William Forbes and James Hunter were both apprenticed to John Coutts & Co. (which was established in the 1720s) in 1754. Â In January 1773 the name was changed to Sir W. Forbes, J. Hunter & Company, and the management of the bank devolved to Sir William Forbes, son of the founder and friend of Walter Scott, who died in 1828. In 1838, the company formed a 'junction' with the Glasgow Union Banking Company, eventually merging in 1843 with the (by then) Union Bank of Scotland. Â The head office of the Union Bank continued at Edinburgh until its merger with the Bank of Scotland in 1955.
The firm was a creditor of William Macdowall in the 1790s, and of an unnamed estate in St Thomas-in-the-East c. 1791.
It also mortgaged property (including enslaved people) on Tobago between 1773 and 1778.
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