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Notes from
Stuart F Elton of Bagseals.org...
For
two centuries after the foundation of St Petersburg 1703, the British
merchant community- exercised a remarkable influence over the city's economic
relations with the wider world. This community operated as a 'City of London' in
miniature, and where the merchants led others--diplomats, travellers, soldiers,
sailors, engineers, craftsmen and others-- followed. The St Petersburg Exchange,
built in the early 19th century and painted in 1891 by Alexander Beggrov.
Englishman Edwin Coates working in the works' manager's office of Thornton's
thread mill. St Petersburg, shortly before the First World War.
To the English in
the sixteenth century the idea of a northern route to the Indies had a
particular appeal, and in 1553, in search of such a passage, the Edward
Bonaventure cast anchor off the southern shore of the White Sea. For England,
this venture established a thriving trade with Russia through Archangel; for
Russia, it offered the prospect of secure and direct commercial links with
Western Europe. The ship's return to England heralded the formation in London of
the Muscovy Company, which sent annual cargoes of cloth, silks, tropical and
Mediterranean goods in return for pelts, wax, tar and pitch. Finding it more
economical to export Russian hemp in a processed form, English merchants set up
a rope works near Archangel. It soon enjoyed a high reputation. (...houses both
in St Petersburg and an important credit-granting centre in Western
Europe--increasingly in London. One such, Hill Wishaw, also had political
influence through Thomas Mitchell, the senior partner of its London agents, who
was Liberal MP for Bridport...) from 'On the Banks of the Neva: British
Merchants in St Petersburg before the Russian Revolution'.
Magazine article by Stuart Thompstone; History Today, Vol. 53, December 2003.
The
Whishaws were one of several interrelated Anglo-Russian trading families
that flourished in St Petersburg before the Revolution. Her father,
Bernhard Whishaw (1779-1868), and various relatives resettled in
Cheltenham during the late 19th century, and several of them were buried
in Leckhampton Churchyard. Bernhard Whishaw was an imposing figure, six
feet tall, with a red beard but no moustache or whiskers. He was a
senior partner of the firm Hills and Whishaw, by far the oldest in St
Petersburg, and when he entered the Exchange there, everyone in the
building would bow with great respect.
A
Wikipedia entry for Fred Whishaw also mentions the company - Frederick
James Whishaw was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, to English-born
parents, Bernard Whishaw of Cheltenham and Isabel Maria Cattley, on 14
March 1854; he was one of eight children. His family had been in Russia
since the 18th century. ... Unhappy with his occupation, Whishaw left
Hills & Whishaw and eventually emigrated to England after his marriage
to Ethel Charlotte Moberly on 30 March 1880.
On the Hills side the Probate copy of the will (dated 25 Mar 1867) of Thomas " Empowers his
trustees to continue loans he has made to the firms of Hills and Whishaw, St
Petersburg, Russia (in which he is a partner), and James Hill and Sons, London,
on terms they think fit."
Different Hills & Whishaw seals can be seen in John Sullivan, 'Russian
Cloth Seals in Britain Trade, Textiles and Origins', 2012, Figs. 30 a
and b and 31 a and b (see IDS 682 and IDS 683 above). More interesting detail on the families can be
found on page 26 ("Alfred
Whishaw ... was by 1861 a wholesale trader at
the port of St Petersburg in the firm of *A.G. Whishaw), page 34 ("Hills
and Whishaw, established in Archangel around 1842 by William Whishaw.")
and page 46.
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