Navigation: Hankeys of Churton > John Hankey > Robert Hankey > Robert Hanky > Thomas Hankey > Henry Hankey > Joseph Hankey > Joseph Hankey >

Sir Richard Hankey (1759-1817)

Second surviving son of Joseph Chaplin Hankey, Richard Hankey was baptised on 2 Nov 1759 at St Katherine Colman.

A banker in Hankey & Co, he had become a partner by 1782. He signed the London merchants’ declaration of loyalty on 2 Dec 1795. Three months after his brother Chaplin had bought a seat in the House in 1799, Richard did likewise and became MP for Plympton Erle on 17 Jun 1799; like his brother, he left no known trace of parliamentary activity and retired from the House at the dissolution of 1802.

He was admitted to Gray’s Inn on 1 Jul 1802, but is not known to have become a practising lawyer.

By Feb 1803 Richard Hankey had ‘lately’ withdrawn from the banking house, having gone ‘so far in extravagance that’ Joseph Chaplin Hankey ‘turned him out of the partnership and gave peace and security to that house which has never been disturbed since’. Richard was his brother Chaplin’s principal heir on his death in April 1803.

William Alers Hankey ‘had much trouble with Sir Richard and his Lady, but Joseph Chaplin Hankey’s will, which provided that all debts to Fenchurch Street should be paid before Sir Richard received a shilling, placed him in such a cleft stick that, though he showed his teeth, he could not bite’.

He was knighted on 18 May 1803 ‘as proxy for Sir Andrew Mitchell’. He was married in Nov 1812 at Fulham to Mary, daughter of the late Captain Charles Higgins of Yarmouth; there were no issue, although Lady Hankey was said to have died in confinement. His country house had been at High Beach, Essex, and he later moved to Bath.

Sir Richard died at Bath on 15 Mar 1817 aged 57, and was buried on 24 Mar at St Dionis Backchurch.