City of Aberdeen. At Aberdeen, the 21st day of February, 1817 years (1 of 2)

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City of Aberdeen. At Aberdeen, the 21st day of February, 1817 years (1 of 2)

This is the front page of a two-sided broadside style pamphlet. The back page can be seen here.

This broadside refers to a meeting on 21st February 1817 of Aberdeen's bureaucrats. Attending the meeting were creditors - individuals and organisations providing loans - and their debtors, the treasurers of Aberdeen. The meeting had been called by a letter dated to the 8th February. The Lord Provost, Alexander Fraser (1775-1840), chaired the meeting. The Lord Provost reiterated the contents of the letter, that the treasurers felt bound to provide a detailed statement of their accounts to the creditors. They also iterated their desire to establish an independent committee to assist in the auditing of their accounts.

The treasurers felt it necessary to reassure the attending creditors. The treasurers had previously borrowed money from the creditors to fund the formation of Union Street and King Street. For some years in the run up to this meeting, the treasurers had been unable to pay the creditors the required five-per-cent interest on the money borrowed for this project. (Alexander Munro, Memorials of the Alderman, Provosts, and Lord Provosts of Aberdeen, 1272-1893 (1897), 265-267).

Thus, presumably, the creditors were nervous over the security of their debts. A lack of trust between the creditors and debtors exists. The Lord Provost, speaking on behalf of the debtors, sought to rectify this through making the treasurers scrutable. A motion was moved by a Mr Crombie to give the independent committee (of trustees) the power to sell property belonging to the treasurers in order to pay the treasurers' debts. This motion was unanimously approved by the meeting. The broadside concludes by listing the trustees as treasurers in order to pay the treasurers' debts.

Broadside

HD05_14

Local government

Aberdeen Local Studies

Yes

Yes

Yes