Carne & Carne bank

The Batten, Carne & Carne bank was the result of the amalgamation of two major Penzance family interests. The Carne part owed its existence to local grocer and merchant, William Carne, who opened the Penzance Bank in 1797, with associates Batten and Oxnam at 15, Chapel Street.
                    
The Battens were an old and well respected Penzance trading family that had given several mayors to the borough from its ranks. In 1823 William's famous son, Joseph Carne, joined the partners of the bank to give it the name it was to have for the next 73 years.

For two score years he was one of the chief movers and shakers in Penzance society, being involved in both the formation of the Penzance library and geological society, as well as writing several learned papers on mineralogy, mining and natural history. He lived with two of his four daughters, Caroline and Elizabeth, in the large end house on the east side of Chapel Street opposite St Mary's Church.

When his father, William, died in 1836 there was an enormous turn-out of people for the funeral service. Upon Joseph's death in 1858 his daughter, Elizabeth Carne, a highly respected woman in her own right, became a partner in the running of the bank, his four sons having followed different callings. It was during Elizabeth's time on the Board that an impressive new building was constructed in Market Place and the bank moved there in 1864 (today's William Rogers Insurance). But it was a move overshadowed by the death of 20-year-old Archibald Ross-Carne who joined the partners of the bank two years before and lived with his aunts Caroline and Elizabeth Carne before succumbing to scarlet fever.

When the esteemed Elizabeth Carne died in 1873, the bank was still seen as a rock solid business in which to save and invest, and secure loans.

Read more: Fall-house-Carne/story