LAW, JOHN,
of Lauriston, a famous financial projector, the son of a goldsmith,
was born in Edinburgh in April 1671. At the end of this memoir will be
found some particulars of his family. He was bred to no profession,
but early displayed a singular capacity for calculation. On his
father’s death he succeeded to the small estates of Lauriston and
Randleston, but having acquired habits of gambling and extravagance,
he soon became deeply involved, when his mother paid his debts, and
obtained possession of the property, which she immediately entailed.
Tall and handsome in person, and much addicted to gallantry, he was at
this time familiarly known by the name of Beau Law. Having gone to
London, he there had a quarrel with another young man, one Edward
Wilson, whom he had the misfortune to kill in a duel, for which he was
tried at the Old Bailley, and being found guilty of murder, was
sentenced to death, April 20, 1694. Though pardoned by the Crown, he
was detained in prison in consequence of an appeal being lodged
against him by the brother of the deceased, but contrived to make his
escape from the King’s Bench, and immediately proceeded to France, and
afterwards to Holland. About 1700 he returned to Scotland, and, having
directed his attention to the financial system of the French and Dutch
bankers, particularly of the latter, in 1701 he published at Glasgow,
‘Proposals and Reasons for constituting a Council of Trade in
Scotland.’ He also had the address to recommend himself to the king’s
ministers, who employed him to arrange and prepare the Revenue
Accounts, which were in great confusion at the time of settling the
equivalent before the Union. With the view of remedying the deficiency
of a circulating medium, for the want of which the industry of the
country was in a languishing condition, he proposed to the Scottish
legislature the establishment of a bank, with paper issues to the
amount of the value of all the lands in the kingdom. The principles on
which this scheme was founded are fully explained in his work,
published at Edinburgh in 1705, entitled ‘Money and Trade Considered,
with a Proposal for Supplying the nation with Money:’ but the project
was rejected by parliament.
Proceeding
to France, Law had recourse to gaming for his subsistence, and won
large sums of money at play. He obtained an introduction to the duke
of Orleans, and offered his scheme to Chamillart, the minister of
finance, who considered it a dangerous innovation, in consequence of
which the projector unexpectedly received a police-order to quit Paris
within twenty-four hours. He next visited Italy, and was banished in a
similar manner from Venice and Genoa as a designing adventurer. His
success at play, however, was so great, that, when he returned to
Paris, after the succession of Orleans to the regency, he was in
possession of no less a sum than £100,000. His scheme was at first
rejected by Demarest, the new finance minister, but, having been
fortunate enough to secure the patronage of the regent, Law received
letters patent, dated March 2, 1716, by which his bank was at length
established in Paris, with a capital of 1,200 shares, of 5,000 livres
each, which soon bore a premium. This bank became the office for all
public receipts, and, in 1717, there was annexed to it the famous
Mississippi Scheme, or West India Company, which was invested with the
full sovereignty of Louisiana, and was expected to realize immense
sums, by planting colonies and extending commerce. In 1718 this bank
was declared a Royal bank, and such was the confidence of the public
in its operations, that the shares rose to twenty times their original
value. In 1719 their valuation was more than eighty times the amount
of all the current specie of the kingdom. In May of the same year the
French East India Company was incorporated with the West India
Company, when they received the united name of the Company of the
Indies. In January 1720 Law was appointed comptroller-general of the
finances, which in effect elevated him to the premiership of France;
but the stupendous fabric of false credit which he had reared at
length fell to the ground, the shares sank in value as rapidly as they
had risen; and so great had been the rage for speculation, that,
though immense fortunes were made by some parties on the occasion,
many thousand families were ruined, and the government itself was
reduced to the very verge of bankruptcy. The same desperate game of
chance was the same year played in England by the directors of the
South Sea Bubble, which reduced many hundred persons to disgrace and
beggary.
