Records of Ivory & Sime Ltd, investment trust managers, Edinburgh, Scotland

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Reference
Dates of Creation
Name of Creator
Physical Description

Scope and Content

Cash ledgers 1896-1959
Miscellaneous ledgers 1893-1897, 1904-1931
General ledgers 1961-1966
Clients' ledgers 1957-1967
Journals 1895-1967
Cash books 1892-1968
Balance book 1925-1951
Account books 1915-1930
Day book 1924-1931
Private journal 1924-1929
Clients' securities 1930-1965
Clients' investments daybooks 1959-1968
Private cash book 1895-1901
register of securities 1898-1905
Wages book 1946-1956
Eric J Ivory ledgers 1934-1967
Basil J Ivory ledgers 1933-1963
James Ivory ledgers 1933-1939
Mrs F T Ivory ledgers 1934-1954

Administrative / Biographical History

James Ivory (1862-1939) was born in 1862, the son of William Ivory, Advocate, Sheriff of Inverness, Elgin and Nairn, Scotland, and Janet H Rankin. He was educated at Harrow School, England, before spending some time in Hanover, Germany. On his return to Edinburgh, Scotland, he was apprenticed to Moncrieff & Horsburgh , chartered accountants, qualifying as a CA in 1886 and setting up his own firm in that year. In 1887, he married Florence T Wyckoff of New York, USA, and went on to have two sons and two daughters.

In 1895 , Ivory went into partnership with Thomas Watson Sime, CA, as Ivory & Sime . This partnership lasted until 1907 when Sime emigrated to Canada. That year also saw the company's incorporation as a limited liability company, Ivory & Sime Ltd .

The late nineteenth century was a period when many Edinburgh lawyers were developing a growing interest in the management and investment of other people's money, the investment trust movement having come into being with the creation of the Scottish American Investment Co Ltd in 1873 , by William Menzies. In 1898 , James Ivory set up British Assets Trust Ltd , an overseas investment company in Edinburgh, with a capital of £15,000 and by 1939 the trust was managing funds totalling £7million. This company was separate from Ivory & Sime, but was linked to it by its directors. From this time Ivory & Sime became associated with the management of investment trusts and by 1985 was managing a total of 13 investment trusts all of which were listed on the London stock exchange as public limited companies.

The Edinburgh financial community, despite a large and growing number of firms, was led by a relatively small number of men who often sat on the boards of one another's companies. The same names recur in various permutations as chairmen and directors of the different trusts managed by Ivory & Sime Ltd with succeeding generations from individual families following their predecessors into the businesses.

Among James Ivory's other interests was motoring - he promoted the use of personalised number plates, his own number being S3. He was also active in charitable causes, supporting in particular The Pleasance Trust that ran Welfare Centres in Scotland. James Ivory became a director of the Pleasance Trust in 1928 , having been until then manager of the fund. Eric James Ivory, accountant, was appointed manager and secretary to the Trust in 1946 . In 1985 the chairman was Roger Inglis.

The registered office of Ivory & Sime Ltd were the offices of the solicitors' firm which acted as secretaries to the company. These were at 63 Castle Street, Edinburgh (Office of Guild & Shepherd , WS) 1891-1908 ; 16 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh (Office of Guild & Shepherd , WS, later Shepherd & Wedderburn , WS); 1908-1947; 8 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh (Office of R M Carnegie & C J Paterson , WS) 1947-1967 ; 9 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, 1967-1968 ; 1985 ; and 1 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh.

Ivory & Sime Ltd went on to acquire a number of Edinburgh-based investment trusts, the majority of which were registered as private limited companies and whose registered offices were the same as Ivory & Sime Ltd. These included British Assets Trust Ltd , Second British Assets Trust Ltd , Independent Investment Co Ltd , Investors Capital Trust Ltd , Second Investors' Mortgage Security Co Ltd , Scottish Realisation Trust Ltd , Edinburgh American Land Mortgage Co Ltd , The Pleasance Trust , Atlantic Assets Trust Ltd , Clydesdale Investment Co Ltd , Third Scottish Western Investment Co Ltd , Second Caledonian Trust Co Ltd , Third Caledonian Trust Co Ltd , Edinburgh Trust & Agency Ltd , Electrical Securities Trust Ltd , Canning Down Estate Ltd and Caledonian Assets Trust Ltd .

In 1988 , Ivory & Sime Ltd floated on the London stock exchange as Ivory & Sime plc . In 1998 , they became Friends Ivory & Sime plc which merged with Royal & Sun Alliance Investments Ltd , securities brokers, London, England, to form ISIS Asset Management plc in 2002 .

Slaven, A and Checkland, S. (eds.)Dictionary of Scottish Business Biography 1860-1960 vol.2 (Aberdeen, 1990)

Arrangement

The material has been arranged into series as shown in the scope and content. Within series, items are generally arranged chronologically.

Access Information

Open

Acquisition Information

Permanent loan : via BACS : June 1986 :ACCN 0084

Other Finding Aids

The catalogue of Ivory & Sime Ltd records exists as part of the UGD 228 finding aid which also includes catalogues of companies owned by Ivory & Sime Ltd or in which they had an interest. A digital file level list is available searchroom.

Manual file list available at the National Registers of Archives in Edinburgh (NRA(S)1577, replaced by NRA(S)2764) and London (NRA21280)