UK immigrants and the foundation of the US public accountancy profession

Building on a previous study (Lee, 1997) describing the case of Edinburgh chartered accountants, the current study observes 394 chartered and incorporated accountants who migrated to the US by the end of 1914. The data are reported in the context of an emerging US public accountancy profession, and the purpose of the paper is to document the migration and its place in the development of American public accountancy. A comparison is made with 112 unqualified emigrants from the UK to the US who became public accountants there by the end of 1914. This contrast provides a means of discovering subsets of the migrant group with respect to preemigration backgrounds and post-immigration careers of 506 men. Comparisons are also made of differences within defined subsets of the qualified migrant group. Data were collected from available UK and US sources. These were then aggregated in a manner that permits a coherent picture to emerge of the immigrants as public accountants in the US at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. The analyses reveal that the immigrant group was relatively small, and that the immigrants succeeded in their careers to differing degrees. A sizeable proportion returned to the UK or moved on to another host country. Of those that remained in the US, most had productive if unexceptional lives, typically in public accountancy. A few men became leaders of US public accountancy institutions and firms. A small minority achieved senior positions in industry and commerce. It is argued that the influence of UK accountants on US accounting and auditing went beyond the documented successes of specific individuals and firms. The paper is therefore more than the typical history of prominent US accountants and firms of the past.