HALL MARKS ON PLATE.
46 1690.
George MicLdleton was goldsmith
at the
"
''
Three Crowns
The business was rein St. Martin's Lane, City, about this time. to Durham Yard in the Strand, and continued by Messrs.
moved
Middleton and Campbell. Sir Thomas 1690. this time at the "Black
Bowles, goldsmith and banker, dwelt about
1691, an annuity of ten
Lion" in Fleet Street. He left by will, in pounds for the poor of the Company of
Goldsmiths. 'James Heriot, a descendant of the celebrated George 1590. Heriot of Edinburgh, "kept running cashes" at the sign of the "Naked Boy" in Fleet Street. In 1756, Joseph Heriot, of Great St. Andrew's Street, Seven Dials, entered his name at Goldsmiths' Hall as plateworker, also a descendant. Mr. James Coiitts succeeded Messrs. Middleton and 1692. " the Three Crowns" in 1692. His cheques bore a circuat Campbell lar stamp of three crowns and the letters J. C. reversed and inter-
" around which was his address, At the Three Crowns in the Strand, next door to the Globe tavern, A.D. 1692." He was the originator of the widely-known banking house of Messrs. Coutts and Co. It is stated that when James Coutts came up to London on a visit to his brothers, he happened to meet a Miss Polly Peagrim, the niece of George Campbell, the goldsmith of St. Martin's Lane, that he fell in love and was married to her. Shortly after, Mr. Campbell took him into partnership, Coutts having given trp his connection with his brothers in an old-established business at Edinburgh, and the style of the firm was Campbell and Coutts. George Campbell died in 1761, when James Coutts took his brother Thomas into partnership, who gave up his business in St. Mary Axe, when it became Coutts and Coutts. Mr. James Coutts died in 1778. His brother Thomas long survived him, and became one of the first bankers in London.
laced,
Mr. Thomas Coutts, who had lived as a bachelor for many years, married Elizabeth Starkey, a superior domestic servant in his brother's service, and by her he had three daughters who were called " the three Graces." The eldest, Susan, married the Earl of Guildford the second, Frances, married the Marquis of Bute and Sophia, his third and youngest daughter, married Sir Francis Burdett, Bart. After Mrs. Coutts's death, who had been an invalid for many years, he married (in 181 5) Miss Mellon, the actress, he being then eighty years of age. He died on February 22, 1822, at the age of eighty-seven, leaving his widow the whole of his property amounting, ;
it is
;
said, ;;^900,ooo.
Mrs. Coutts afterwards married the Duke of St. Albans; she, however, reserved to herself by marriage settlement, the sole control of her property, and at her death she left the whole of her great wealth to Angela Burdett, the favourite granddaughter of Mr. Thomas Coutts. This lady then assumed the additional name of Coutts, and was subsequently created a peeress with the title of Baroness Burdett-Coutts.