Bank of Upper Canada
Encyclopedia
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| Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
| William Allan (banker) William Allan JP was a Canadian banker, businessman and politician.Allan was born at Moss, near Huntly, Scotland around 1770. He came to Canada around 1787 to work with Forsyth, Richardson and Company and settled at Niagara a year later. In 1795, he moved to York... |
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The Bank of Upper Canada was a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
bank
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
established in 1821 under a Charter granted by the colony of Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
in 1819. The incorporators were William Allan
William Allan (banker)
William Allan JP was a Canadian banker, businessman and politician.Allan was born at Moss, near Huntly, Scotland around 1770. He came to Canada around 1787 to work with Forsyth, Richardson and Company and settled at Niagara a year later. In 1795, he moved to York...
, Robert C. Horne, John Scarlett
John Scarlett (Toronto)
John Scarlett was an merchant-miller who played a significant role in the development of the part of the historic York Township that later became the Junction neighbourhood of Toronto.- Early Life :...
, Francis Jackson, William W. Baldwin, Alexander Legge, Thomas Ridout
Thomas Ridout
Thomas Ridout was a political figure in Upper Canada.He was born in Sherborne, England in 1754 and came to Maryland in 1774. In 1787, he was travelling to Kentucky when his group was captured by a party of Shawnees; he was held captive and later released in Detroit, then held by the British...
, his son Samuel Ridout, D’Arcy Boulton Jr., William B. Robinson, James Macaulay, Duncan Cameron, Guy C. Wood, Robert Anderson and John S. Baldwin. The banks first president was William Allan, a member of the elite Toronto society called the Family Compact
Family Compact
Fully developed after the War of 1812, the Compact lasted until Upper and Lower Canada were united in 1841. In Lower Canada, its equivalent was the Château Clique. The influence of the Family Compact on the government administration at different levels lasted to the 1880s...
.
The Bank of Upper Canada suspended payments from Mar 5, 1838-Nov 1, 1839. The bank was a small operation which, like many early Canadian banks, collapsed in 1866.
The building which housed the bank
Bank of Upper Canada Building
The Bank of Upper Canada Building, built by John Ewart , is one of the oldest financial service buildings in Toronto, Canada. Built in 1827-34, it housed the Bank of Upper Canada until the bank's collapse in 1866. It is located at 252 Adelaide Street East...
, constructed in 1825, still exists in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
's Adelaide St East and has been designated a National Historic Site of Canada. Designed by architect W.W. Baldwin, 1825–27, the bank resembled a London townhouse with a Doric portico.
Like the other Canadian chartered banks, it issued its own paper money. The Bank of Canada
Bank of Canada
The Bank of Canada is Canada's central bank and "lender of last resort". The Bank was created by an Act of Parliament on July 3, 1934 as a privately owned corporation. In 1938, the Bank became a Crown corporation belonging to the Government of Canada...
was established through the Bank of Canada Act of 1934 and the banks relinquished their right to issue their own currency.
Architecture
The Bank of Upper Canada in Port Hope, OntarioPort Hope, Ontario
Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, about east of Toronto and about west of Kingston. It is located at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County...
built in 1857 is on the Registry of Historical Places of Canada. The Bank of Upper Canada building in Toronto, Ontario built in 1827 to 1834 is on the Registry of Historical Places of Canada. The former Bank of Upper Canada Building in Goderich, Ontario
Goderich, Ontario
Goderich is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario and is the county seat of Huron County. The town was founded by William "Tiger" Dunlop in 1827. First laid out in 1828, the town is named after Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, who was British prime minister at the time. The town...
built in 1863 is on the Registry of Historical Places of Canada.