The Dapper Little Banker

This is the true story of Rowland Stephenson. Described as the “Dapper Little Banker”, he had the golden touch. While the money markets of the 1820s rose and fell he became the most popular banker in London and a Member of Parliament. He rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous to whom he was able to give the highest rate of interest and they were only too pleased to hand over fortunes to their trusted banker. His jovial appearance of prosperity and good humour concealed his desperate efforts to keep afloat by juggling huge sums of money with the shadier dealers of the city. His fall from grace came suddenly and in January 1829 he was being chased across England and America by all the forces that Robert Peel and the British government could muster while the newspapers branded him a thief and a scoundrel. Kidnapped by bounty hunters he came face to face with his greatest danger, the remorseless and pugnacious Joseph Parkins, the eccentric ex-sheriff of London, who swore to squeeze the last penny out of him.