Old Photograph Cottage Bank Ruthwell Scotland

Old photograph of the cottage Bank in Ruthwell village on the Solway Firth, Scotland. Ruthwell's most famous inhabitant was the Reverend Dr. Henry Duncan. He was a minister, author, antiquarian, geologist, publisher, philanthropist, artist and businessman. In 1810, Dr. Duncan opened the world's first commercial savings bank, paying interest on its investors' modest savings. Duncan was born in 1774 at Lochrutton, Kirkcudbrightshire, where his father, George Duncan, was minister. As a boy he met the poet Robert Burns, who visited Lochrutton Manse. Duncan was educated in Dumfries at the Academy. After studying for two sessions at St. Andrews University he was sent to Liverpool to begin commercial life, and under the patronage of his relative, Dr. Currie, the biographer of Burns, his prospects of success were very fair; but his heart was not in business, and he soon left Liverpool to study at Edinburgh and Glasgow for the ministry of the church of Scotland. In 1798 he was ordained as minister of the Church of Scotland and became Minister at Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire in 1799, where he spent the rest of his life. In 1823 Duncan received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of St. Andrews, Fife. The stroke of paralysis that ended his life on 19 February 1846 fell on him while conducting a religious service in the cottage of an elder.



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