Edward Backwell was an English goldsmith

Goldsmith

A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...

, financier, and politician. He has been called "the principal founder of the banking system in England", and "far and away the best documented banker of his time".

Life

The son of Barnaby Backwell, of Leighton Buzzard

Leighton Buzzard

-Lower schools:*Beaudesert Lower School - Apennine Way*Clipstone Brook Lower School - Brooklands Drive*Greenleas Lower School - Derwent Road*Dovery Down Lower School - Heath Road*Heathwood Lower School - Heath Road*Leedon Lower School - Highfield Road...

, he became a resident of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and was apprenticed to Thomas Vyner as a goldsmith in 1635. Like other goldsmiths of the era, he was also a banker and played a role in State finance during The Protectorate

The Protectorate

In British history, the Protectorate was the period 1653–1659 during which the Commonwealth of England was governed by a Lord Protector.-Background:...

, when he profited considerably by the resale of former Royal lands. He continued to operate in finance during the reign of Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

, and is frequently mentioned in the diary of Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...

. He had his goldsmith's shop in Lombard Street

Lombard Street, London

Lombard Street is a street in the City of London.It runs from the corner of the Bank of England at its north-west end, where it meets a major junction including Poultry, King William Street, and Threadneedle Street, south-east to Gracechurch Street....

. He was selected an alderman

Alderman

An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...

 for Bishopsgate

Bishopsgate

Bishopsgate is a road and ward in the northeast part of the City of London, extending north from Gracechurch Street to Norton Folgate. It is named after one of the original seven gates in London Wall...

 1660–1661. The stoppage of the Exchequer

Exchequer

The Exchequer is a government department of the United Kingdom responsible for the management and collection of taxation and other government revenues. The historical Exchequer developed judicial roles...

 in 1672 badly damaged him financially. He and his son John were appointed comptroller of customs in the port of London in 1671, and with his old master Vyner, he was from 1671 to 1675 a commissioner of the customs and farmer of the customs revenue. He went bankrupt in 1682.

He owned land in Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

 and Huntingdonshire

Huntingdonshire

Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...

, and was twice returned for Wendover

Wendover (UK Parliament constituency)

Wendover was a borough constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832...

. By his first marriage, in 1657, to Sarah Brett, he had one son, John Backwell

John Backwell

John Backwell was an English politician, the son of the financier Edward Backwell.In 1678, he married Elizabeth Tyringham, only daughter of Sir William Tyringham, by whom he had a son, Tyringham Blackwell. He inherited his father-in-law's estates in Buckinghamshire, and was twice returned for...

. In 1662, he married Mary Leigh (d. 1669), by whom he had three sons and two daughters. He died in 1683 in Holland, where he had gone after his bankruptcy, and was buried in London on June 13, 1683.