I enjoyed reading the article Malta’s first bank by Dr Joseph F. Grima, a classmate and friend, that appeared in The Sunday Times of Malta of June 16. My three times great-grandfather, Edward Gingell, spent over 40 years as the cassiere (cashier) of the Banco di Malta.

Certainly, it did not occur to William and Sarah Gingell, of Bath, when Sarah gave birth to their second son, Edward, that their son would be among the first of the colonisers of Malta. The Boston Tea Party did not play any striking part on these parents that the American colonists were drifting away from their motherland in as much as his colonist son would perform in his adulthood.

The earliest evidence of Edward Gingell having set foot in Malta is the Registro della Dogana, where he is recorded to have landed rags from Sicily to be re-exported to Great Britain. On August 11, 1806, Edward embarked “for London 114 bags of rags, marked Wc, produce of Sicily”.

The dire calamity of the plague of 1813 and the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 brought havoc to the commercial community in Malta. Many British merchants departed and returned back to their previous ports in the Mediterranean.

Edward, however, opted to remain. His last entry in the Registro della Dogana was in October 1816 importing vino di Porto to the value of 400 scudi.

At some point in time, before September 22, 1817, Edward succeeded James A. Prest, the first cassiere of the Banco di Malta, who had left the island on August 16, 1816. Edward retained his post of cassiere for over 40 years, until his death in January 1857.

Edward was a founder member of the Society of British Merchants, when 30 members of the community of British merchants endorsed a ‘memorial’, dated January 26, 1808, to Sir Alexander Ball advocating to organise the commercial activity and protect the commercial interests of the British merchants on the island.

During his tenure of cassiere at the Banco di Malta, Edward was involved in various business relations or transactions with the bank’s clients. But two instances stand out – the Monetary Convention and the building of a new Chamber of Commerce, or Borsa.

Edward assisted in many decisions that had been taken by the directors of the Banco di Malta.

One of the vexatious problems the commercial community had to deal with for many years was the rate of exchange of various currencies. The sterling, though the legal currency for the payment of duties, judicial fees and government rentals, was not the only legal tender. The Spanish, Austrian, Neapolitan and Sicilian dollar, as well as the French five franc coin, were equally legal and accepted tenders.

These were preferred to the sterling because of the approximate corresponding value which these foreign coins had between them in proportion to their respective weight, averaging 360 grains in pure silver content. Due to its lower silver content, the English coin was useless for transactions in the Mediterranean littoral, and was, therefore, mostly exchanged at a discount.

In order to stabilise the monetary system, the government communicated to the banks, on March 3, 1845, the fixed value of the Spanish dollar to be at 4s, 2d, and of the Sicilian at 4s, 0d. However, in spite of also a proclamation in June, this chaotic state of affairs continued.

As a reaction, the two banks – Banco di Malta and Anglo Maltese Bank – came to an agreement by a resolution to continue to receive and pay reciprocally, the Sicilian dollar at 4s, 2d. A copy of this agreement was published with the signatures of the directors and cassiere of both banks and of practically everyone connected with trade and commerce.

This state of affairs continued with a new convention followed by a new one in 1850, in 1854, and finally in 1855, when by an order of Her Majesty in Council, proclaimed, on October 4, 1855, all foreign currency ceased to be legal tender, and the British gold sovereign and the British silver coins were declared the only legal tender in Malta.

This proclamation necessitated the conversion of accounts, and in February 1856, the Banco di Malta finally decided to start keeping its accounts in sterling but continued to rate the Maltese scudo at the rate of 1s, 8d. In 1857, the two banks issued their first banknotes in sterling.

No doubt this monetary saga caused upon Edward much anxiety, pain and distress.

During the awful last 10 years, he encountered dreadful days and months, remonstrating futilely with the authorities the sentiments of his superiors, the directors of the bank.

Edward’s last assignments must have been the supervision of the change-over of the bank’s accounts and the preparations for the new sterling banknotes.

This monetary saga caused upon Edward much anxiety, pain and distress

In 1848, Governor Richard More O’Farrell brought together the Maltese merchants and the few British merchants that remained on the island to establish the Chamber of Commerce. On April 6, 1848, the first general meeting was convened, where over 150 founding members approved the statutes of the New Exchange. In 1849, the founding charter of the Borsa was endorsed by over 110 members.

From the very outset, the Chamber set as one of its primary aims to build new premises that would serve better the needs of its members than those found at the Commercial Rooms. The intention was to bring under one roof all commercial establishments.

