William Paterson, who went on to become the founder of the Bank of England, it was said, made his colonial home and a good portion of his wealth, in New Providence, in the Bahamas. Paterson, it was noted, was acquainted with Sir Henry Morgan, for whom Morgan’s Bluff in Andros, is named after.
Excerpt from: The Writings of William Paterson of Dumfrieshire, and Citizen of London; Founder of the Bank of England and of the Darien Colony. 1859
William Paterson made a substantial amount of money with his business partner, Sir William Phipps. They invested in expeditions to hunt for Spanish galleon treasure. It was well known that a number of Spanish galleons had sunk, during storms, as they carried gold and silver, from the mines in what was then Hispaniola, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as Spanish settlements in South America.
William Paterson desired to set up his own colony, called the Darien Settlement or the Darien Company. Another name originally given for the venture was the Scottish African Company. Paterson may have gotten inspiration for this during his time in New Providence, Bahamas.
“The Darien scheme was an unsuccessful attempt, backed largely by investors of the Kingdom of Scotland, to gain wealth and influence by establishing New Caledonia, a colony on the Isthmus of Panama, in the late 1690s.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darien_scheme
William Paterson Biography 1880
“By 1686 Paterson was a London merchant and a member of the Merchant Taylors’ Company. Prior to this time, he had pursued his livelihood in such places as Bristol, England, as well as the Bahamas and Europe. In 1692, when Parliament sought ways to pay off England’s war debt, Paterson was among the first to submit a proposal that, although rejected in its early form, established the use of public debt borrowed from a bank. The plan that Parliament approved was drafted by Paterson and others such as Charles Montague, then a lord of the Treasury. In 1694 the Bank of England was organized with Paterson as a founding director. He withdrew as a director the next year, however, following a policy disagreement.” https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Paterson-British-economist
