John Coutts (merchant)

John Coutts (28 July 1699 – 23 March 1750) was a Scottish merchant and banker who served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1742.

Business partners included Thomas Haliburton of New Mains, Archibald Trotter of Castleshiel, and his cousin Robert Ramsay of Balmain.

In Edinburgh he lived in a tall building on the High Street (Royal Mile at the head of Parliament Close near St Giles Cathedral.

[7] In 1730 Coutts entered Edinburgh town council, and in 1742 was elected Lord Provost, in place of George Haliburton, spending lavishly, and conducting banquets in his own home.

[6] On the death of his younger brother, James Coutts, a merchant in London, in 1740 he inherited £20,000, a substantial fortune at that time.

When John died in 1761, and Patrick became insane, the firm brought in an outsider, Sir William Forbes, 6th Baronet, who had worked in the Edinburgh end of the business.