffield, was also sold.

Grant spent his last years in relative poverty. He died of heart failure at Aldwick Place, Pagham, near Bognor, in Sussex in August 1899 aged 67.

Links

• Baron Grant & Leicester Square
• UK Immigrants Who Made Good
• The Financier Who Inspired Trollope
• Baron Grant / Asbury Harpending Biography Pages 179 - 193, 260, 263
• Baron Albert Grant National Portrait Gallery
• Albert Grant Company Promoter Wikipedia
• A Pebble on His Grave: Albert Grant
• NYTimes Obituary
• Colby House, Kensington House and Kensington Court
• Leicester Qquare; its associations and its worthies By Tom Taylor pages 478 -484

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White-Collar Crime in Modern England by George Robb pages 4, 70, 99-102, 115, 152, 169

The Kensington House & Court Story

Gottheimer Families in England

THE EMMA MINE DEBACLE

Not only were new loans and companies being floated almost daily, but speculation in existing securities —
cr insecurities — was fast and furious. The tape- machine was then a novelty, and the telephone not heard of, and the use of cheques was by no means general in the Provinces.

Among several of the most abortive new Companies about that time were the Emma Mine, launched by the celebrated Baron Grant, and the Native Guano Company.

There may still be members of the Stock Exchange who recall the verses on the former enterprise. One ran somewhat as follows : —

Titles Kings can give,
Honour they can't.
A title without honour is a barren grant.
But one may be in a worse dilemma,
To be without title, like the Emma.

It was found that the promoter of the Emma
Company had no title to the land in which the mine was situated.

The " Baron " prefixed to Albert Grant's name was of some obscure origin, and the name " Grant " was assumed. He was Albrecht Gottenheimer, son of a Hamburg Jew. In his palmy days I used to see him frequently, because he had a large speculative account open with the firm whose office I was in.

He died a poor man in 1899. It is probably almost forgotten that he laid out Leicester Square Garden in its present form and presented it to the Metro- politan Board of Works (succeeded by the London County Council) for the use of the pubhc, incidentally erecting the only statue of Shakespeare existing in a public place in London.

Albert Gottheimer/Baron Grant in association with Maurice, his brother.

Moreover, Albert Gottheimer (subsequently Baron Albert Grant) used the post-1856 permissive company law to enhance his notorious, two-decade career as a financier beginning with establishing his own corporate discount house in 1860.1

. . . As this suggests, some reflected the new banking of the mid-Victorian period generated by the demands of the growing middle classes and, thereby, had little in common with their predecessors in the West End and the City.

Others were very personal creatures, such as Grants (1872–94), the last business vehicle of Albert Gottheimer/Baron Grant in association with Maurice, his brother.

Like the Guaranteed Cheque Bank (1880–4), a number had very brief business lives, including Cates & Son (1875–8), A.S. Cochrane (1875– 8) and A. Masters & Co. (1880–2).

. . . The example is the Crédit Foncier and Mobilier of England, the mid-1860’s vehicle of Albert Gottheimer/Grant. It first appeared in January 1864 as the Crédit Foncier with a largely Irish directorate, promoted by the Mercantile Credit Association, whose manager, Henry John Barker, had been associated with Gottheimer in the Mercantile Discount of 1859–61.

Very quickly, the Crédit Foncier and the Mercantile Credit gave birth to the Crédit Mobilier, a clone of the Foncier through having the same board and manager, who now styled himself as Grant. The identical twins had merged by the close of the year and the resulting institution claimed over the opening months of 1866 to have a relationship with the Paris Crédit Mobilier which assisted neither. Source