BANCKS

Robert Bancks (1765-1841)

Since all legal documents (e.g., the census, baptism and marriage records) spell his name as ‘Bancks’, we will use this spelling here. Some instruments bear the alternative ‘Banks’, but fortunately include one of the business addresses and can therefore be correctly attributed.

Robert Bancks was the son of Robert Bancks, member of the Joiner’s Guild, and Ann Olddiss. She may have been the daughter of Mary and Anthony Olddiss, a fellow Joiner’s Guild member, who was baptised in 1747 as Hannah (a common variation). They had a second son, Anthony Olddiss Bancks, in 1767. He also eventually became a member of the Joiner’s Guild, but seems to have eventually became a manufacturer of playing cards (by Royal Appointment), having married the daughter of the original owner.
A Robert Bancks, most likely this one, is recorded as an apprentice to a mathematical instrument maker, John Dalton, in 1799. He married Martha Spence in 1798 and they had at least 8 children including their oldest son, Robert (1799-1830).
Robert senior first appears in records for the Strand at number 440 in 1795, when he described his business  as “Makes and Sells all sorts of Mathematical, Optical, & Philosophical Instruments on the most Improv’d Principles and Lowest Terms”. They made barometers, microscopes, telescopes, sundials, etc. He went on to experiment with gas lighting and electricity. Around 1805, he moved to number 441 He received the Royal Warrant as Mathematical Instrument Maker to HRH the Prince of Wales in 1820, and this was renewed in 1830 when the Prince became King George IV and later when William IV became King.

Among a number of famous customers was Charles Darwin, who took a Bancks microscope very similar to the one held by this collection (number SM 439) with him on his voyage around the world on HMS Beagle (1831-1835). He continued to use the microscope after he returned. (For more information see: http://microscopist.net/Bancks.html, Fig. 6 and https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-1166.xml).

In the 1820s, Robert jr joined his father and the business name changed to Bancks & Son. In 1829, they moved to 119 New Bond St.. The name of the company retained the name of ‘& Son’ after Robert jr’s death, until about 1834 when Robert and Martha seem to have retired and moved to Brompton Row. They both died in 1841.