This is a letter mailed from a prominent Glasgow merchant to the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The letter reads as follows.

To:                 William Simpson, Royal Bank, Edinburgh.

From:             Gilbert Hamilton, Glasgow.

Dated:            11^th November 1791.

Sir,

          Above you have Messrs. Scott Moncreieff & Dale’s  exec’d £300, which please place to the Credit of the Aberdeen Banking Company.

I am

          Sir,

                   Your most obedient servant,

Gilbert Hamilton.

Gilbert Hamilton was son of Archibald Hamilton, merchant in Glasgow, and grandson of the Rev. Archibald. Hamilton, minister of Cambuslang.  He was born in 1744.

He was the Glasgow representative of the Carron Company.  He was appointed as bill collector for the Bank of Scotland in 1787 and was the first secretary of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, from 1783 until 1808.  He was Lord Provost from 1792 to 1794 when the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War resulted in the disruption of trade and an economic downturn in Glasgow.  Many businesses failed and Hamilton was often called upon to wind them up as well as to help provide relief for those Glaswegians who faced financial ruin. 

In the 1787 Directory of the City of Glasgow (Nathanial Jones) Gilbert Hamilton is listed as a Merchant Councilor, Secretary  of the Committee for the Management of the Tontine (a well known professional club), a member for the Management of the Merchants House, a member of The Directors and Managers of the Town's Hospital, Secretary for the Committee for the Management of the Chamber of Commerce, Secretary of the Governors of Mr. Wilson's Charity and Agent for Carron Company, which was located at No. 7, West Side, Queens Street, Glasgow

Not content with the above activities I believe he was a preceptor (instructor) of Hutcheson’s Hospital and in 1790 he was President of the Humane Society.  He, along with David Dale and others, was a founding Director of Glasgow Fire Insurance Society which was established in 1803 and was dissolved in 1813 when the business was transferred to Phoenix Fire Office, London.  He was the Managing Partner of the Delft field Pottery which he ran with the assistance of his Brother in Law, James Watt – the famous Scottish Engineer, and he also found time to be an officer in the local military.

He lived at Glenarbuck which was a property listed in the 1878 publication “The old country houses of the old Glasgow gentry”.  Glenarbuck was build for Gilbert Hamilton in the late 18th Century and still stands to this day.

William Simpson was promoted from Teller to Second Cashier in 1777 following the assumption of the post of First Cashier by his Uncle – George Innes.  Simpson’s salary was set at £100 per annum.  He was promoted to First Cashier in February 1780 as a consequence of the retirement of his Uncle due to ill health.  In 1808 he died at Parsons Green and the directors recorded “the loss of an individual officer, who has for thirty years executed the office of Cashier faithfully to the Bank, honourably to himself and in the most satisfactory manner to the Directors and public at large”.

            The letter refers to “Above”.  It was not uncommon for drafts to be a part of the inter bank correspondence and in this case the letter has the top third of the page removed with this having comprised the draft for £300.

          Messrs. Scott Moncreieff & Dale were the first Agents for the Royal Bank of Scotland in Glasgow and were appointed in 1783.  The Partners were Robert Scott Moncrieff and David Dale.  Robert Scott Moncrieff was Deputy Receiver General for Customs and also Receiver of the Land Tax for Scotland.  He is frequently referred to as an Edinburgh Merchant although he was certainly from landed gentry stock.  He is perhaps the lesser known of the joint Agents as much has been written of David Dale and his image was used on a number Royal Bank of Scotland Limited notes of the 20^th century.  

          David Dale was born in Stewarton, Ayrshire in 1839 and began his significant career from the lowly position of apprentice of a weaver and son of a Grocer.  He furthered his position by becoming a linen agent for the sale of yarns and then moved to Glasgow where he established a business trading in imported French and Dutch yarns.  His sector contacts extended to Richard Arkwright (perhaps most renowned for inventing the Spinning frame used for cotton) with whom he established the famous New Lanark Mills in 1786.  I believe that the partnership ended soon after and that David Dale himself continued to operate this business which he grew to the largest water powered spinning mill in Britain prior to selling it to his son in law (the famous Robert Owen) in 1799.  Like Gilbert Hamilton, Dale also had a number of philanthropic activities in Glasgow and both men must have been very prominent citizens of the City.  David Dale’s  “last appearances as a director of the Chamber of Commerce was to do honour to his old and tried friend, Mr. Gilbert Hamilton, the Secretary, when his brother directors presented him with a well merited testimony of respect for his long and faithful services”.

