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 utilising 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 severe Gibbsian style monument but with a cartouche with an asymmetric Rococo flourish.
For James Gibb's Monument designs 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, Peter Scheemakers, Michael Rysbrack - it is too late for Joseph (Giuseppe Plura) who had settled in Bath in about 1749 - he appears to have accompanied the sculptor Prince Hoare on his return from Italy - 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 close up photographs.
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Here are some loose and unedited notes giving some brief biographical details of George Middleton.
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.
Patrick Middleton MA. born 1662 ;
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).—
[Edin. Tests. ; P. R. Fife Sas. ;
Domestic A nnals.]
George Middleton was father of Margaret Middleton and Elizabeth Middleton, brother of John Middleton, M.D.
George Middleton was partner of John Campbell (d.1712) a founder of what became Coutts Bank, Middleton was the executor of his will.
George Middleton married Mary Campbell daughter of his partner John Campbell in 1712.
In 1690 George Middleton was a goldsmith at the" Three Crowns ''in St. Martin's Lane, about this time. The business was shortly after 1692 removed to Durham Yard on the South side of the Strand.
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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 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 dughter of George Middleton He then became partner with his brother 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.).
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