ABSTRACT
Mr Donald Lindsay name appears for the first time among “Accountants in Edinburgh” in Oliver & Boyd’s Almanac for 1823: in that year there are 65 names of accountants, including those of such well-known men in their day as Patrick Cockburn, John M‘Kean (afterwards manager of the Scottish Widows’ Fund), Claud Russell, Charles Selkrig, and William Paul (afterwards manager of the Commercial Bank). At that time accountants were few in number, and any one who thought himself fit could practise as such. In those days commercial law was in somewhat of a chaotic state: it was before the Apportionment Act was held to apply to Scotland, and also the time when, to the horror of many, disentails became possible, and it was necessary to apply actuarial methods to such transactions. The business of an Edinburgh accountant was then very different from what it is now.
