The 18th Century Monuments in All Saints Church Weston, Bath. no1. The Mural monument to George Middleton No 1.

Post under construction

The Monument to George Middleton (1683? - 1746).

Goldsmith and Banker of London.

Above the South doorway.

It is tempting to suggest that this is an early monument by John Ford I of Bath which

utilises a bust that had previously decorated the Middleton family home.

It is unclear why Middleton was buried in Weston but it is most likely that he died whilst staying in Bath and taking the waters.

It is a rather severe Gibbsian style monument but with a fine marble bust and a cartouche with an asymmetric Rococo flourish.

For James Gibb's Monument designs which were fashionable throughout the mid to late 18th century see -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/06/some-monument-designs-by-james-gibbs.html

The  very fine and handsome marble bust is the most intriguing element on the monument and it poses the question - which sculptor was responsible?

There are several candidates - Henry Cheere (no known inscribed busts), Peter Scheemakers, Michael Rysbrack  - it is too late for Joseph (Giuseppe Plura) who had settled in Bath in about 1749 - Plura appears to have accompanied the sculptor Prince Hoare on his return from Italy to Bath and to have carved much of his work - he was the son in law of John Ford I- there are no other sculptors working in Bath who were capable of sculpting such a fine portrait.

Could it be a bust by Louis Francois Roubiliac (fl.1730 - 1762)? 

It has so far not been possible to get any good close up photographs of this bust but I live in hope.

It is very high up 

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Here are some loose and unedited notes giving some brief biographical details of George Middleton.

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I can't pretend to understand the ins and outs of 18th Century Banking and Finance but for an excellent expose of Middleton and the South Sea Bubble and his relationship with John Law see -

https://thebhc.org/sites/default/files/beh/BEHprint/v023n2/p0027-p0060.pdf

https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~wwwecon/CDMA/papers/wp1109

https://economics.ucr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Neal.pdf

https://libmind.github.io/j45_john_law/

During Middleton's stewardship, the bank was buffeted by one crisis after another. The Jacobite rising of 1715 threatened the stability of the banking system; and John Law, the Comptroller of France's finances, owed a great deal of money to the bank when the Mississippi Company bubble burst in 1720 and the English stock market collapsed in the same year. 

Stability for the bank did not return until 1735. John's son, George Campbell was also a partner, and ultimately became the sole partner after the death of Middleton in 1747, after which the bank was renamed the "Bankers of 59 Strand".

John Law - 21 April 1671 – 21 March 1729) was a Scottish-French[economist and financier. He rose to power in France where he created a novel financial scheme for French public finances known as Law's System (French: le système de Law) with two institutions at its core, John Law's Bank and John Law's Company (also known as the Mississippi company), ending in the devastating boom and bust "Mississippi Bubble" of 1720 which caused the near bankruptcy of George Middleton.

Born in Scotland, Law was a gambler with an interest in the rules of probability. After killing a man in a duel and being sentenced to death, he fled to mainland Europe.

 He read economics and made the acquaintance of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who became Regent for the juvenile Louis XV in 1715.

 In 1716 Philippe approved Law's plan to create a private bank which would take gold deposits in return for bank notes, loaning out the gold. It was structured as a joint-stock company and was bought by the French government in 1718, becoming the Banque royale. 

In 1717 Law founded another joint-stock company, the Mississippi company, whose purpose was the economic exploitation of Louisiana as well as other French colonies. Law became Controller General of Finances in 1720 and was the richest man in Europe. He had to leave France that same year, as a stock boom turned into a bust. He then lived in various European cities and died in Venice, impoverished

see -

Larry Neal (1990), The Rise of Financial Capitalism: International Capital Markets in the Age of Reason, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 Larry Neal (1994) “‘For God’s Sake, Remitt Me’: The Adventures of John Law’s Goldsmith-Banker in London, 1712-1729,” Business and Economic History, 23:2, pp. 27-60.

Larry Neal was past president of the Economic History Association and the Business History Conference and former editor of Explorations in Economic History.

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George Middleton was originally of Errol, Perth and Kinross, Scotland was a son of Patrick Middleton, M.A. (1663 - 1736) and Margaret Orme, he was husband of Mary Campbell, daughter of his business partner John Campbell.

Grandson of the Earl of Middleton

Coutts website states "In 1692, John Campbell of Lundie in Scotland sets up as a goldsmith-banker on the Strand, London. Under the now-iconic sign of ‘The Three Crowns’, he offers a full banking service. 

 Queen Anne commissions Campbell to make collars and badges for the Order of the Thistle. 

