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All people of Scottish decent are seen as hard working money conscious individuals who like to save. It could well be that the reason for this lies at the door of William Paterson, who was born near the border in the town of Dumfries which itself plays a huge part in Scottish history. William Paterson was a writer on economic issues, and a main backer of the disastrous scheme to settle Darien on the Isthmus of Panama , and founder of the Bank of England.

John Philip, was a missionary, who came from Kirkcaldy in Fife . He was always fighting the corner of the indigenous people of South Africa against the arrogant white settlers manly from Europe who treated the native peoples like scum. A minister at Aberdeen , Philip was asked to go to Africa by the London Missionary Society in the year of 1818. Philip was sent to carry out inspections as to the conditions at his Church's various missions in Africa . What he found caused him to severely condemn the attitudes and practices of the white minority colonists, especially in their treatment of the defenceless Hottentots, for whom he devoted the rest of his life to try to secure better treatment. These people thought nothing of taking land that belonged to the natives and driving them off, not caring that maybe the families had stayed there for hundreds of years.

Duncan Phyfe was born near Loch Fannich, in Ross and Cromarty, he was to achieve fame in the City of New York , where his furniture designs had a lasting influence in the United States of America , and where he achieved his reputation as perhaps the greatest of all American cabinetmakers. After emigrating from his homeland in his teens and serving his apprenticeship at Albany , he moved to City of New York City in the year of 1792. Duncan was an amazingly good designer and his skills led to such a demand for his products that he eventually employed over 100 carvers and cabinetmakers. It was no longer necessary for the colonists to send to Great Britain for quality furniture, and because they were made on site they worked out cheaper than buying from anywhere else.

Sir John Pringle, was born in Stitchel, Roxburgh, in the year of 1707, the same year that Scotland 's Nobles sold their country down the river for English gold. Pringle while working a s a surgeon with soldiers discovered the many causes of disease during surgery. This unique work in the cause of disease earned him the title of, ‘The father of modern military medicine' . Indeed, Pringle's suggestion, based on experience as a physician in the armed services, that military hospitals be treated as sanctuaries mutually protected by belligerents on both sides eventually led to the establishment of the Red Cross in 1864.

Thomas Pringle, was born in the small town of Blaiklaw , Roxburgh. A graduate of Edinburgh University , he immigrated to South Africa in the year of 1820. He landed at the port of Cape Town , which was still a British colony at that period in time. Pringle published a magazine and a newspaper, but they were suppressed by the government because of his views on reform, so as usual if the English don't want to hear anything bad about themselves, then they would ban it from being printed. On his return to British soil, he settled in London , where he then spent the rest of his life in the anti-slavery movement. He could not imagine how people supposedly Christians, could treat the native people of Africa and other countries as if they were animals or some kind of sub-human species.

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