They were members of the Philipps family of St Brides, Pembrokeshire as indicated by the spelling of their surname, and also the heraldic emblem and motto on the bank notes.
[1] However, it was his second son, Nathaniel Philips[1] of Slebech, who became the ‘mainstay’ of the Bank.
[2] The Bank ran into trouble due to the apparent incompetence of Thomas Philipps.
[2] After the Bank’s collapse, Thomas Philipps, then aged 44, together with his wife and seven children, emigrated to South Africa at the head of a group of Pembrokeshire families, comprising 47 persons in all.
[2] They sailed in the ‘Kennersley Castle’ from Bristol, in 1819, and reached Table Bay in March 1820, settling on an arm of the Bush River, at a place which Philipps called Lampeter, and which was later erroneously called New Bristol.