On this day in 1774 the Rev. Henry Duncan, founder of the first ever savings bank, was born at Lochrutton. A great champion of the poor, he set the bank up in his parish of Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire. At the time, other banks required a ten pound minimum deposit, making them completely out of reach for the vast majority of the populace. The savings banks only required a minimum of sixpence, and 1% of the interest of the combined deposits went to a charity fund. Scot Clans
By William Blake
Is this a holy thing to see,
In a rich and fruitful land,
Babes reducd to misery,
Fed with cold and usurous hand?
Is that trembling cry a song?
Can it be a song of joy?
And so many children poor?
It is a land of poverty!
And their sun does never shine.
And their fields are bleak & bare.
And their ways are fill’d with thorns.
It is eternal winter there.
For where-e’er the sun does shine,
And where-e’er the rain does fall:
Babe can never hunger there,
Nor poverty the mind appall.
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