Unto the Right Honourable, the Lords of Council and Session, the Petition of the Trustees of the Creditors of Messrs. Adam and Thomas Fairholm, Bankiers in Edinburgh.

Bookseller Notes

Adam Fairholm was a prominent merchant and banker in Edinburgh, who started in the family firm and rose to be a director of the Bank of Scotland and later the Royal Bank of Scotland. But business was not always easy: in 1761 the Fairholms had petitioned the Court of Session twice for settlement of a debt accrued by the Earl of Rothes; within a few years 'over-speculation brought financial difficulties for himself and his partners, including the architect and contractor John Adam. The Fairholms were forced to give up their holdings in the Carron company and went into bankruptcy in March 1764. Thinking he was being pursued by bailiffs while fleeing to the continent, Adam Fairholm jumped from his ship and drowned in 1764' (ODNB). Five years after that Fairholm's estate was still being settled, and this further petition to the Council of Session seeks to overturn a previous decision and establish that his executor's distribution of his estate amongst the various creditors was legal and should satisfy the debts. All of Fairholm's petitions are rare, with the two earlier petitions recorded in the Bodleian only, and this one in the BL only in ESTC. (An answer to this petition on behalf of Andrew Johnston is BL and Harvard Law only.)