memoirs of a banking-house

Cross Coll. Bus,Ad» [...]... ill-used, and I have seen his eyes, Avhich Avere black and piercing, flash as Avith lightning, if any attempt Avas made to overreach him in a bargain But his passion Avas of short continuance, and easily appeased * ["We Tnust accept this fact, and the evident simplicity and good feeling under which the author mentions it, as illustrations of the manners of past times It clearly appears that in Sir William's... negotiated at Edinburgh J I see many notices of * [Thomas Haliburton, of Newmains, living about that time, was, through a daughter, great-grandfather to Sir Walter Scott.] f [Jlr Archibald Trotter was the second son of Alexander Trotter of Castlesliiel, by Jean, daughter of Sir Robert Stuart of AUanbank.] X [In both sections banks were hands of private of this island, for a long period after public established,... last assertion there can be no better proof than that in three generations four of the family were elected chief magistrate of their native town lived to a great left six sons : ; MEMOIRS OP A BANKING-HOUSE 2 Edinburgh as a merchant The books He written at least as early as the year 1696.* are kept in Scots money, and very neatly and distinctly appears to have been a general merchant, whose transactions... ill qualified, and as an arbitrator in mer- afterwards accepted the rather ungracious office of agent for cei-tain Edinburgh banks in theii* warfare with those of Glasgow, to wliich place he occasionally repaired to make demands for gold At times he was subject to a species of religious melancholy, which he inherited from his mother, the Lady Castleshiels of the Allanbank family by whom he was related... Newmains, and Thomas in partnership with Mr commencement or termination of that connection I can find no trace In the year 1740, 1 find him in partnership with Mr Kobert Ramsay, brother of Sir Alexander Ramsay of Balmain; from whom he separated on the oth of December 1744, as appears by an entry in his journal, declaring that their partnership had terminated that day, and that he was thenceforward... education in Holland, he had of a Dutchman and ; all Having received the accuracy and to his lessons it is that I the strictness owe any knowledge I possess of the principles of business, as well as form, which I shall probably carry AAdth his mercantile all an attachment to me to the grave Although common life, he Avas easily he was of the most gentle manners in heated Avith passion Avhen he thought... trade was the shipping of tea, spirits, and other articles of contraband goods, for the smugglers on the east and north coasts of Scotland His friends at Edmburgh, disliking this trade, procured a separation Ijctween him and his partners in Holland, very fortunately for Mr Coutts, as that house became bankrupt a very few years afterwards MEMOIRS OF A BANKING-HOUSE 8 at that time kept the Bell Inn at... thiis stated to me by a letter from Thomson of Montrose, who had it from Mrs Patison, a relative of * Mr to give Cliarles the family ' The first ccnturj' of the family came to Montrose towards the end of the sixteenth is said to have been a son of Coutts of Auchintowl, a vassal He of the family of was provost who Macdonald of Montrose This gentleman had a son, WiUiam, who "William was succeeded by age,... and Ferguson, John Fyffe, and W Sinclair & Co most of whom, along with several of those formerly mentioned, became bankrupt Thomas Kinnear was originally an in the famous year 1772.f as — insurance-broker, but laid the foundation of a banking-house of eminence, afterwards carried on by his sons sprang out of a society who Seton and Houstoun dealt in the manufacturing of woollen goods It was somewhat... Drummond, a son of Lord StrathaUan.i who, after having been engaged in the 1715 on the side of the Stuart family, established himself as a banker in London, where he was patronised by many of the Tory families of the English aristocracy George Campbell, the proprietor of the other establishment, was originally a goldsmith in London as most of the bankers had been originally and was patronised by the Duke of . Montrose towards the end of the sixteenth ccnturj'. He is said to have been a son of Coutts of Auchintowl, a vassal of the family of Macdonald. This gentleman had a son, WiUiam, who was provost of. better proof than that in three generations four of the family were elected chief magistrate of their native town. 2 MEMOIRS OP A BANKING-HOUSE. Edinburgh as a merchant at least as early as the year 1696.* The. the Scottish bar. Left fatherless at four years of age, he owed much in his early days to an amiable and intelligent mother, who contrived to maintain the style and manners of a lady on what would now be poverty in a