Bank of New Brunswick
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bank of New Brunswick received its charter in 1820 and was the first bank in the Maritime colonies. As such, it can also lay claim to being the first chartered bank in Canada. This influential New Brunswick financial company amalgamated with the Bank of Nova Scotia, a larger and more stable banking institution, in 1913.
The Bank of New Brunswick was headquartered in Saint John, New Brunswick, then the largest city in the Maritimes exceeding in population both Halifax, Nova Scotia, and for a time during the 19th century, even Toronto, Ontario. The Bank of New Brunswick was the anchor tenant of a group of financial institutions with offices along a stretch of Prince William Street in Saint John, making this area claim to be the "Wall Street of British North America".
Around thirty-thousand dollars in notes are currently in circulation. These notes can be reimbursed by the Bank of Canada.
[edit] Robberies
The New Brunswicker once reported:
- Bold Bank Robbery. - On Sunday, June 28 [1857], the Bank of New Brunswick was robbed of a large amount of gold and five-pound notes. The amount is not stated, but we presume from $15,000 to $20,000 in gold and a still larger amount of bank bills. It was one of the boldest and ablest planned robberies we have heard of for many a day. The village of Fredericton has about 5,000 people. The robbers got into the basement of the building, dug through the masonry and got access to the lock, an old-fashioned one, bolted to the door by screws. They cut off the heads of the screw bolts and left the lock hanging in its place, and forced the door. They selected their gold and bills and left the silver on the floor of the bank room, apparently intending to return for it. No one connected with the bank visited it from Saturday afternoon to Monday morning, so that they had ample time for arrangements. The persons of the robbers are pretty clearly ascertained.
