law was born into a family of bankers and goldsmiths from fife; his father, william, had purchased lauriston castle, a landed estate at cramond on the firth of forth and was known as law of lauriston. upon leaving the high school of edinburgh, law joined the family business at age fourteen and studied the banking business until his father died in 1688. law subsequently neglected the firm in favour of more extravagant pursuits and travelled to london to live extravagantly. there, he lost large sums of money in gambling.