Beeston Long

Who was Beeston Long?

Beeston Long, of Combe House, Surrey, was an English businessman.

The son of Beeston Long, a West India Merchant and deputy Governor of the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation, and brother of Samuel Long and Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough, Long married in 1786 Frances Louisa, eldest daughter of Sir Richard Neave, 1st Baronet.

Long was a senior partner of the firm of West India merchants, Long, Drake & Co, who succeeded his father-in-law as Chairman of the West India Merchants, and also as Governor of the Bank of England, a position he held from 1806 to 1808, having served previously as its Deputy Governor. He was a Vice-president of the London Institution and leader of a group of merchants and speculators who, in a private venture, undertook the construction of the docks at Wapping. The London Docks Company had a 21-year monopoly to unload all vessels entering the port with tobacco, rice, wine and brandy. Long and the other directors sat in the London Dock House, in New Bank Buildings, from where they oversaw their lucrative trade.

He died in 1820, survived by his wife and two children.