| Burgess |
30 Sep 1720 |
- Notes:
-
Coutts, Thomas. mt, B. and G. for reduced payment, being already B.
and G. gratis 30 Sept. 1720
Note: there is an entry for 'Coutts, Thos., B. and G., mt in London, gratis
7 Aug 1695
and for
Coutts, Thos, B., servitor to the Lord Provost (George Home), gratis 18
Sept 1700.
This Thomas is described as already B&G gratis - these are the only
'gratis' entries. It's not likely he'd be missing, if he's 'gratis', that is,
awarded burgess status free for services or to increase trade. But the
first is or was in London, and it's 25 years before the reduced payment -
seems a long stretch of time between. And as far as I'm aware, this
London Thomas Coutts was apparently a merchant very involved in the
Darien attempt and an early 'ancestor' of the Bank of Scotland - who
remained in London and his children likewise. He had a brother Patrick
Coutts, merchant and banker in Edinburgh, whose son was John Coutts
Second Thomas has only B entered not B&G. This might be more likely.
BUT apparently from 1703 the 'gratis' status of burgess could be held for
only five years before rights to trade lapsed (Sanderson 1996). Therefore
could assume that Thomas Coutts became a burgess 'gratis' around
1715.
BUT Thomas Couts is decribed as 'Burgess' on the baptism record of son
Thomas b. 1710.
Sanderson says (p.6) that 'There was also a practice of issuing burgess
tickets to the Provost, Master of the Merchant Company and other such
officials which they might pass on to their friends.' Maybe this could
explain no entry for a Thomas Coutts 'gratis' around this time?
The children of the 'right' Thomas Coutts seem to have included a
goldsmith and a tailor.
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