La Touche, David II (1703–1785), banker, was born on 31 December 1703, eldest among two sons and two daughters of David La Touche I (qv), soldier and businessman, and Judith La Touche (née Biard) of Dublin city. His full title was David Digues de la Touche but it was decided that he and members of his line should take the surname ‘La Touche’, after their seigneury in France. His younger brother was known as James Digges La Touche.
David La Touche was educated in Holland. He acquired a knowledge of banking at an early age and was probably in touch with his father's business associates (e.g. in Rotterdam) while based in Holland. He was admitted as a partner of the bank c.1735 and the bank was renamed ‘La Touche, Kane & La Touche’. In 1745 he inherited his father's share of the bank and by 1756 he had bought out Nathaniel Kane's share of the business. The bank was able to withstand the financial crises of 1726–8, 1733, 1754, and 1759/60, and its reputation continued to grow. By the early 1770s the La Touche bank was seen as the safest in Ireland and a large proportion of the landed gentry of Ireland were customers. The bank was a large-scale mortgagee of property and La Touche invested his paper profits in rural property. In 1753 he purchased lands at Ballydonough in north Co. Wicklow for £30,000 and built a house and laid out a demesne at Delgany, which he named Bellevue. He later acquired an estate at Harristown, Co. Kildare, and lands in Co. Leitrim. He contributed £10,000 to the stock of the Bank of Ireland when it was established in 1783. At his death in 1785 he was said to have drawn an annual rental of £25,000 from his lands and between £20,000 and £30,000 profit from his bank.
David La Touche was known for his piety and charity and, like his father, avoided being entangled in civic politics. He was one of the founding members and first treasurer of the Kildare Street Club. He married (8 February 1724/5) Mary Anne, daughter of Gabriel Canaseele of Dublin. They had three surviving sons: David La Touche (qv) (b. 1729) took over the running of the bank before his father died; John La Touche (qv) (b. c.1733) and Peter La Touche (qv) (b. c.1734) inherited much of their father's landed wealth. David La Touche II died in 1785. A number of likenesses exist including an oil by Philip Hussey (qv) painted in 1746, now in the Bank of Ireland collection; a marble bust by Jan Van Nost the younger (qv) c.1780 in the Huntingdon Library, California; and a print based on a pastel portrait of him by Hugh Douglas Hamilton (qv) c.1785 in the NGI. In 1785 a commemorative medal showing his portrait was cast by William Mossop (qv). A full-length statue of La Touche forms part of his impressive funeral monument carved by John Hickey (qv) in 1790 at Delgany parish church, Co. Wicklow.
His younger brother James Digges La Touche (1709–63) (who kept the patronymic ‘Digues ’ or ‘Digges ’) may have been educated in Holland. His father had hoped that he would pursue a literary career; instead he took over the family cloth dealing business and set up as an import/export trader on Bachelor's Walk, Dublin. La Touche made his first tentative steps into civic politics when he attacked the Dublin corporation for not providing an adequate water supply for the city in the early 1740s. In 1744 he joined forces with Charles Lucas (qv) to attack the aldermanic control of the corporation. As a result of this campaign the aldermen struck out the names of La Touche and Lucas from their respective guilds. In 1748 one of the city's parliamentary seats became vacant. At first Lucas and La Touche stood against each other. But in the same year the second city seat became vacant and both men joined forces to fight the corporation's candidates in what was to become the most hotly contested by-election in Dublin during the eighteenth century. Lucas and La Touche were both considered ‘whigs’ but their politics and tactics differed in many respects. La Touche was far less radical and remained very deferential to Castle government. In his own political pamphlets he distanced himself from Lucas and was careful not to offend. La Touche preferred the slow process of lobbying to the more explosive rhetoric of his running mate. Both Lucas and La Touche won the most votes but they were prevented from taking their seats by a small majority of MPs on the pretext that they had used illegal means to influence the voters. At the general election in 1760 both men stood again for parliament. Lucas was victorious but La Touche achieved a very small share of the votes. During the 1750s La Touche's political influence waned and he seems to have concentrated on his business. He used the £3,000 annuity that his father left him to good effect and became one of Dublin's wealthiest merchants. He lived on St Stephen's Green and purchased a large collection of old master paintings, which was auctioned after his death in 1763.
James Digges La Touche married first (3 April 1735) Elizabeth, daughter of David Chaigneau, a French clergyman from Co. Carlow. They had one daughter, Elizabeth Wilhelmina. La Touche married secondly (1743) Martha, daughter of William Thwaites. They had five sons: James Digges La Touche (b. c.1743) spent most of his life in Jamaica; David La Touche (b. 1745) served as a curate at Delgany church; William George Digges La Touche (qv) (1747–83) served as a diplomat in the Persian Gulf. Peter Digges La Touche (b. c.1750), of Belfield, was a leading Dublin merchant and vice-president of the Dublin Society 1816–20. The career of Theophilus Digges La Touche is obscure.