We can trace our roots back over 230 years to the time when George III was on the throne, William and Caroline Hershel discovered Uranus, the British were beaten by the Americans and the French at the Battle of Yorktown (but they were out-numbered!), William Pitt was the youngest person elected to Parliament at the tender age of 22 and railway engineer George Stephenson was born. As you can see we are in illustrious company.
In 1968 the firm of Whitehead Monckton was created by the amalgamation of Whitehead, Thomas & Urmston and Monckton Son & Collis. Both these firms had a long, but somewhat contrasting history. The firm of Whitehead, Thomas & Urmston began in premises at No. 9 King Street by George Burr in about 1781. However, between then and 1968 there were no less than 23 alterations to the firm’s name reflecting changes in partners. It seemed necessary in earlier days to reflect any change in the composition of the firm by an equivalent change in title.
By contrast, in 1825 John Monckton set up in practice at the lower end of the High Street in Maidstone and in 1839 moved to No. 70 King Street which was also used as a residence for the Monckton family. Some years later he acquired the adjoining premises at 72 King Street. Both buildings were in use as the main office of the firm until November 2018. His son, Sir John Braddick Monckton went on to work for the firm and became town clerk of London in 1873.
Portrait of Sir John Braddick Monckton (1832 – 1902) by Barnett Samuel Marks (1827 – 1916) © Museum of Freemasonry, London.
The firm expanded in to the Weald of Kent in 1984 when Timothy Monckton opened a branch office in Tenterden. He represented the sixth generation of the Monckton family in succession to be partners in the firm. Tim retired from the partnership in March 2014.
The firm was one of the first law practices in the country to open an Investment Management Department in 1995 to provide an in-house service to clients with investment portfolios and a dedicated independent financial service. There have been many recent developments within the investment management arena and in 2013, the department became a commercially independent branch of Raymond James Investment Services. Mark Beaney who established the department in 1995, is now Branch Principal of the Raymond James Weald of Kent Branch and continues to manage the investment management operation. This development enabled the Investment team to offer clients their personalised service matched with international investment and product research.
In 2013, the firm opened an office in Canterbury at 32-33 Watling Street. We already had a large number of clients in East Kent so it was a logical move to expand our offices to offer our full range of legal services to clients from a convenient central Canterbury location. With the three offices in Kent we are now able to offer our clients easier access to our services and solicitors.
In April 2014, the firm moved from a traditional partnership to a Limited Company, offering a more flexible structure to enable us to compete in today’s market. Partners of the firm became Directors under the Limited Company.
We joined LawNet on 1st August 2015, an association of over sixty six independent law firms. The LawNet team have been supporting independent law firms for over 25 years.
In October 2016, we were delighted to merge with Docklands Solicitors, a firm established right in the centre of Canary Wharf. Docklands Solicitors was established in 2005 to provide bespoke legal expertise to individuals who live and work in the thriving area of “Docklands”. This merger has widened the geographical scope of Whitehead Monckton’s coverage and enabled us to build new relationships and clients.
In April 2017 we obtained the quality management standard ISO9001.
In September 2018 it was announced that we would be leaving our King Street office in Maidstone and move to a new office in Eclipse Park. Stephen Beck described the move as an extremely exciting and fantastic opportunity for the next phase of development for the firm.
In November 2018 Whitehead Monckton officially moved to 5 Eclipse Park, Sittingbourne Road and closed the doors on 72 King Street. The new office is situated right next to junction 7 of the M20 overlooking the Notcutts area. The move is a reflection on the growth of the company, not just in terms of size of the firm but also in being able to modernise and significantly improve the way in which we can deliver our services to clients.
Whitehead Monckton is proud to have served the people of Kent for over 235 years and we look forward to continuing to do so long into the future.