          Messrs. Scott Moncreieff & Dale came to dominate the Glasgow financial scene and their considerable contacts in the then very important Cotton and Sugar trades saw their business activities outgrow that of the Bank’s Head Office in Edinburgh by 1810. The Agency of Messrs. Scott Moncreieff & Dale came to an end in 1806 when David Dale died at the age of 66.

The Carron Company was formed in 1759 as a partnership by three men: two Englishmen, Dr John Roebuck (a chemist) and Samuel Garrett, (a merchant), and a wealthy Scottish shipowner, William Caddell.  It was granted a lucrative contract to supply armaments to the British armed forces and also to the Russian Empire and the newly formed United States of America.  The Company produced a wide range of goods including cast iron parts for James Watt's steam engine and made telephone kiosks and police boxes – like Dr Who’s Tardis – well into the 1960’s.  The company however went into receivership in 1982.
 

         When first typing the above I believed Gilbert Hamilton to be someone involved in high level discussions and trade in respect of arms and significant engine parts although in the book “The Making of Buchanan Street” I found a reference to the following advert which appeared in the Glasgow Mercury on Wednesday 20^th February 1788.

CARRON WAREHOUSE – To be sold, at the Carron Warehouse, in Queen Street, all kinds of Cast Iron Goods manufactured at Carron, such as

     Bath Stove Grates

     Pots and Pans

     Bushes

     Girdles and Frying Pans

     Smoke and Register Stoves

     Skittles and Sauce Pans

     Box, Tailors, Hatters and Sad Irons

     Cylinder and Camp Ovens

     Barrs and Bearers

     Doors and Frames

     Boilers, Kirbs and Drying Stoves of all dimensions, together with Tinned Tea Kettles, Goblets, Round Pots, Fish Pans, and Stew Pans, and many other articles.  At the same place are sold, Oil of Vitriol, Aquafortis, and Pearl Ashes, of the best quality; together with Patent Liquor for the use of calico Printers.

     Likewise LONDON PORTER, either in hogheads or bottles, for home sale or exportation.

     Orders addressed to Gilbert Hamilton & Co., Glasgow, will be particularly attended to.

            I now think of Gilbert Hamilton as a Banker, Merchant and Ironmonger!

          Returning to the letter I will admit that I am uncertain as to why the Aberdeen Banking Company is mentioned.  I am aware that Gilbert Hamilton was Agent for Bank of Scotland from 1785 (which pre dates the letter) and for the Carron Company although, as Carron primarily banked with Bank of Scotland at that time, I cannot see why that would involve him with the Aberdeen Banking Company.  It may well be that Carron were using a number of banks – including Aberdeen Banking Company – and that Gilbert Hamilton is acting here in his capacity as the Agent of Carron.  In Munro’s “History of the Royal Bank of Scotland” he refers to the failure of Douglas Heron & Company in 1773 and advises that “The Carron Iron Works……was flourishing and giving employment to a great body of workmen, whose wages weekly had been paid in Bank of Ayr money.  The Carron firm transferred its business to the Royal and drew the wages there each Friday upon three month bills”

        In my collection I have a further letter - dated 9^th July 1791 -  in which the Aberdeen Banking Company write to William Simpson of the Royal Bank  of Scotland and refer  to the remittance of notes by Gilbert Hamilton to William Simpson in Edinburgh.  The Royal Bank of Scotland is to be debited as a consequence of this transaction and I am of the belief that Gilbert Hamilton was an Agent for Aberdeen Banking Company in addition to being Agent for Bank of Scotland.  It is likely that he was more of a “post box” than a provider of banking services and having more than one Agency provided no conflict of interest.