Francis Levett (merchant)

Francis Levett (1654-1705) was an early London merchant who, in partnership with his brother Sir Richard Levett, Lord Mayor of London, traded in tobacco and other commodities.

Francis and his brother Sir Richard, who served as Master of the Haberdashers' Company [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=69M4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA542&lpg=PA542&dq=levett+haberdashers&source=web&ots=MJfjPvsVXT&sig=Be6c1TpfgBehzpiDUiekm__SwyI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result The History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of London, William Herbert, librarian to the Corporation of London, published by the author, London, 1836] ] , were among the largest factors of their day in England, with an immense working capital estimated between £30,000 and £40,000 in 1705, buying tobacco around the world for importation into the English market. [ [http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft8489p27k&doc.view=content&chunk.id=d0e589&toc.depth=1&anchor.id=0&brand=ucpress "The Making of the English Middle Class: Business, Society and Family Life in London, 1660-1730", Peter Earle, University of California Press, 1989] ]

The Levett brothers were labeled haberdashers, a term which formerly meant merchants who traded commodities and acted as venture capitalists as well as those who dealt in textiles. Once they had imported tobacco and other goods, the Levetts distributed the commodities to their 'chapmen' across the country through fairs, including those at Lenton, Gainsborough, Boston, Lincolnshire, and Beverley. Francis Levett's brother Richard's home was located close by the Haberdashers Hall in Cripplegate. [ [http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/strype/TransformServlet?page=book3_121 A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, John Strype, hrionline.ac.uk] ]

The Levetts were among the earliest English merchants to vertically integrate their trading empire, owning their own ships to transport the goods they sold. [ [https://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=90536 Transport Services, Institute of Historical Research, Calendar of Treasury Books, William A. Shaw, 1952, British History Online, www.british-history.ac.uk] ] Their trading extended as far afield as Turkey and India, where they had interests in the early East India Company. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=Gs8NAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA299&lpg=PA299&dq=%22levant+company%22+levett&source=web&ots=BdqysMifh8&sig=V0uhauRuWqKXbu-c7wyLmGfotps&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA17,M1 Report on the Old Records of the India Office, George Christopher Molesworth Birdwood, Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1890] ]

The Levetts eventually operated on larger scale than those from whom they bought tobacco. [ [http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft8489p27k&chunk.id=d0e589&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e13824&brand=ucpress The Making of the English Middle Class, Business, Society and Family Life in London, 1660-1730, Peter Earle, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1989] ] Aside from acting as wholesalers and shippers, the Levett brothers acted as lenders to the retail tobacconists who purchased their wares. Sons of a humble vicar from a once-mighty family, the Levett brothers had no choice but to slowly build their business from scratch, networking like ancient yuppies. Their dealings exposed them to the go-go operators of the day, including the Blackborne [Sir Richard Levett's daughter married Abraham Blackborne, Esq., a London merchant living at Clapham. From the inheritances of the Blackborne family, who were left large estates by Samuel Pepys' lifelong friend Will Hewer, it appears that they were closely related to another close friend of Pepys': Robert Blackborne, Esq., Secretary of the Admiralty and later Secretary of the original Honourable East India Company.] , Sweetapple [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46797 Sir John Sweetapple, The Mayors and Sheriffs of London, A New History of London, John Noorthouck, 1773, British History Online, british-history.ac.uk] ] and Lemon [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=31888#s26 The Rulers of London, 1660-1689: A Biographical Record of the Aldermen and Common Councilment of the City of London, J. R. Woodhead, 1966, British HIstory Online, british-history.ac.uk] ] families, with whom they intermarried.

It was a lucrative franchise. A tax assessment for 1695 lists Francis Levett and his wife having a footman and a maid at their London residence. Levett owned a country home at Enfield, Middlesex as well. (His brother, Sir Richard, fared even better, owning two country homes at Kew, Richmond -- both of which, including Kew Palace, his heirs later sold to the Royal family -- and a spacious London home.) [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=RpkrAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA162&lpg=PA162&dq=%22lord+mayor%22+richard+levett&source=web&ots=aDjvPsQ8a9&sig=VocjUN-EdbNgz0kPvtlMu2R9WCE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result The Home Counties Magazine, William John Hardy, London, 1905] ] ] The brothers were sons of Rev. Richard Levett of Ashwell, Rutland, and the family's roots lay in Sussex. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=NTLj3Y0knlIC&pg=PA437&lpg=PA437&dq=levet+sussex&source=web&ots=F8O6iJoTg6&sig=3x1nDvN7mFAhLj7a2t8CJHWIreQ&hl=en "Le Neve's pedigrees of the Knights made by King Charles II", Ed. by George Marshall L.L.D., London, 1873] ] [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66216 "A History of the County of Rutland": Volume 2, William Page (ed.), Victoria County History, 1935, British History Online] ]

The Levett brothers's accomplishments as merchants allowed them to indulge their wants in ways unfamiliar to vicars' sons. These early London merchants were straddling the old feudal economy which, abetted by increasing English political and military might, was evolving into a modern trading one. The first beneficiaries were these pioneers who, trading for their own account, risked failure in the fast-moving marketplace. The Levett brothers built an early trading juggernaut.

In 1683 Francis Levett married Susan, the daughter of Sir Thomas Holt and sister of Sir John Holt, Lord Chief Justice of England. [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=31888#s32 "The Rulers of London 1660-1689", Centre for Metropolitan History, J.R. Woodhead, 1966, British History Online] ] Levett's brother-in-law was merchant Edward Leman, who married Sir Thomas Holt's daughter Mary by his wife Susan Peacock. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=ozMEAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA337&lpg=PA337&dq=le+neve+knights+john+holt&source=web&ots=M7PaJIS6r_&sig=MsHWT_FoVHWPy5ExSkCoD6Upym4 "Le Neve's pedigrees of the Knights made by King Charles II", George W. Marshall L.L.D., London, 1873] ] The London mercantile world of those days was a small club: Lord Mayor Levett, Francis's brother, had a son Richard, who became a London alderman and married the daughter of Sir John Sweetapple, goldsmith, Sheriff and alderman of the City. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=cqU1AAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA26&lpg=RA1-PA26&dq=%22richard+levett%22+cambridge&source=web&ots=vQK1ZYApM8&sig=S8QBrNklx9aE_yJ4pdBbfuBTERM&hl=en "The Historical Register: Containing an Impartial Relation of all Transactions, Foreign and Domestick with a Chronological Diary", Vol. XII, London, 1727] ] [Sweetapple Court in London's East End was named for Sir John Sweetapple, goldsmith and Sheriff of the City of London in 1695.] These tight social and political connections helped the Levetts build their trading empire.

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