the younger son of an ancient family in Fife, and carried on the
business of a goldsmith and banker. He amassed considerable wealth in
his trade, sufficient to enable him to gratify the wish, so common
among his countrymen, of adding a territorial designation to his name.
He purchased with this view the estates of Lauriston and Randleston,
on the Frith of Forth on the borders of West and Mid Lothian, and was
thenceforth known as Law of Lauriston. The subject of our memoir,
being the eldest son, was received into his father's counting-house at
the age of fourteen, and for three years laboured hard to acquire an
insight into the principles of banking, as then carried on in
Scotland. He had always manifested great love for the study of
numbers, and his proficiency in the mathematics was considered
extraordinary in one of his tender years. At the age of seventeen he
was tall, strong, and well made; and his face, although deeply scarred
with the small-pox, was agreeable in its expression, and full of
intelligence. At this time he began to neglect his business, and
becoming vain of his person, indulged in considerable extravagance of
attire. He was a great favourite with the ladies, by whom he was
called Beau Law, while the other sex, despising his foppery, nicknamed
him Jessamy John. At the death of his father, which happened in 1688,
he withdrew entirely from the desk, which had become so irksome, and
being possessed of the revenues of the paternal estate of Lauriston,
he proceeded to London, to see the world.

He was now very young, very vain, good-looking, tolerably rich,
and quite uncontrolled. It is no wonder that, on his arrival in the
capital, he should launch out into extravagance. He soon became a
regular frequenter of the gaming-houses, and by pursuing a certain
plan, based upon some abstruse calculation of chances, he contrived to
gain considerable sums. All the gamblers envied him his luck, and many