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The Newcomes by William Makepeace Thackeray
page 70 of 1137 (06%)
says he, "the banking-house of Hobson Brothers, or Newcome Brothers, as
the partners of the firm really are, is not one of the leading banking
firms of the City of London, but a most respectable house of many years'
standing, and doing a most respectable business, especially in the
Dissenting connection." After the business came into the hands of the
Newcome Brothers, Hobson Newcome, Esq., and Sir Brian Newcome, Bart.,
M.P., Mr. Giles shows how a considerable West End connection was likewise
established, chiefly through the aristocratic friends and connections of
the above-named Bart.

But the best man of business, according to Mr. Giles, whom the firm of
Hobson Brothers ever knew, better than her father and uncle, better than
her husband Sir T. Newcome, better than her sons and successors above
mentioned, was the famous Sophia Alethea Hobson, afterwards Newcome--of
whom might be said what Frederick the Great said of his sister, that she
was sexu foemina, vir ingenio--in sex a woman, and in mind a man. Nor was
she, my informant told me, without even manly personal characteristics:
she had a very deep and gruff voice, and in her old age a beard which
many a young man might envy; and as she came into the bank out of her
carriage from Clapham, in her dark green pelisse with fur trimmings, in
her grey beaver hat, beaver gloves, and great gold spectacles, not a
clerk in that house did not tremble before her, and it was said she only
wanted a pipe in her mouth considerably to resemble the late
Field-Marshal Prince Blucher.

Her funeral was one of the most imposing sights ever witnessed in
Clapham. There was such a crowd you might have thought it was a
Derby-day. The carriages of some of the greatest City firms, and the
wealthiest Dissenting houses; several coaches full of ministers of all
denominations, including the Established Church; the carriage of the
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