LOMBARD

A term anciently used in England for a banker or money-lender. The name is derived from the Italian merchants, the great usurers or money-lenders of the middle ages, principally from the cities of Lombardy, who are said to have settled in London in the middle of the 13th century, and to have taken up their residence in a street in the city which still bears their name. Stowe, in his Survey of London, says, "Then have ye Lombardestreet, so called of the Longobards nnd other merchants, strangers of diverse nations, a embling there twice every day. The meeting of which merchants there continued until the 22d of December, in the year 1568; on the which day the said merchants to make their meetings at the Bur c, a place then new builded for that purpose, in the ward of Cornh.il I, nnd was since, by her majesty Queen Elizabeth, named the Royal Exchange." (P. 202.) [s. 700]