The Development of the AMerican Public Accounting Profession: Scottish Chartered Accountants and the Early American Public Accountancy Profession (Routledge New Works in Accounting History)

191 Pages·2006·0.8 MB·English

by  T. A. Lee

The Development of the American
Public Accountancy Profession
This book presents a unique series of researched biographies of professional
accountants who immigrated to the United States and developed their careers
there in the late nineteenth, and early twentieth, century. Until now, little has
been written about the positive impact of immigrant professionals on American
life.
These accountants greatly influenced the public accountancy profession, and
this volume is a tribute to the efforts of a relatively small group of Scots who
helped to establish and nurture American public accountancy at a time when
demand for its services greatly exceeded the ability of native-born accountants to
provide them. And their impact on public accountancy in the US was dispropor-
tionate to their size as a group.
This book will interest accounting historians and social historians, particularly
those whose focus is on the development of professions from a historical point
of view. It should also be fascinating reading to the partners and staff in the large
public accountancy firms as these have been built in part on foundations laid by
the skills and efforts of a relatively few Scottish immigrants.
T. A. Lee is Emeritus Professor of Accountancy at the University of Alabama.
He is one of the most published accounting researchers of the last 50 years, pub-
lishing extensively in accounting history. He has worked in Scottish universities
for twenty-five years, and in US universities for twelve. In 2005, Professor Lee
received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the British Accounting Association
and was inducted into its Accounting Hall of Fame.
Routledge New Works in Accounting History
Edited by
Garry Carnegie
Melbourne University Private, Australia
John Richard Edwards
Cardiff University, UK
Salvador Carmona
Instituto de Empresa, Spain
Dick Fleischman
John Carroll University, USA
1. The Institute of Accounts
Nineteenth century origins of accounting professionalism in the United States
Stephen E. Loeb and Paul J. Miranti, Jr.
2. Professionalism and Accounting Rules
Brian P. West
3. Accounting Theory
Essays by Carl Thomas Devine
Edited by Harvey S. Hendrickson and Paul F. Williams
4. Mark to Market Accounting
“True North” in financial reporting
Walter P. Schuetze, edited by Peter W. Wolnizer
5. AHistory of Auditing
The changing audit process in Britain from the nineteenth century to the
present day
Derek Matthews
6. Contemporary Issues in Financial Reporting
Auser-oriented approach
Paul Rosenfield
7. The Development of the American Public Accountancy Profession
T. A. Lee
The Development of the
American Public Accountancy
Profession
Scottish chartered accountants and the
early American public accountancy
profession
T. A. Lee
First published 2006
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USAand Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library,2007.
“To purchaseyourown copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
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©2006 T. A. Lee
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Acatalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Acatalogue record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-96637-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-40394-4 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-40394-8 (hbk)
This book is dedicated to all Scottish Chartered Accountancy
immigrants to the United States who have and continue to
contribute so much over the decades to American public
accountancy.

Contents
List of tables viii
The author ix
Preface x
Acknowledgments xii
Abbreviations xiii
1 The first migrant 1
2 The mobile Scot 3
3 Propensity to migrate 5
4 Departure and arrival cities 9
5 The US public accountancy profession 14
6 Overview of the Scottish chartered accountancy migrants 18
7 The immigrants 30
Bibliography 150
Notes 156
Index 159
List of tables
3.1 Immigration and Edinburgh Academy students 6
3.2 Occupations of Edinburgh Academy migrants 7
6.1 Scots Public Accountants in US: 1875–1914 19
6.2 Economic class origins of Scots Public Accountants in US:
1875–1914 20
6.3 Professional experience of Scottish Accounting migrants
1875–1914 22
6.4 Initial employment and subsequent national firm employment 25
The author
Tom Lee was born and educated in Edinburgh. He qualified as a Chartered
Accountant (CA) in 1964 with the Albert J. Watson Prize in 1963 and the award
of Distinction and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) Gold
Medal in 1964. The Prize and Gold Medal were funded by a gift to ICAS from
one of the immigrants in this study, Albert John Watson. Tom Lee was placed first
nationally in the Associateship examination of the Chartered Institute of Taxation
in 1966. Following post-qualifying experience as an auditor with Peat, Marwick,
Mitchell & Company (PMMC), he pursued an academic career until his retire-
ment in 2001 as Professor Emeritus of Accountancy at the University of
Alabama. Previously, Tom Lee had held chairs in accountancy at the Universities
of Liverpool (1973–6) and Edinburgh (1976–90), and was the Culverhouse Chair
of Accountancy and a State of Alabama Eminent Scholar at the University of
Alabama (1990–2001). He was awarded that University’s Burnum Award for
scholarship in 1997. Professor Lee has served on numerous ICAS committees,
including the Scottish Committee on Accounting History (SCAH) and the ICAS
Council (1989–90), and was ICAS Director of Accounting and Auditing in 1983
and 1984. His research specialties include corporate audit theory, income and
capital theory, shareholder use and understanding of accounting information, cash
flow accounting and reporting, the sociology of the accountancy profession and
academic accountancy, and accounting and auditing history. Professor Lee has
published in all of these areas in major journals throughout the world and
authored and co-authored numerous books. He is a past President of the Academy
of Accounting Historians (1997) and, respectively, an Honorary and Visiting
Professor of Accounting at the Universities of Dundee and Newcastle-Upon-
Tyne. In 2005, Professor Lee received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the
British Accounting Association and was inducted into its Accounting Hall of
Fame. He lives in the village of Haddington in the County of East Lothian in
Scotland.