John Drummond (1676 – 20 December 1742), of Quarrell, Stirling, was a Scottish banker, merchant and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1727 to 1742.

Career in the Netherlands

Drummond was the third son of George Drummond of

Blair Drummond Blair Drummond is a small rural community northwest of Stirling in the Stirling district of Scotland, predominantly located along the A84 road. Lying to the north of the River Forth, the community is within the registration county of Perthshire ...

, Perthshire, and his wife Elizabeth Ramsay, daughter of Sir Gilbert Ramsay, 1st Baronet, from

Bamff Bamff House is the home of the Ramsays of Bamff, and is located within a estate in Perthshire, Scotland. Bamff House began as a fortified tower in the late 16th Century and was added to and altered in almost every century since then. Bamff has ...

in Perthshire. In 1691 he was sent to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

with a letter to Andrew Henderson, who specialised in finding places for Scottish boys in Dutch business houses. Buchan, James (2018), ''

John Law John Law may refer to: Arts and entertainment *John Law (artist) (born 1958), American artist *John Law (comics), comic-book character created by Will Eisner *John Law (film director), Hong Kong film director * John Law (musician) (born 1961), B ...

: A Scottish Adventurer in the Eighteenth Century'', MacLehose Press, London, pp. 98 - 100, There he met and befriended James Brydges (later

Duke of Chandos The Dukedom of Chandos is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England. First created as a barony by Edward III in 1337, its second creation in 1554 was due to the Brydges family's service to Mary I during Wyatt's rebellion, wh ...

), who assisted his career thereafter. After the

Peace of Ryswick The Peace of Ryswick, or Rijswijk, was a series of treaties signed in the Dutch city of Rijswijk between 20 September and 30 October 1697. They ended the 1688 to 1697 Nine Years' War between France and the Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg), Gran ...

in 1697, he set up in partnership with a Dutchman, Jan van der Heiden and, for a time, their business in fine goods, coffee, tea, chocolate and wine prospered. By 1709, Drummond had married Agatha Vanderbent of the Netherlands, sister of the Elector of Brandenburgh's agent at Amsterdam With the outbreak of the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...

, he extended his business to supplying cash to the British Army in the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

and stock-market intelligence to Brydges. He withdrew £5,000 from the business with a view to buying a seat in the

British Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremacy ...

at a time when the partnership was already over-borrowed and in May 1712 van der Heiden and Drummond defaulted on 100,000 guilders in debts. After the formation of the Tory ministry in London in 1710, Drummond became the principal source of Dutch intelligence for

Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, KG PC FRS (5 December 1661 – 21 May 1724) was an English statesman and peer of the late Stuart and early Georgian periods. He began his career as a Whig, before defecting to a new Tory ...

and Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke.

Return to Britain

Drummond returned to Britain, and was a Commissioner for regulating English trade to the Spanish Netherlands from 1713 to 1714. In 1722 he became a director of the East India Company and assistant of the East African Company. He became Director of the Royal Exchange Assurance Company in 1726. Drummond was returned as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for Perth Burghs at the

1727 British general election The 1727 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 7th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election was trigg ...

. In 1732 he ended his directorship of the Royal Exchange Assurance and was appointed Commissioner for settling commerce at Antwerp. He gave up his directorship of the East India Company in 1734. He was returned again for Perth Burghs in

1734 Events January– March * January 8 – Salzburgers, Lutherans who were expelled by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Salzburg, Austria, in October 1731, set sail for the British Colony of Province of Georgia, Georgia in North America ...

and

1741 Events January–March * January 13 – Lanesborough, Massachusetts is created as a township. * February 13 – Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, popularizes the term "the balance of power" in a spe ...

. He voted with the Administration and often spoke in the House, usually on matters relating to trade. Drummond died without issue on 20 December 1742.

References

1676 births 1742 deaths Scottish bankers Scottish company founders 18th-century Scottish businesspeople Scottish expatriates in the Netherlands Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies British MPs 1727–1734 British MPs 1734–1741 British MPs 1741–1747 People from Perthshire {{Scotland-business-bio-stub