In 1854, after bickering over two sites, the government acceded to the Chamber’s request for the town major’s house in Strada Reale, No 65. Subsequently, the government transmitted a draft of a contract of lease to be entered by the Chamber of Commerce with the government.

The Chamber, having obtained possession of the premises, opted to pull down the building and instead erect a purpose-built edifice. After a call for designs, the ad hoc commission selected the neoclassical architectural style submitted by architect Giuseppe Bonavia.

A general meeting approved the designs, the conditions of the lease, and the floating of a loan to finance the project. The loan schedule was sent to all members of the Borsa. The prospectus stated the price of each share to be £20. The members exhibited unstinted spirit of cooperation when the issue was, in fact, oversubscribed.

Copies of the deliberations of the meeting were sent to the two banks, indicating they were each allotted up to 40 shares. The two banks, in fact, offered to take half the issue each at four per cent per annum. The Chamber concluded that the banks’ offer was very advantageous and, therefore, accepted it.

Edward, as cassiere of the Banco di Malta, had sent a letter to the Chamber of Commerce, where he informed the committee that on specific conditions the bank would accept to contribute to half the amount needed for the building of the New Exchange.

Later on, when the Chamber of Commerce, the Banco di Malta and the Anglo Maltese Bank agreed on the terms of financing the new premises, the directors of the Banco di Malta delegated Edward to endorse the deeds relevant to the acquisition on perpetual emphyteusis of the site and to the financial agreement.

On December 27, 1854, Edward, on behalf of the Banco di Malta, Giuseppe Ullo on behalf of the Anglo Maltese Bank, and John Grant appearing for the Chamber of Commerce, signed the agreement drawn by Notary William John Stevens, confirming the agreed terms of the loan to the Chamber of Commerce. Attached to this deed is an authorisation for Edward Gingell to be the signatory to the relevant agreements, signed by the president of the Banco di Malta, Biagio Tagliaferro, and the directors of the bank.

On the morrow, in front of Notary Dr Luigi Vella, Edward signed the deed regarding the emphyteutic acquisition of the site for the new Borsa. Gaetano Sciortino, on behalf of the Land Revenue Department, as well as Giuseppe Ullo and John Grant on behalf of their respective societies, endorsed the deed.

The new Borsa – housing the two banks, several insurance companies, and dwelling quarters for the cashiers of both banks – was completed on schedule and inaugurated on Saturday, April 11, 1857. The two banks were assigned separate entrances flanking the main portico.

On Monday, April 20, the New Exchange commenced business, with the Banco di Malta and the Anglo Maltese Bank operating at their new premises. The regal edifice, having a neo-classical facade, still adorns the principal street of Valletta, a few metres down from the Presidential Palace.

Edward missed the inauguration by exactly three months to the day; and never set foot in one of the apartments, specifically planned for the cashiers, and whose entrance is in the narrow passage known as Frederick Street.

Edward met his Creator on Sunday, January 11, 1857, aged 84, after only a few hours of illness. He was, then, the oldest English resident on the island. His remains were interred next to his wife at the Protestant burial ground in Floriana. Their grave lay in the shadow of the mausoleum of John Hookham Frère. His death was announced in the local English papers, in Il-Portafoglio Maltese, and in The Times (London).

Octogenarian Edward, indeed, had no desire in emulating his father, since he died intestate on September 25, 1819. Edward’s father, William Gingell, engraver, passed away at his home in the parish of Lyncomb and Widcombe, Bath. In his will, drawn up in March 1819, William gave and bequeathed “to my son Edward, now residing at Malta, the sum of one thousand eight hundred pounds of lawful money”.

On November 2, 1811, at the Palace chapel, Edward married Elizabeth Kilburn, a minor of 17 years and who was 22 years his junior. Elizabeth was born in Leghorn, Italy, the eldest daughter of John Kilburn and Ann Troughton. In 1803, the Kilburns reached Malta after stopping for some months in Gibraltar.

Edward and Elizabeth Gingell had an offspring of four boys and eight girls. In her 48th year, Elizabeth passed away “after a short illness of only six days”, on November 2, 1841, exactly on the 30th anniversary of her wedding day.

Postscript
In 1946, the Banco di Malta amalgamated with the Anglo Maltese Bank to establish the National Bank of Malta, the precursor of the present Bank of Valletta.