The first bank was the old Bank of Columbia, organized in 1793. Then, there was the Union Bank. I have seen a great many of its checks, smaller than the ones of today and very simply printed. Business notes in those days were written on any scrap of paper, apparently. Many that I have seen had torn edges, but always the writing was regular and even, if sometimes hard to read. Very often it looked like copperplate engraving. The English pound was used as late as 1796. Plenty of schools there seem to have been. One famous man (he was William Wirt, the author of _The British Spy_ and Attorney-General of the United States for twelve years under James Monroe and John Quincy Adams) was sent to George Town for his early training, and has written thus: "In 1779 I was sent to George Town, eight miles from Bladensburg to school, a classical academy kept by Mr. Rogers. I was placed at boarding with the family of Mr. Schoofield, a member of the Society of Friends.... I passed one winter in George Town and remember seeing a long line of wagons cross the river on the ice, attached to troops going South." Thomas Kirk, an Irish gentleman, kept a school first on Washington (30th) Street, later at High (Wisconsin Avenue) and Cherry Streets. Reverend Addison Belt, of Princeton, had a school on Gay (N) Street, between Congress (31st) and Washington (30th) Streets. Christian Hines says: "In 1798 I went to school to a man named Richmond who kept school in a small brick house attached to the house of Reverend David Wiley, graduate of Nassau Hall, who had come in 1802 from Northumberland on the Susquehanna. He was a better mathematical than classical teacher. He was mayor, librarian, merchant, teacher, preacher and keeper of the post office at the same time." Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Wiley advertised their "Boarding School for Young Ladies at George Town in the Vicinity of Washington." In the same year E. Phillips had "A School for Young Ladies on the north side of Bridge Street, nearly opposite the Printing Office." There were several teachers of French who advertised in the paper; Monsieur A. L. Jancerez, Monsieur Caille, "a French gentleman wishes to teach drawing, etc." To supply all these schools was "John March, Stationer and Bookseller, next door to Mr. Semmes's Tavern."