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 !! )
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more to follow..............

Scottish Banking(part 14)

The bank existed fifty-eight years—namely, from
1785 till 1843. At this latter date the partners were
Messrs. John Scott, shipbuilder, Greenock;
Charles C. Scott of Hawkhill, near Largs;
Jas. Hunter of Halton,Dunoon ; Wm. Smith of
Fullwood, merchant, Liverpool; Alexander Thomson
and John Thomson, bankers, Greenock.
 In November 1843 these partners disposed
of their whole interest in the bank to the
 Western Bank, for a large consideration. The
 Glasgow Branch was then closed, and the Greenock
 Bank ceased to exist as an independent
establishment, although the old name was retained
 by the- purchasers fourteen years longer as a
 branch of their own in Greenock.
This was the last private bank in Scotland.

The third bank which sent a branch to Glasgow
was the Paisley Union. This bank was established at
Paisley in May 1788.

In 1789 a branch was opened in Glasgow. The first
office was in a flat up two stairs at No. 17 High Street.
The first agent was Mr. James Elliot Henderson of
Enoch Bank, one of the partners.

In 1802 Mr. Andrew Templeton became the agent,
and continued so twenty-seven years. When Mr.
Templeton joined the Paisley Union, the bank office
was at 17 Glassford Street; but in 1805 it was removed
to the low floor of the tenement at the north—east
corner of Hutcheson and Ingram Streets, entering from
the latter. There it remained till the last.



During Mr. Templeton's agency of the Paisley Un-
ion the office in Ingram Street was robbed by three
noted London thieves. It made a great noise at the
time. The robbery took place early in the morning of
Sunday, 14th July 1811, and the amount stolen was
£20,000. With this large sum the thieves got clear off
to London in a post-chaise and four. The Bow Street
officers recovered £12,000 shortly after through the
medium of a London boxer, who acted as
 middle-man between them and the robbers,
 but only a portion............


(£20,000 - TODAY = £1,211,000.00)
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/education/inflation/calculator/flash/index.htm
more to follow..............