Thomson Bonar

1 portrait of Thomson Bonar

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Thomson Bonar

by Henry Bone, after John Hoppner
pencil drawing squared in ink for transfer, after May 1813
4 1/8 in. x 2 5/8 in. (106 mm x 68 mm)
Acquired from Sir George Scharf, 1890
Reference Collection
NPG D17712

Sitterback to top

  • Thomson Bonar (died 1813), Russian merchant and bank director. Sitter associated with 1 portrait.

Artistsback to top

  • Henry Bone (1755-1834), Enamel painter. Artist or producer associated with 677 portraits, Sitter in 6 portraits.
  • John Hoppner (1758-1810), Painter. Artist or producer associated with 217 portraits, Sitter in 13 portraits.

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Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1813back to top

Current affairs

Machine breaking Luddite Riots end with seventeen executions in York. Radical John Cartwright's subsequent tour of the manufacturing districts has some success in quelling Luddite discontent with the foundation of the Hampden reform club network across the country.
East India Company is deprived of monopoly over trade with India.

Art and science

Millenarian prophet Joanna Southcott, made famous by her visions of the second coming of Christ, announces herself 'with child' by the Holy Ghost.
Jane Austen publishes Pride and Prejudice.

International

Victorious Battle of St Pierre near Bayonne led by General Rowland Hill.
Battle of Leipzig ends in defeat for Napoleon.
Wellington's victory at Vittoria leads to British invasion of Southern France.
Americans capture and burn Toronto, defeat British in Battle of Lake Erie and recapture Detroit.

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Angela Hatton

15 April 2021, 17:00


Thomson Bonar purchased Camden Place in Chislehurst in 1805, adding to his already substantial neighbouring estate at Elmstead. He set about a substantial expansion and redevelopment of the property. On Sunday May 31st 1813 a footman in the house, Irish born Philip Nicholson, brutally murdered Anne and Thomson Bonar in their beds.
The murders were apparently motiveless but Nicholson admitted them and was tried at Maidstone assizes. He had no explanation for his actions but claimed to have woken up, after drinking in the servants hall, with a desire to kill the Bonars. He was found guilty and sentenced to hang at Penenden Heath. It was reported that he had a hard death.
Anne and Thomson were buried together near the lych-gate in St Nicholas’s churchyard Chislehurst. Their tomb describes their deaths as ‘a signal reward for such virtues as have rarely been united’ and in accord with ‘their fervent wish, so frequently expressed and so mysteriously fulfilled, that they might leave this world together.