The town has always been well supplied with banks. Tracing the history of banking operations is not altogether easy as the early banking and savings transactions started with trusted shopkeepers etc. providing facilities as a sort of sideline. From these grew the banks as we think of them today.

The first, in 1778 was opened by Thomas Peirson, followed shortly in 1779 by the Sanders Brothers in Church St. Among other early banks was that of Wakefield Simpson and Abel Chapman, in Grape Lane. The people of Whitby held them in great esteem, their bank being known as the `Green Gate`. The house still stands in Grape Lane.

Three interrelated banks, Clarke, Richardson & Hodgson; Pease, Richardson & Co; and Richardson, Holt & Co. were founded around 1786, and the Campions Bank was started in 1800 by Mrs. Margaret Campion and her son Robert. Mrs. Campion was one of the very first active lady bankers.

John and James Frankland founded their Church St bank in 1820, which later became Frankland & Wilkinson`s. For the most part after the Acts of Parliament in 1826 and 1833, the early Whitby banks were incorporated into the larger bank with names familiar today.

INSURANCE: Insurance and banking have played a large part in the economy of Whitby. It was recognised at a very early stage that a disaster shared was a disaster more easily borne, and with the uncertainty of life on the high seas it was perhaps natural for the ship owners, merchants etc. to share the risks. A directory of 1823 shows Whitby as having 10 fire and life
insurance agents, 5 ship insurance brokers as well as 5 banks, all in a town of some ten thousand inhabitants.