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 1 3th 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 yeLombarde Street, so called of the Longobards and 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 e, a place then new builded for that purpose, in the ward of Corn hill, and was since, by her majesty Queen Elizabeth, named the Royal Exchange." (P. 202.) [s. 694]