On a recent visit to Quebec I was shown by the present courteous and able manager, James Stevenson, Esq., a notice he had written in the _Shareholder_, February 22, 1884, and there is so much of interest in it for the public, I transmit the valuable information it contains to you, my friends. Mr. Stevenson had directed my attention to this article, as he had therein so kindly noticed my dear father, the late Charles Gethings:—
The Quebec Bank, with the exception of the Bank of Montreal, is the oldest bank in the Dominion. On the 9th July, 1818, merchants, and others interested in the establishment of a bank in the city of Quebec, held a meeting at the Exchange, and drafted articles of association. The document is headed, "Articles of Association of the Quebec Bank," and consists of twenty-five sections. No. 3 provides that, for the good management of the bank, there shall be thirteen directors; No. 6, that there shall be no recourse upon the separate property of any shareholder. Other sections severally provide for the issue of notes; the calling-up of the capital, which is to be £75,000; the term of the bank’s existence; and its dissolution. The bank is now in its sixty-seventh year. Distinguished men, legislators, lawyers and merchants have served on the directorate. During the term of its existence it has been exposed to severe financial storms; it has weathered them all, preserved its capital intact, and has paid several millions in the shape of dividends.
At the first meeting of the shareholders, which was held on the 7th September, 1818, the following gentlemen were elected to serve on the board of directors, namely, John W. Woolsey, Thomas White, J. McCallum, John Jones, Charles Smith, Louis Massue, Jean Langevin, Henry Black, Ph. Aubert de Gaspé, W. G. Sheppard, John Goudie, Etienne Lagreux, and Benjamin Tremain. Mr. Woolsey was elected president, and Mr. White, vice-president; and the Board engaged the services of Noah Freer, as cashier. Mr. Freer held a commission as captain in the army; he had seen service, and had been military secretary to Sir George Prevost, during the war of 1812. Steady-going merchants may have shrugged their shoulders and questioned the wisdom and propriety of appointing a soldier to such a position; but Captain Freer took kindly to the business of civil life. He was accurate, precise, and methodical in all he did; and a courteous gentleman in his intercourse with the public. The customers of the bank were men of high standing—including the leading officials of the capital, namely, the Governor-General, the Bishop, the Commander-in-Chief, legislators and lawyers, in addition to the regular commercial clientele. Holograph cheques of all its principal customers since 1818 have been carefully preserved in the bank, a review of which is almost as interesting as a cursory perusal of the annals of the city.