New play pays tribute to Scots minister who founded world’s first savings bank

A new play is to mark the vision of a Dumfriesshire minister who is credited with founding the world’s first savings bank.

Henry Duncan had worked for three years for a bank in Liverpool before taking up the ministry in Ruthwell Parish, a country parish 10 miles south east of Dumfries, at the turn of the 19th Century.

At the time, major banks required £10 to open up an account – impossible for poor people of the day – so Rev Duncan established Ruthwell Parish Bank.

It only required six pence to start an account and it was the birth of the savings bank movement.

The cottage where he opened his bank - initially for one hour a week on a Thursday evening - is maintained today as a museum by the TSB.

Curator Mhairi Hastings said: “The first account here at Ruthwell you could open with sixpence.

“That brought it into the affordability for ordinary folk like farm workers and servants.

“It gave them the security of somewhere to put their money so they didn’t have to hide it somewhere around their house - under their bed or in their sock drawer.”

Now, Argyll-based playwright Dave Dewar, from Cultural Connections, has written a play based on the bank’s foundation following a visit to museum which inspired him to pay tribute to “one of Scotland’s least-known heroes”.

The title of the drama is ‘The Banker who Cared’, and will open on Thursday 26 May in Ruthwell Church (Duncan’s Church of Scotland parish) with actors playing Henry Duncan, who was also a social reformer writer, artist geologist, philanthropist and newspaper owner, and his second wife Mary and an interviewer, who will unravel the life of both of them.

Mr Dewar explained: “Too often in Scotland we pay far too little attention to persons who have left their mark on Scottish history.

“Rev Henry Duncan of Ruthwell is one of Scotland’s least-known heroes.

“At a time when British banking is still under a cloud, it is heart-warming to hear of a bank’s founder whose motives were entirely honourable.”

The playwright continued: “In 1810, it required £10 to open up an account with the major banks, impossible for poor people.

“Duncan established Ruthwell Parish Bank with only six pence required to open an account, and paying five-per-cent interest.

“This was immediately popular, thus heralding the savings bank movement worldwide.

“Duncan had a genuine desire to help the people of Ruthwell who were badly affected by the fluctuating economic times.”

Mr Dewar added: “As well as the establishment of the bank, he imported corn from Liverpool which he sold at a low price to the locals.

“He brought flax for women to spin in their cottages and employed men to work on the grounds of the manse and the local roads.

“He persuaded the Earl of Mansfield to donate a derelict cottage for use by the local Friendly Society.

“From there, he distributed food to his parishioners and it was in this cottage that he was to launch the savings bank movement, which would eventually spread to 109 organisations in 92 countries.”

Despite his increased misgivings about the role of patronage, whereby the local landowner chose the parish minister, Rev Henry Duncan became the Moderator of the Church of Scotland in 1839.

In 1843 he was one of the 450 ministers to leave the national church to form the Free Church, and Duncan’s decision caused him much emotional and financial suffering.

He had been the parish minister at Ruthwell for 44 years with a beautiful manse and reputedly one of Dumfriesshire’s most attractive gardens.

He lost all of this and his stipend, and was left living in a tiny cottage and preaching in the homes of the villagers.

Eventually he built a new church and manse in the nearby hamlet of Clarencefield.

Duncan’s former church at Ruthwell is still there and attracts visitors from all parts of the globe, mainly because of the 18 foot high cross therein, which originates from the eighth century.

The Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival has included the drama in their 2016 programme, and have already arranged for a second night to be staged at the Catstrand Arts Centre in New Galloway. Tickets are available from the Midsteeple box office in Dumfries.

On Wednesday 25 May, Mr Dewar is giving the Annual Henry Duncan Memorial Lecture to the Crichton Foundation at Easterbrook Hall in Dumfries.

Rev Henry Duncan’s influence continues to this day – the TSB’s current marketing strategy (including the advert featured above) is to promote a return to the model of local banking first begun by the minister and the modern day lender’s Edinburgh headquarters is named Henry Duncan House.