Exterior of 68 Lombard Street with the Grasshopper sign of Martins Bank. The sign of the grasshopper is one of the ancient shop signs of Lombard Street. It is associated with Sir Thomas Gresham (d. 1579), Elizabeth I’s financial agent, who played an important part in the development of English banking. In the reign of Charles II. we find the "Grasshopper" in Lombard Street the sign of another wealthy goldsmith, Sir Charles Duncombe, the founder of the Feversham family, and the purchaser of Helmsley, in Yorkshire, the princely seat of George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham: "Helmsley, once proud Buckingham's delight, Yields to a scrivener and a City knight."