Story of Glasgow's 'Scrooge' who saved city from financial ruin

Records at Glasgow City Archives describe him as “The Banker with the longest purse  and with more goods and gear than any man in Glasgow. His barns were all bursting.”

Normally known as Robin, Carrick (1737-1821) was richer than the principal tobacco lords Alexander Spiers and John Glassford, the leading cotton manufacturer Henry Monteith and the first of the big shopkeepers, William Dunn.

Robert (Robin) Carrick (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

He was a comparatively poor boy when he came to Glasgow. His father, when a divinity student, had served in the household of the Buchanans of Drumpellier. It was the Buchanans who helped both father and son.

The family helped Robin’s father become the minister in Houston, Renfrewshire. And when Robin was fourteen, one of the family helped him get a bench in the newly founded Ship Bank.

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The Glasgow Ship Bank was Glasgow's first bank, founded in 1750, at the corner of Saltmarket and Bridgegate. Robin later built fine new premises for the bank in Glassford Street.

The Ship Bank (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

He gradually worked his way up the ladder and eventually, he and his elderly cousin, Miss Jenny Paisley, continued to live over the old bank. Its situation is still indicated by the name Ship Bank Lane which provided the backdrop to Paddy's Market. He also had a country house at Mount Vernon.

The house at Mount Vernon (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

Robin had interests in other businesses besides banking, including, from 1761 in partnership with John Brown, a muslin manufacturer. They also heavily invested in land and farms scattered across Glasgow and the Lowlands. He dealt with these businesses at lunchtime.

The bank was forced to close its doors in 1775 when the outbreak of the American War of Independence disrupted the tobacco trade. However, it reopened the following year with Robin as its manager, under a new partnership, Moore, Carrick & Co, and subsequently Carrick, Brown & Co.

An old cheque from the Ship Bank (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

Glasgow’s tobacco merchants had invested heavily in the American colonies, making much of their profits through enslaved labour. Following the revolutionary war much of their property was requisitioned without compensation. The prospect of war with France threatened to cut off the merchants from their remaining possessions in the West Indies.

In 1793, Glasgow’s merchants faced one of the worst commercial crises in the city’s history. This led to the failure of three banks, the Glasgow Arms, the Merchant and Thomson’s. Even the Royal Bank was at risk, and with it, half of Glasgow.

However, Robin remained in control, securing the Ship Bank from danger, and saving Glasgow from disaster. He stood firm as “granite rock throughout the perilous times.”

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He had saved Glasgow from disaster but there was no suggestion that he received any credit for this. He was not concerned about being popular, his interest was in making money.

It would be wrong to leave the impression that Robin Carrick was a recluse, because he had no use for assemblies, taverns and gaming houses. There was another side to him – he played the fiddle, and would spend hours on the instrument with an old friend and fellow musician.

Robin was well-known around the city, particularly identifiable because of his unusual attire. He usually wore “a brown coat, queerly made with deep flaps on the outside pockets, the broad skirts reaching down nearly to his heels, and adorned with large brass buttons: drab knee breeches, a ripped woollen waistcoat of hotch-potch tinge allowing a very moderate display of ruffles at the breast: white neckcloth with longish ends, ribbed white worsted stockings, and buckles in his shoes, while a small brown wig covered his pate.”

When he died in 1821, Robin was said to have amassed a vast fortune of around £1 million. Apart from some remote family bequests, he astonished the city by willing the residue to the Buchanans of Drumpellier - then of Mount Vernon.

This was unexpected evidence that Robin Carrick had a streak of sentiment in his character, rewarding the support given by the Buchanan family at the start of his and his father’s career.