Lot 152
John Campbell, the Equivalent Company
Jacobite, Stuart, and Scottish Applied Arts
Auction: 13 May 2015 at 12:00 BST
Description
Letter from James Mathias [secretary of the Equivalent Company] to John Campbell, regarding payments, written on one side of folded notepaper with address and seal to verso, page dimension 23 x 19cm, dated London 10. September 1745 (note states that the letter was answered on 17th September 1745)
Footnote
Note: Between 1745 and 1777, John Campbell was cashier for the Royal Bank of Scotland, having started working with the bank at its foundation in 1703. Campbell's diary of the 1745 Jacobite uprising explains how he helped to protect the bank following the Jacobite army's entry into Edinburgh on 17th September 1745. Campbell orchestrated a payment from the bank to Charles Edward Stuart, in spite of a lockdown in Edinburgh Castle where the bank's gold was kept. He destroyed a large number of the bank's unissued notes to prevent them becoming a liability in the turbulent climate.
It was on this day, 17th September, that Campbell replied to James Mathias's letter. In the letter sent to John Campbell, Mathias states that he has debited Campbell's account with the Equivalent Company, "...for the quarter annuity and charge of management..." and asking that he remits the Company, "...as soon as possible in the Royal Bank's Bills as usual...payable to the Committee of Treasury of the Equivalent Company."
James Mathias was the London Secretary of the Equivalent Company at the time and John Campbell, alongside his position at the Royal Bank of Scotland, was also the Company's Agent in Scotland. One of the first customers of the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Equivalent Company was set up to compensate Scotland for taking a share in England's national debt following the Union of Crowns. In particular, losses suffered by the investors in the Darien Campaign were to be compensated, and many joined the 'Equivalent Society'.
This letter is an example of banking procedures between England and Scotland taking place at the time of the 1745 Jacobite uprising.