In 1708(?) Campbell takes on another Scottish goldsmith, George Middleton, as partner. Campbell dies in 1712 and Middleton marries his daughter Mary.

Middleton assumed sole control upon Campbell's death in 1712. Shortly after Middleton married Campbell's daughter, Mary, and quickly attracted a large aristocratic clientele. Middleton was forced to stop payment temporarily during the 1720 financial crisis, but subsequently recovered and took into partnership his brother-in-law, George Campbell, in 1727 and his nephew, David Bruce, in 1744.

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The Will of George Middleton.

PROB-11-752-281. 16 September 1746.

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This record is held by The London Archives: City of London - Reference: ACC/0202/001

Release [lease missing] and covenant to surrender copyhold.

Date:  1749.

1. Mary Middleton of Twickenham, widow, George Campbell and David Bruce of the Strand, bankers.

2. John Dalrymple of Stair [Ayrshire], esq.

3. Hon. William Martin, Admiral of the Blue Squadron of H. M's fleet.

 Reciting: will of George Middleton of St. Martin's in the Fields, banker 16 September 1746 bequeathing to Mary Middleton, wife, premises in Twickenham, with residue to daughter Margaret, nephew David Bruce and others; marriage settlement, 1748, of Margaret Middleton and (2), conveying to (2) her share of George Middleton's estate; Act of Parliament 22 Geo. II, enabling sale of estates of Mary Middleton and others; agreement by (1), (2) to surrender copyhold premises to (3).

 Consideration: £1,390.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/48fb8250-0d6a-4ae3-8ed6-2e9d8dce2524

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of tangential interest.

There are numerous records referring to George Middleton accessible via The National Archives website.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=%22George%20Middleton%22&_dss=range&_sd=1685&_ed=1750&_ps=60

This document accessed below refs. the surgeon Alexander Small (1670 - 1752) who we have already met in these pages ref. a Terracotta Bust of Small by Roubiliac in St Mary the Virgin Church, Clifton Reynes, Bucks.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10498070

How did Alexander Small make his money?

 Why did Ann Smyth the mistress of Henry Lord Bradford leave him £12000 in her will and made him her residuary legatee, as well as giving him the whole income of the estates subject to an allowance for the maintenance and education.?

 What was his relationship with William Pulteney Earl of Bath?

 For litigation ref. Mary Wing - and his wife's inheritance see - https://www.british-history.ac.uk/lords-jrnl/vol23/pp532-542

see - for much more on Alex. Small

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-bust-of-alexander-small-on-monument.html

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Patrick Middleton  MA.  born 1662 - died at Bristol 1736. Father of George Middleton

Educated at Univ. of St Andrews; 1685 M.A. (24th July 1680); had testimonial for licence 7th Aug. 1684 from Presb. of St Andrews; adm. about 1685 ;

Deprived by Privy Council, 22nd Aug. 1689, for neither reading the Proclamation of the Estates, nor praying for William and Mary but for James VI I. was prohibited from exercising the ministry by the Privy Council Dec. 1692 and became factor to Lord Kinnaird at Dundee 28th May 1702. 

With his wife he gave an annual rent of 400 merks Scots to the Professors of Philosophy in the Univ. of St Andrews 25th May 1702.

He had a meeting-house in Skinner's Close, Edinburgh, in 1716, and was prosecuted before the Lords Of Judiciary, convicted 19th June 1717 a second time for not praying for King George in terms of the Act of Toleration and discharged from preaching or exercising the ministry. 

He died at Bristol in 1736. 

He marr. (1) Margaret Orme : (2) pro. 24th Aug. 1721, Margaret Crawford, widow of John Forbes

of Knaperny. Publications—A Dissertation upon the Power Of the Church (London, 1733); A Short View of the Evidences of the Christian Religion (London, 1734).

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George Middleton was father of Margaret Middleton and Elizabeth Middleton, brother of John Middleton, M.D.

George Middleton was the partner of  John Campbell (d.1712) a founder of  what later became Coutts Bank, Middleton was the executor of Cambell's will.

George Middleton married Mary Campbell daughter of his partner John Campbell in 1712.

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George Middleton, and Messrs Coutts,

and Banking in early 18th century London /Westminster -

Much of the information here from

A Handbook of London Bankers, with some account of their predecessors, .... By Frederick George Hilton Price. pub 1891 - available via Google Books.

The widely known banking-house of Messrs. Coutts and Co. was originally established by goldsmith George Middleton, who kept a shop at the sign of  the Three Crowns near St. Martin's Church, on St. Martin's lane. 

The first mention of this goldsmith occurs in or about 1692, when he had a partner John Campbell. Messrs. Middleton and Campbell were carrying on business as goldsmiths and bankers.