Law was
obliged to resign his post, after he had held it only for five months,
and to quit France. With no more than 800 louis d’ors, the wreck of
his immense fortune, he travelled to Brussels and Venice, and through
Germany to Copenhagen. Receiving an invitation from the British
ministry to return to England, he was presented, on his arrival, to
George I., by Admiral Sir John Norris, and, about the same time,
attended by the duke of Argyle, the earl of Ilay, and other friends,
he appeared at the bar of the court of King’s Bench, November 28,
1721, and pleaded his majesty’s pardon for the murder of Edward
Wilson. In 1725 he left Britain, and finally settled at Venice, where
he died, March 21, 1729, in a state of poverty, though occupied to the
last in vast schemes of finance, and fully convinced of the solidity
of his system, the signal failure of which he attributed to panic. The
following epitaph was written soon after the death of this
distinguished financier: –
Ci git cet Ecossois celebre,
Ce calculateur sans egale,
Que par les regles de l’Algebre
A mis France à l’hopital.
Law’s
great-great-grandfather, James Law, was archbishop of Glasgow in the
beginning of the 17th century. The father of this prelate
was portioner of Lathrisk, Fifeshire, and his mother, Agnes Strang,
was of the house of Balcaskie. Admitted minister of Kirkliston,
Linlithgowshire, in 1582, he became bishop of Orkney in 1606, and
archbishop of Glasgow in 1615. He died in Nov. 1632. He first married
a daughter of Dundas of Newliston, and 2dly, Marion, 2d daughter of
John Boyle of Kelburn, ancestor of the earls of Glasgow, and widow of
Matthew Ross of Haining. His widow erected a handsome monument to his
memory over his grave in the upper end of the chancel of Glasgow
cathedral. He purchased from the Wardlaws of Torry, the estate of
Brunton, Fifeshire, now called Barnslee. His great-grandson, William
Law, goldsmith in Edinburgh, the father of the financier, was the
second son of James Law of Brunton. He purchased the two small estates
of Lauriston and Randleston, about 180 acres, parish of Cramond, Mid
Lothian, and married Jean Campbell, descended from a branch of the
ducal house of Argyle.
Law married
Lady Catharine Knollys, daughter of the 3d earl of Banbury, issue a
son, John Law, and a daughter. The latter married her cousin, Viscount
Wallingford, afterwards created Lord Althorp. Lady Wallingford
survived her husband more than half a century, and died in London,
October 14, 1790, leaving no issue. The son, John Law of Lauriston, a
cornet of the regiment of Nassau, Friesland, died at Maestricht in
1734.
William Law,
3d son of Jean Campbell of Lauriston, succeeded to the entail on the
extinction of the issue male of her eldest son. William’s eldest son,
John, attained the rank of commandant-general and president of council
of the French settlements in Endia, and died at Paris about 1796. On
May 21, 1808, Francis John William Law, a merchant in London, was
served nearest and legitimate heir of entail and provision of the
reformed religion, of his father, John Law, and entered into
possession of the estate of Lauriston, to the exclusion of his elder
brothers, Roman Catholics, according to the then law. The estate
subsequently became the property of Mr. Allan, banker, Edinburgh.
Lauriston Castle was at one period the residence of Andrew Rutherfurd,
Esq., M.P., afterwards a lord of session under the title of Lord
Rutherfurd.
Law’s
brother’s family remained in France. His grand-nephew was James
Bernard Law, a marshal of France, one of the most gallant and
sagacious lieutenants of Napoleon I., the bearer of the treaty of
Amiens to London in 1802; and the hero of the desperate battle of
Goldberg. He was made a count by Napoleon, and created marquis of
Lauriston by Louis XVIII. He died June 10, 1828. His elder son,
General Augustus John Alexander Law, 2d marquis of Lauriston, died
June 27, 1860, leaving 3 sons. The younger son of Marshal Law bore the
title of Count Napoleon Law.
John Law’s
works are:
Proposals
and Reasons for constituting a Council of Trade in Scotland. Edin.
1701, 8vo. Glasg. 1751, 12mo.
Money and
Trade considered; with a proposal for Supplying the Nation with Money.
Glasg. 1705, 4to. 1750, 8vo. 1760, 12mo.
Oeuvres
contenant les Principes sur le Numeraire, le Commerce, le Credit, et
les Banques, avec des Notes. Paris. 1790, 8vo.
