HARVEY, Robert John Harvey (1817-1870), of Crown point, Norfolk; Brundall House, Norwich and St. Mary’s House, Thetford, Norfolk

Described by a contemporary as a man ‘who cared little or nothing about party’, Harvey briefly represented Thetford as a self-declared ‘independent member’, though he sat with the Conservatives in the Commons.1Norfolk Chronicle, 10 Dec. 1859. He is probably best known for presiding over the collapse of the Norwich Crown Bank, a catastrophic personal failing that prompted him to take his own life.

The Crown Bank, known officially as the Harvey and Hudson Bank, had been founded in 1792 by Harvey’s great-grandfather, Robert, and at its height in the mid-nineteenth century, it had over twenty-five branches across Norfolk and Suffolk.2R. Ryan, ‘Banking and Insurance’, in C. Rawcliffe and R. Wilson, eds., Norwich since 1550 (2004), 360-68; http://www.jjhc.info/harveyrobert1816.htm. Harvey’s father, also Robert, who had married his cousin, Charlotte, had served with distinction in the Peninsular Wars and was knighted in 1817. After retiring from the army, he played a prominent role in Norwich politics and became president of the local Conservative Association in the 1830s.3Daily News, 21 June 1860; R. Bignold, Five generations of the Bignold family, 1761-1947 (1948), 75-6. At the age of eighteen Harvey was admitted to St John’s College, Cambridge, and the Middle Temple, but declined to study at either institution, preferring to forge a career in the family bank. By the time of his father’s death in 1860, he was a senior partner with full control of the bank’s fortunes.4Daily News, 21 June 1860. Elected an alderman on the Norwich town council by the Conservatives, he was a prominent figure in local civic life who generally eschewed party politics. In 1859 one of his colleagues noted that he had voted only once in municipal elections, and for the past ten years had ‘never once polled a vote’ in a parliamentary contest.5Norfolk Chronicle, 10 Dec. 1859. In 1862 he turned down the opportunity to become mayor of Norwich and resigned as an alderman, citing a ‘domestic affliction’, though he was appointed high sheriff of Norfolk the following year.6Bury and Norwich Post, 11 Nov. 1862.

Harvey first attempted to enter Parliament at the 1863 Thetford by-election, when he contested the vacancy created by the succession of William Fitzroy, the earl of Euston, as the sixth duke of Grafton. Having initially declined a requisition from electors to stand in opposition to the Liberal candidate, the sixth duke of Grafton’s younger brother Lord Frederick Fitzroy, he finally acquiesced on the eve of the poll and issued an address calling for legislative changes ‘conceived and carried out in a Conservative spirit’.7Ibid., 21 Apr. 1863. At the nomination, however, he shied away from declaring his political loyalties. He stated his admiration for Palmerston, and insisted that if his policies were to the ‘advantage of the state’ he would ‘support him through thick and thin’, though he reserved the right to back the Conservative opposition. Describing himself as ‘free and independent’ on religious issues, he suggested that, if no suitable alternative could be found, it was ‘probably better’ for church rates to be abolished.8Ibid. Despite his attempt to establish a broad appeal, he was defeated by his Liberal opponent.

Harvey offered again for Thetford at the 1865 general election, issuing an address that did little to shed further light on his political affiliations.

I have not been an extreme politician, nor do I class myself with any political party; I believe that an independent representative best serves political interests, and at a moment when the nation is happily free from political antagonism, every good citizen ... should support such measures as ... conduce to public welfare, irrespective of the party from which they emanate.9Bury and Norwich Post, 4 July 1865.

Due to ‘indisposition’ Harvey neither canvassed personally nor appeared at the nomination, but, with the Grafton interest declining to bring forward their own candidate at a general election for the first time in the post-Reform era, he was returned at the top of the poll by a clear majority.10Daily News, 12 July 1865.

An occasional attender, Harvey sat with the Conservative opposition in the Commons, but used his maiden speech to give support to the Liberal ministry’s reform bill on the grounds that it leant ‘towards Conservative ideas’. Justifying his decision, he apologised for ‘acting in opposition to the general opinion of his party’ while claiming a right to pursue ‘a perfectly independent course’, 27 Apr. 1866. However, on the subsequent division on the £7 rental qualification, he voted for the Adullamite amendment in favour of rating, 18 June 1866, the success of which brought down the Liberal government. In the following session he spoke in support of the Derby ministry’s representation of the people bill and attacked Gladstone’s assertion that Thetford should be disenfranchised as it was not a borough but a ‘cluster of villages’, 25 Mar. 1867. Thereafter he followed Disraeli into the division lobby on the major clauses of the bill. In his two other known contributions to debate, he pressed the home secretary to allow the swearing in of London tradesmen as special constables for the Hyde Park reform demonstrations, 3 May 1867, and criticised the Scottish reform bill for proposing to reduce the number of MPs from English boroughs, 25 May 1868.

Thetford’s disenfranchisement in 1868 left Harvey without a parliamentary seat, but he was compensated with a baronetcy in November that year.11London Gazette, 27 Nov. 1868. Thereafter he devoted his energies to the Norwich Crown Bank. His strategy was to raise funds through speculation on the stock exchange, but after a series of failed investments in Spanish and Turkish enterprises, he hid his losses by recording them as debts from fictitious customers.12Gent. Mag. (1870), ii. 374. His recklessness was finally exposed in July 1870 when following a series of further financial setbacks caused by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, the Crown Bank defaulted on payments of £80,000. Further investigation revealed that Harvey’s speculations had lost the bank ‘not less than £600,000’.13Birmingham Daily Post, 19 July 1870; Nottinghamshire Guardian, 22 July 1870.

Distraught and humiliated by the collapse of his family bank, Harvey shot himself through the chest with a revolver at his residence at Crown Point on 15 July 1870. He died four days later.14The Times, 21 July 1870. The Crown Bank, which had liabilities estimated at £1,500,000, was purchased by Messrs. Gurney, Birkbeck, Barclay and Buxton, all bankers of Norwich.15Annual Register (1871), cxii. 89-90. At the coroner’s inquiry into Harvey’s death, his surgeon, who had known him since childhood, revealed that he had inherited the family’s ‘tendency to mental disorder’, and since the collapse of the Crown Bank had been ‘very excitable’. A verdict of suicide while in a state of temporary insanity was returned.16The Times, 21 July 1870. He left effects valued at under £70,000.17England and Wales, National Probate Calendar, Index of wills and administration, 1858-1966, 4 Aug. 1870. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Charles, a prominent member of the Norfolk militia and keen huntsman.18Ibid., 1 Feb. 1928.