It had existed,
under various styles, for more than a hundred years, and had built up so
extensive a trade as to have a branch establishment at the Russian capital.
The senior partner of the firm was John Thomson of Waverley Abbey, and
Roehampton, in the county of Surrey. In the year 1820 this gentleman
assumed the name of Poulett--in remembrance of his mother, who was heiress
of a branch of the family of that name--and he was afterwards known as John
Poulett Thomson. In 1781 he married Miss Charlotte Jacob, daughter of a
physician at Salisbury. By this lady he had a numerous family, consisting
of nine children. The youngest of these, Charles Edward Poulett Thomson,
destined to be the first governor of United Canada, and to be raised to
the peerage under the title of Baron Sydenham, was born on the 13th
of September, 1799, at the family seat in Surrey--Waverley Abbey,
above-mentioned. His mother had long been in delicate health, and at the
time of his birth was so feeble as to give rise to much solicitude as to
her chances of recovery.
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