Sir Jacob Bancks (also Banks, Bankes, Banckes) (1662–1724) was a Swedish naval officer in the British service. He settled in England and became a Tory Member of Parliament.

Early life

His parents were Lawrence Bengston Bancks of

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, commissioner of customs, and his wife Christina. He came to England in 1681 as a diplomat; he was secretary to the Swedish resident of the time in London, who was his uncle.''Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society'' volume 28 (1907), p. 230
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The resident's name, Johan Barckman (Hans Barikman) Leijonberg, is usually Anglicised as James Barkman Leyenburg; it is also given as John Birkman, Count of Lezenburgh.

Naval officer

Bancks joined the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

in 1681. In 1690 he served at the Battle of Beachy Head, taking over from his wounded captain. Bancks himself had a commission as captain shortly after the battle; James Savage, ''History of the Hundred of Carhampton: in the county of Somerset, from the best authorities'' (1830), p. 638

he commanded HMS Cambridge (1666), HMS ''Cambridge'' in September 1690. In the same year he bought Hall Place, Berkshire. As captain of HMS ''Phoenix'' in 1692, Bancks was off the coast of Spain when he was driven ashore on 12 April by a superior French naval force. The ''Phoenix'' was burnt, to prevent its capture. He was captain in HMS Carlisle in 1693. He was on half pay from 1696, or from the conclusion of the Treaty of Ryswick (end 1697). He was knighted in 1698, as captain of HMS ''Russell'', which he had commanded since 1696.

In politics

He married the widow Mary Luttrell (née Tregonwell) in 1696, and represented

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and in proximity of the Exmoor National P ...

as Member of Parliament from 1698, initially with Alexander Luttrell, brother of

Francis Francis may refer to: People *Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Francis (surname) Places * Rural M ...

, his wife's first husband.historyofparliamentonline.org, ''Minehead Borough''
He was subsequently involved in the rougher side of the Whig-Tory factional strife. Bancks had

George Rooke Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Rooke (1650 – 24 January 1709) was an English naval officer. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Solebay and again at the Battle of Schooneveld during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. As a captain, ...

as stepson for a short period, since Rooke's second wife was Mary Luttrell (died 1702), daughter of his wife by her first marriage. Bancks, Rooke and some others belonged to a gentleman's club, for which commemorative medals were struck in 1703 by the visiting Swedish medallist, Bengt Richter; another member who was an M.P. was Tanfield Vachell. A legal case resulted from the connection. After a quarrel with Rooke,

William Colepeper William Colepeper (died 1726) was an English poet and politician. Life Colepeper was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Colepeper, of Hollingbourn (since the 18th-century Hollingbourne), Kent. He was one of five gentlemen who, on 8 May 1701, deliv ...

claimed that an attempt, on behalf of Rooke, was made upon his life. He had been assaulted at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original cast ...

in July 1703, by Bancks in particular, on the occasion of Colepeper's delivering a petition for

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...

who was imprisoned.

Philip Nicholas Furbank Philip Nicholas Furbank FRSL (; 23 May 1920 – 27 June 2014) was an English biographer, critic and academic. His most significant biography was the well-received life of his friend E. M. Forster. Career After Reigate Grammar School, Furbank e ...

, W. R. Owens, ''Defoe De-attributions: a critique of J. R. Moore's Checklist'' (1994), p. 19
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After a trial before Lord-justice

Sir John Holt Sir John Holt (23 December 1642 – 5 March 1710) was an English lawyer who served as Lord Chief Justice of England from 17 April 1689 to his death. He is frequently credited with playing a major role in ending the prosecution of witches in Eng ...

, 14 February 1704, some persons associated with Rooke were fined for attempts to do Colepeper injury: Nathaniel Denew, John Merriam and Robert Britton. Later in 1704 Bancks was allowed the assistance of Sir Simon Harcourt the Solicitor-General to prepare against a case brought by Colepeper. In 1711 Bancks was attacked in an open letter, initially published anonymously, by the Whig publicist William Benson. It was provoked by an address the year before by Bancks to the borough, commending the doctrine of passive obedience over Whig resistance theory. Benson aimed to associate the "Minehead doctrine" he attributed to Bancks with the absolutism of

Charles XII of Sweden Charles XII, sometimes Carl XII ( sv, Karl XII) or Carolus Rex (17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 O.S.), was King of Sweden (including current Finland) from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of t ...

. He followed it with another such letter. In 1713 Benson and James Milner of London stood against Bancks and Sir John Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet in Minehead. The Tory pair won the borough, but Bancks did not stand again.

Jacobite

Bancks was implicated in the " Gyllenberg Plot", a Jacobite conspiracy in 1716–7 set up by

Carl Gyllenborg Count Carl Gyllenborg (7 March 1679 – 9 December 1746) was a Swedish statesman and author. Biography He was born in Stockholm, the son of Count Jacob Gyllenborg (1648-1701). His father was a Member of Parliament and of the Royal Council, who ...

and Georg Heinrich von Görtz. He was taken into custody, with

Charles Caesar Sir Charles Caesar (27 January 1590 – 6 December 1642), of Benington in Hertfordshire, was an English judge who served as Master of the Rolls in the period leading up to the outbreak of the English Civil War; his father, Sir Julius Caesar, ...

, on 29 January 1717, the day on which General

George Wade Field Marshal George Wade (1673 – 14 March 1748) was a British Army officer who served in the Nine Years' War, War of the Spanish Succession, Jacobite rising of 1715 and War of the Quadruple Alliance before leading the construction of barra ...

implicated Gyllenborg in plotting by finding incriminating papers. Another arrest was Boyle Smith. Bancks and Caesar had in fact raised and sent to Sweden £18,000 to support a putative Jacobite invasion; but there was little intention in Sweden of spending it for that purpose.

Legacy

Around 1715 he commissioned

Francis Bird Francis Bird (1667–1731) was one of the leading English sculptors of his time. He is mainly remembered for sculptures in Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral. He carved a tomb for the dramatist William Congreve in Westminster Abbey and s ...

to sculpt a statue of Queen Anne for

Family

Jacob Bancks (1704–1738), also a Member of Parliament, was his son. When the younger Jacob Bancks died intestate, a complex lawsuit arose, involving the Swedish side of the family. George Wilson, ''Reports of cases argued and adjudged in the King's courts at Westminster 742–1774', Parts 1-2 (1779), p. 68
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Notes

External links

Family tree
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bancks, Jacob 1662 births 1724 deaths Swedish military officers Royal Navy officers Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Swedish diplomats English MPs 1698–1700 17th-century Royal Navy personnel English MPs 1701 English MPs 1701–1702 English MPs 1702–1705 English MPs 1705–1707 British MPs 1707–1708 British MPs 1708–1710 British MPs 1710–1713 British MPs 1713–1715 Swedish emigrants to the Kingdom of England Military personnel from Stockholm