M. M. & Co. (Mullens, Marshall & Co.)

For two hundred years from the appointment of Benjamin Cole as the first Government Broker in July 1786, the senior partner of the firm of Mullens and Company, stockbrokers, acted as Government Stockbroker.

The formal title assigned to the Senior Partner of the firm was "Broker to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt". During this period the firm was one of the leading City stockbrokers, enjoying close relations with the Bank of England and the Stock Exchange in relation to its activities in the gilt-edged market. It also had a number of private clients.

Mullens and Company remained a partnership except for a brief period from 1949 when, for tax reasons, it converted into a private unlimited company in common with other Stock Exchange firms.

Mullens and Company traded under a variety of names, 1786-1810, and under the following names from 1810 onwards:

• Templeman, Cole and Ede, 1810-1811
• Cole Jnr and Child,  1811-1813
• Templeman, Cole Jnr and Child, 1813-1820
• Cole and Child , 1820-1825
• Templeman, Cole and Child, 1825-1829
• Cole and Child 1829-1831
• Cole and Mullens, 1831-1843
• Mullens and Marshall, 1843-1846
• Mullens, Marshall and Daniell, 1846-1877
• Mullens, Marshall and Company, 1877-1921
• Mullens, Marshall, Steer Lawford and Company, 1921-1935
• Mullens and Company, 1935-1986.

In April 1986 Mullens and Company was taken over by the merchant bank SG Warburg, and ceased to exist.

by Paul Green