John Campbell was later at the Three Crowns, next to the Globe Tavern (corner of Craven Street) in the Strand, hard by Hungerford Market, in 1692. 

In 1694 an advertisement in  the London Gazette? for something lost directs the inquirer to apply to Mr. "Camels," at the Three Crowns. 

We also see by the London Gazette that he was there in 1696 and 1702. 

It  is interesting to place upon record, on the same authority, that in January, 1683, John Wright, a haberdasher, was at the Three Crowns, near Durham Yard, in the Strand; thus proving that that was the sign of the house before Middleton or Campbell moved to it. On the other hand this is most likely  a coincidence.

Another early note of this business, exposing a fraud, is to be found in the following advertisement, which appeared in the London Gazette of February 2011.

"Whereas On Monday, 27th January, about 10 in the morning, a gentlewoman stept in a hackney coach at Mr. John Campbell's, goldsmith, at the Three Crowns in the Strand, and brought a note of Mr. Campbell's hand for £100 which she there exchanged for a Bank of England of the same value, and about half an hour afterwards the said £100 was paid by the Bank to a woman: If any person will discover the woman to Mr. Campbell so as that the £100 (which was fraudulently received) may be recovered, such person shall receive from Mr. Campbell 140 as a reward." 

This is certainly one of the earliest instances of a fraud being perpetrated upon a banker by a well-dressed woman.

A curious advertisement, that appeared in a weekly paper called The British Apollo for

March 2, 1711, ran as follows -

"This day subscriptions are taken in upon Birth and Marriages, at the Three Crowns, next DurhamYard in the Strand, for 6 weeks, and Servants 3 months upon a dividend. Likewise subscriptions are taken in upon marriages, upon a claim for a month. Trustees being chosen, and undeniable security is given for the performance of the same. Proposals are to be had at the Office Gratis."

The next advertisement selected by us is of a different character. It appeared in the Daily Courant of January, 1714 : 

"To be sold a good brick house, etc., at the end of the five fields going to Chelsea. Apply to George Middleton at the Three Crowns." 

Apart from the interesting nature of the advertisement, it is valuable as proving the fact that George Middleton was there at that time, he being the sole partner. 

John Campbell died in 1712, and was buried in St. Paul's Churchyard, Covent Garden ; and George Middleton, whom he left as his sole executor, married his daughter Mary Campbell.

Her sister Elizabeth married John Peagrim, and Middleton took his son George Campbell into partnership

It has been my good fortune to see a large number Of Old cash-notes and drafts Of Messrs. Childand co. (between 1706 and 1748) bearing endorsements of this firm; some of which show the autographs of George Campbell (many of them witnessed by David Bruce, who afterwards was admitted a partner) and of Ralph Bullock, who signed for the house from 1743 to 1761.

in 1746 George Middleton died, and George Campbell associated himself in partnership with his clerk, David Bruce, who had witnessed the signatures of customers for the past twenty years.

In 1753 the business appears to have been solely in the hands of George Campbell. About 1755, however, he took James Coutts into partnership.

 He had clerk in turn to Middleton and Campbell, Campbell and Bruce, George Campbell, Campbell and

Coutts, and Coutts and Coutts.

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The New Exchange on the Strand survived until 1737, eleven houses were built on the site, the centre and largest of which (afterwards numbered 59, Strand) was leased to George Middleton, goldsmith, the flourishing banking business of the firm of Middleton and Campbell being moved thither from the Three Crowns near Hungerford Market.

Middleton died in 1746, and his brother-in-law, George Campbell died in 1761. 

Info from Survey of London: Volume 18, St. Martin-in-The-Fields II: the Strand, ed. G.H. Gater & E.P. Wheeler (London County Council; British History Online) (1937) The New Exchange (The site of Nos. 54–64, Strand).

Neither of them left a male heir, and the firm passed at length into the hands of the brothers, James and Thomas Coutts, the elder of whom had married George Campbell's niece Margaret daughter of George Middleton. 

No. 59 remained the "shop" of Coutts' Bank until 1904. The premises were extended to include Nos. 58, 57 and 56 early in the nineteenth century.

Thomas Coutts entered  into the Banking house having married Margaret daughter of George Middleton.  He then became partner with his brother James of the banking house in the Strand, which had previously been carried on under the title of Middleton and Campbell; and, finally, on the death of his brother, in 1778, he became the sole manager of this extensive concern.

info here from various sources including - Somme Olde Curiosities [private banking houses of London] by a knyghte offe ... By William Howarth (F.R.Hist.).