Up to the 1851 census, David and Martha's address was 105

Murraygate, David’s business address. I don’t know whether that meant the family lived on the premises or whether it was the head of the household’s business address that was recorded for census purposes. We do know from his will that father James owned property in Murraygate. Thereafter, David's address was Mount Rosa, Broughty Ferry.

David’s obituary says that, when he was a young man, he was

very interested in science and literature and that, when he died, he was “thoroughly posted up” in Dundee’s old family histories, not to mention very familiar with the town’s business world. Today’s Urban Dictionary defines “posted up” as “chillin, hangin out”. I’m sure David, and his parents before him did, indeed, chill out with Dundee’s establishment. I am equally sure that his role as banker meant he knew a great deal about Dundee’s social structure, and where the bodies, so to speak, were buried.

David took a keen interest in gardening - indeed, the Dundee,

Perth and Cuper Advertiser, in 1856, labelled him an eminent connoisseur - particularly in the cultivation of exotic plants. Auctioned six months after his death were “150 varieties of British and Tropical Ferns” as well as garden implements such as a “Grass Cutting Machine and Roller, Joiners’ Bench and Tools”. It is tempting (or sentimental?) to think the latter may originally have belonged to his father. Why else would a banker have a wright’s tools of trade?

David's will is a lot easier to read (not to mention

a lot shorter) than his father's. In essence, all moveable property went to whichever spouse remained "for the love and favour we have for one another" then to their children, with specific instructions that none of their daughters' husbands could go anywhere near their wife's inheritance. I don't know how normal this was in Scottish wills but I was surprised because I expected to see male privilege in the disposition of patriarchal property.