The Thistle Bank (1761-1836)
Early years
Detail from The Thistle Bank £1 or twenty shillings note, 3 Jun 1765
The Thistle Bank, established in 1761 with the formal title of Maxwell, Ritchie & Company, was the fourth provincial partnership bank to be formed in Scotland, and the third to be based in Glasgow.
It was founded by Sir Walter Maxwell of Pollok (quickly succeeded by Sir John, then Sir James Maxwell), James Ritchie of Busbie (a founding partner of the Arms Bank), William Mure of Caldwell (who later became a Baron of the Exchequer), John Glassford of Dougalston (also a founding partner of the Arms Bank), John McCall of Belvidere, and John Campbell of Clathic. All apart from Maxwell were described as merchants in Glasgow, but in fact, four of the five were also landowners. This was probably the reason for the Thistle also being known as the 'aristocratic bank'. All five merchants were principally involved in Glasgow's tobacco trade.
The original capital of the Thistle Bank was £7,000 and by 1763, when the first balance was struck, the note circulation had reached £64,000. By 1776 the capital had grown to almost £12,000 through additions from surplus profits.
Rivalry and decline
In the 1760s eight further provincial banking companies were established in the principal Scottish burghs - a response to the lack of branch facilities provided by the Edinburgh chartered banks such as the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Relations with these other provincial banking companies did not always run smoothly. The company's early history was marked by its employment of agents to engage in 'note-picking' - i.e. taking the notes of other banks out and replacing them with Thistle notes.
Records covering the history of the company from 1792 until 1836 are scarce, but there seems to have been a decline in the bank's fortunes, probably as a result of the crisis of 1793. In 1836, the Thistle Bank amalgamated with the Glasgow Union Banking Company (later the Union Bank of Scotland).
Further information
• 'The history of the Union Bank of Scotland' by Robert Rait (John Smith & Son, 1930), chapter 5.
• Archival material relating to the Thistle Bank is held by HBOS Group Archives.
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