1 Sir Peter Laurie

The financial and social prosperity of the branch of the Laurie family featured in Irregular Correspondence derived largely from one man, Sir Peter Laurie.

Born in 1778 in Haddington in East Lothian, to the east of Edinburgh, the twelfth and youngest child of John Laurie, a tenant farmer and the only son of Agnes Thomson (his father’s second wife), Peter Laurie began training for the United Presbyterian Church. However his mother died when he was six and John Laurie’s third wife had little interest in her stepchildren. So at the age of 12, Peter was apprenticed to his much older half-brother George, a saddler in Jedburgh. This arrangement broke down when he was beaten by his master and, after the intervention of a local magistrate, sent home.

His father next found him employment with a saddler in Edinburgh. After another move he found success, and before his eighteenth birthday had become foreman at Mr Maxton’s saddlery workshops in that city.

Peter’s involvement in politics began with him attending meetings of the ‘Society of the Friends of the People’, a reforming Whig group. When he incurred his master’s displeasure by leading a wages dispute, he decided that his prospects would be better in London.

In 1796, with a little money and a few letters of reference, he sailed in a smack down the east coast from Berwick to Erith in Kent from where he walked to London. He worked for a succession of saddlers: Mr Tibbs in the Borough, Mr Godsman in Charing Cross, Mr Gibson in Coventry Street and ‘Whippy’s’ in North Audley Street. Finally, after two years in London, he went to Mr David Pollock, saddler to George III, as foreman of the Piccadilly branch.

Peter’s great interest at that time, besides his work, was drama. He took part in many private performances of plays by Shakespeare and others, which led in 1800 to an offer of engagements to play with a touring theatre company. However his cousin George Aitchison and a friend of Peter’s, Mr Richards, persuaded him against accepting, on the grounds that such occupation would bring disgrace to the family.

So in 1801, aged 23 years, and with financial help from these two, he started his own saddlery business in Oxford Street. It was an immediate success, which allowed him to marry Margaret Jack in 1803.

Meanwhile his elder sister, Agnes, had married Benjamin Snaddon in Scotland, producing eight children. The marriage was not otherwise a success and the eldest son, John, was informally adopted by Peter and Margaret Laurie in 1804 and brought to London when he was seven years old.

This was the start of considerable support to various members of his family. Peter and Margaret subsequently also took charge of John’s younger brother Peter – always referred to as Robert Peter – in 1811, when Benjamin Snaddon finally deserted his family. From then, Peter maintained his sister in Scotland and later brought yet another Peter Laurie to London: his nephew by his half-brother, Alexander, whose wife had died shortly after the birth. This Peter, as a young man, accompanied Sir Peter and his wife on many trips in UK and Europe before being called to the Bar and adding Lady Laurie’s mother’s maiden name to his own, becoming Peter Northall-Laurie. Finally, Sir Peter took in his great-niece, Margaret Laurie, in 1845.

Between 1808 and 1813 Peter Laurie had a substantial contract from the British East India Company for military saddles. He became a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Saddlers in the City of London in 1812 and was taking an active part in charitable and political affairs. His business thrived. In 1820 he took his nephew John, then aged 23 years, into partnership, at which time Peter (himself only 42 years old) retired from active management. He had evidently amassed considerable wealth in the preceding 19 years.

In 1823, Peter Laurie was elected a Sheriff of the City of London. He was knighted on 7th April 1824 and in 1826 became an Alderman for the Ward of Aldersgate and a magistrate sitting at Guildhall. He was elected Lord Mayor of London in 1832 and served as Master of the Saddlers’ Company the following year. As Lord Mayor, he had become President of Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals and in 1836 laid the foundation stone of their new building (since demolished) in Lambeth. The Hospitals' remaining central section is now the main entrance of the Imperial War Museum.

In 1839 Sir Peter was invited to join in the foundation of a joint stock bank in London. The Union Bank of London opened, with Sir Peter as Governor, which he remained for 22 years until his death at the age of 83 in 1861. The Union Bank, following many acquisitions and mergers, amalgamated with National Provincial Bank of England to form National Provincial & Union Bank of England in 1918, later known as National Provincial Bank; then National Westminster Group; now part of Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

Sadly he and his wife Margaret, who died in 1847, never had children of their own. However the support they gave to other members of the Laurie family was well rewarded, and it is clear from his great-nephews’ correspondence that he still commanded great respect in his old age.