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47
with Surrey. By the early 17th century however, the family, or at least
Richard’s branch, seems to have moved to London, as there were
merchants in the family. Before his marriage to Mary Phillips, John
had had a previous wife named Elizabeth, but she seems to have
died some time between 1686 and 1695; the three children of this
marriage were provided for later (5 /3 I).
Now that Mary had married John, they lived more or less permanently
in London, and her mother, Mary also came to live there.
Between 1696 and 1700 when both Marys died (within a few months
of each other) two children were born, Phillips and Maria.
Phillips enjoyed a quick rise to success; already a rich man, by
virtue of astute investment both on the part of his uncle, his father
and himself, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1723 and
was appointed High Sheriff of Lincolnshire for 1727 (3/1-p); in 1726
he married Mary, daughter of Richard and Agnes Lee of Winslade,
Devon. The marriage settlement is not in this collection however,
but is to be found in Turnor 4/4/ 1.
In 1720 he inherited the estate of his uncle John Phillips. There
was some doubt about the validity of the will as it was composed
within a short period of his death, and some details had been omitted,
including an intended bequest to Maria (5 / 29). Accordingly, Phillips
took steps to arrange a gift of EIO,OOO for her, from a total of E28,ooo
(in personal estate) of which a large sum was the profits of thoughtful
investment in the South Sea Company. Maria, however, died in 1723
without having made a will; Counsel suggested (5/30) a shareout
between Phillips and the children of John Glover’s first marriage, but
Phillips persuaded his half brother and sister to accept E1,ooo each,
and to indemnify him into the bargain (5/31).
Something has already been said about the Glover family investments
in the South Sea Company. We happen to have some correspondence
and legal apers concerning an incident which ocurred, in
September 1’720, at aE:out the time of the South Sea Bubble, concerning
a transfer of E2,ooo of stock held by Phillips Glover which he was
intending to sell for ~20,000 to Andrew Hope of London, brewer, and
Jonah Crynes of London, draper (41 I).
During the months of August and September in this year, there was
a great deal of transfer activity involving shares on the stock market,
particularly those of the South Sea Company. The asking price for
shares had been in the region of E1,ooo per cent; but when the crash
came, occasioned by the lack of collateral possessed by the company
as well as the rush to sell, the panic caused prices to fall very rapidly,
and the company was investigated by the Lords Justices. Edward
Richier, Phillips Glover’s correspondent, who evidently had a lot
of inside knowledge and acted as his attorney, writes on the 20th of
August: “ . . . You would have been frighted to have seen ye Distorted
Iooks & ye horrid Chargrin that seiz’d the Countenances of ye Jobbers
yesterday . . .“. Accusations were levelled at the Directors of the
company, and at the Exchequer. Two days later he records (4/ 1/2) :
. . . It is really a verry melancholy sight to behold persons who 10
days since flourished in their glittering Chariots (having grown weary
of walking on foot) brought as to that particular upon a level with
yr humble servant by Bubbles”.
Crynes and Hope, the purchasers, were evidently biding their time,
as, with each day, the price on the market was falling; from 820%
on the nond August it apparently plummeted to 365% by 17th