CURRIE, William (1756-1829), of East Horsley Park, Surr.

Currie’s father came from Berwick-upon-Tweed and was a banker at 29 Cornhill; Currie succeeded to his partnership. The bank was listed in the London directory as Currie, Lefevre, Yallowby & Co. in 1781; afterwards as Lefevre, Curries, Yallowby & Raikes; from 1814 as Curries, Raikes & Co., and from 1827 as Curries & Co. (later it became associated with Glyn and Mills). Currie, like his younger brother Isaac, married the daughter of a banking partner. He bought the estate of East Horsley in 1784 and subsequently Upper Gatton, which gave him an interest in that borough, for which he was returned in 1790. He relinquished it before the next election.

In Parliament Currie made no known speech. He was reckoned favourable to repeal of the Test Act in Scotland in April 1791, and voted with opposition in the Oczakov debates, 12 Apr. 1791 and 1 Mar. 1792, but, like his fellow Member John Nesbitt, appears to have become a supporter of administration afterwards. In 1796 he came in for Winchelsea, formerly in Nesbitt’s pocket, but then controlled by Richard Barwell, on the Treasury interest. His bank subscribed £50,000 to the loyalty loan for 1797. He voted for Pitt’s assessed taxes, 4 Jan. 1798, but made no further mark in the House. On 9 Dec. 1801 he was appointed to the committee on East India judicature: he was an East India Company stockholder.

At East Horsley, where he was ‘a constant resident’, Currie improved and repaired his property, promoting an Enclosure Act in 1799. He was esteemed for his charity to the poor: ‘a more benevolent man, and family, never blessed a village or neighbourhood’. He died 3 June 1829.1Manning and Bray, Surr. ii. 227; iii. 28-9; Oldfield. Boroughs, ii. 343; Gent. Mag. (1829), i. 568, 652.