Scottish Banking(part 15)

...of the remaining £8000 was ever recovered, and
 that under circumstances so singular as to be
almost like a romance. It will be hardly credited
 that the principal robber, James Mackcoul,
 had the audacity to prosecute the Bank for
arresting him a number of years after in
Edinburgh, where he had been purchasing, from
several of the banks, drafts on London, in  the
name of a fictitious party, with the very notes he
had stolen.

The Paisley Union Bank was very nearly cast in that
action, and only escaped through the remarkable sag-
acity and exertions of Mr. Donovan, originally of the
Bow Street office, and afterwards Master of Police in
Glasgow,who succeeded in identifying Mackcoul with
the robbery, and turned the tables so completely
against him that he was tried and sentenced to death,
but died in prison in December 1820. The counsel for
the Bank were Mr. Francis Jeffrey and Mr. Henry
Cockburn.

On 30th June 1838 the Paisley Union,after having
existed half a century, merged into the Glasgow
Union Bank, now the Union Bank of Scotland.

The fourth and last private bank branch opened in
Glasgow was that of the Renfrewshire Bank. The
social firm was William Napier & Co. Its head office
was in Greenock, where it commenced business in
1802.

A branch was planted at Glasgow in 1803, under
the agency of Messrs. Logan & Kennedy, wine
merchants. The office was in Buchanan Street.
The bank had branches also at Rothesay,
Inveraray, and Campbeltown.

The Renfrewshire Bank had at one time a pretty
extensive business, but it gradually dwindled away.
On 1st April 1842 the Bank was sequestrated. The
Trustee was Mr. John Kerr, merchant, Greenock.

The liabilities amounted to upwards of £324,000,
and the dividend to the general creditors was small.
Some of the note-holders and depositors, however,
were paid in full by certain of the retired partners,
where obligations were dated prior to 1840.

(£324,000 - TODAY = £27,459,000.00 !! )
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/education/inflation/calculator/flash/index.htm

more to follow..............