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BANKS AND BANKERS OF CINCINNATI-JOHN R. DE CAMP.

ORIGIN OF BANKS.

WHEN, in the old Arcadian days, the people of the Peloponnesus, leading the lives of shepherds, thought it fair dealing to exchange a ram for a lamb, human traffic had its simplest, if not its fairest methods of transaction. Then traffic did not flow as it does now, "from lands of suns to lands of snow," for the reason that there was no "engine to drive commerce around the world." Beginning thus, in the simple exchange of one thing for another, the varied and increasing necessities of men rendered a value, or standard of value, necessary in addition to an exchangeable commodity; hence the origin of money, from the Latin moneo, to advice or mark-that is, to show by some device thereon, the weight or fineness of the metal of which ancient coins were made; Moneta ita appeliatur quia fraus in pondere vel metalla fiat (Money was thus named because fraud either in the weight or metal was prohibited).

Hence, when the Romans were in want of money, Juno admonished them to practice justice, and there would be no such need; and when they found the good effect of the counsel, she was surnamed Juno Moneta, and money was coined in her temple. In process of time, money was made a goddess, and enshrined by the name of Dea Pecunia, under the figure of a woman holding a balance in one hand and a cornucopia in the other.

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Banking as a profession, by way of deposits and discounts, bills of exchange, drafts, checks, etc., began in the seventeenth century in England, as an outgrowth of the Exchequer which founded by William the Conqueror-an institution now more than eight hundred years old. But the lending of money on collaterals and on real estate mortgages is purely a modern affair, suggested perhaps by the misfortunes of the Merchant of Venice who, instead of hypothecating his bills of lading for his cargoes, pledged to Shylock, as a penalty and forfeit of his bond

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THEN

PUBLIC DIUARY

ASTOR, LENOX

TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

Campes was of Essex; and in 1324 Roger Kempe was of Suffolk. Hence the Baronets Kempe, (Rotuli Curiæ Regis and Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs).

John de Camp went from Normandy into England, A. D. 1324, and became the progenitor of the De Camps of Essex, and of Spains Hall, where the De Camp or Kemp family was seated for three hundred years.

Sir John de Camp was a distinguished French knight, who was killed at the battle of Poiters, September 19, 1356.

Johannis de Champe, knight, one of the gentry of Berkshire, A. D. 1433, mentioned by Thomas Fuller as one of the worthies of England during the reign of King Henry VI.

Lord Chancellor John Campe, or Kempe, "younger son of Thomas, grandchild of Sir Roger, descended from Normanus De Campe, both knights," of Olantigh, Kent, was born A. D. 1380, and educated at Merton college, Oxford; obtained distinction in the time of Henry V., by whom he was appointed Chief Justiciary of Normandy. He was sent as an ambassador to treat with Ferdinand of Aragon for a league of perpetual amity and to negotiate for the marriage of his daughter with Henry V.; was afterwards made Bishop of Rochester, Chichester and London; was Archbishop of Canterbury, and in 1439 was created Cardinal by the title of Saint Balbina. All his preferments are comprehended in the following

verse:

Bis primas, ter præsul erat, bis cardinefunctus, Et dixit legem, bis cancellarius Anglis.

That is, "twice bishop, once archbishop,

twice cardinal and twice lord chancellor of England."

He died in 1453, a very old man, leaving many by his name and blood.

Burke's History of the Gentry of Great Britain' says, "the family became dispersed throughout the south of England, in several branches, all bearing the same coatarmor, but differenced in the crest, and who have maintained the highest respectability."

John Des Champs belonged to an ancient family established in Perigord, France. At the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685, he took refuge first in Geneva and then in Prussia.

His son, John Ezekiel de Camp, entered the civil service of the West India company and became a member of the council of the presidency of Madras.

George De Campe, son of William De Campe, descendant of "John de Camp of Essex in 1324," owned and occupied Pentlow hall, where he died in 1606.

Pentlow church belonged to the manor of Pentlow hall, and contains a very fine tomb of the De Camps, having on it the recumbent figure of John Camp who died in 1609, and his wife, Eleanor Drew of Devonshire, together with fourteen children kneeling around, with coat-of-arms and this inscription:

"Here lyeth John Campe, that worthy esquyer,
That never detracted the poor man's hire;
Of veritie and knowledge a studious seeker,
Of word and promise a faithful keeper.
Heaven hath his soule through Christ his grace,
Earth his body entombed in this place."

THE DE CAMPS OF NEW JERSEY AS WESTERN PIONEERS.

Moses De Camp, who won the title of

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captain in the Revolutionary war, and a descendant of Nicholas De Camp of Connecticut, emigrated from Essex county, New Jersey, in 1812, bringing with him his venerable wife, Sarah; with him also came his son Ezekiel and his wife, Mary Baker De Camp, and several children.

Upon arriving in Cincinnati, Nicholas Longworth, esq., whom Captain De Camp had known in New Jersey, advised his friend to purchase a thirty-acre tract of ground, then on the western boundary of the young city. But the proposition met with the emphatic protest of the continental soldier and his son Ezekiel, who said that they had come to buy a farm in the west, not a patch of ground near a country town.

That patch of ground is now in the heart of Cincinnati and is worth millions of dollars. The pioneers therefore moved on and located upon a section of land in Reily township, Butler county. There they settled down to the hard and almost comfortless life of pioneers.

Amid the austerities and privations of uncultivated nature they struggled for selfsubsistence and for the support of the seventeen children that finally constituted the family of Ezekiel and Mary De Camp: -Phebe, Hannah, David, Walter, Hiram, John, Harvey, Joseph, Margaret, Henry, Daniel, James, Moses, Sarah, Mary, Lambert and Job-as noble and true-hearted, as honest and industrious and useful a band of brothers as ever emanated from one household. Moses died at eleven years of age. The others grew up to man's estate and married. Most of them settled in Cincinnati.

One month before the assassination of

President Lincoln eight of these brothers, David, Walter, Hiram, Harvey, Joseph, Daniel, Lainbert and Job, visited Washington city, and were introduced to the President by Judge William Johnson as "eight brothers from Ohio, who all voted for him, and who daily prayed to the Almighty that he might be guided by wisdom, and the Union preserved."

The surname, "De Camp," is a NormanFrench word and used to denote "a combatant, champion, man-at-arms or knight." The territorial "de" signified "of" or "from," and originally implied the possession of manorial estates, and therefore, that a family bearing it belonged to the landed aristocracy.

During the colonial period the name experienced changes in its orthography— such as De Camp, Camp, Kamp and Kemp.

John de Camp, in the reign of Edward I., by his wife, Alice, had a son, Nicholas de Camp, who married Margaret de Hispania, or Spain; hence "Spain's hall, Essex."

The first emigrant to this country from England was Nicholas de Camp, who appears in Milford, Connecticut, in 1639. From Nicholas descended William de Camp, who removed to New Jersey in 1661. The following are some of the Christian names of his descendants who became numerous and influential in New Jersey, and where they always maintained their ancient respectability: John, Samuel, Moses, William, Nathaniel, Joseph, Mary, Hannah, David, Walter, Aaron, Phebe, Job, James, Daniel, Sarah, Caleb, Rachel, Harvey, Joanna, Ephraim, etc.

Harvey de Camp, capitalist, father of

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