Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
In 1766 Lewis Agassiz was granted naturalization by a private act of Parliament (7 George III c.4). In 1769 he went into partnership with Joseph Lieutand and their business first appears in the trade directories in 1771 under the name of Lewis Agassiz and Company. Agassiz was a Swiss merchant, dealing in cotton, silk, sugar, cocoa, coffee, tobacco, cochineal and other tropical goods. He had trading connections not only throughout Europe (France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland), but also in Russia, North and South America and the East and West Indies. There is a large component of private and family papers kept with the business records.
Samuel Grellet joined the company sometime before 1772 and the name was changed to Agassiz, Grellet and Company. On Grellet's death in 1776, Francis Anthony Rougemont joined the partnership under the name of Agassiz, Rougemont and Company. Lewis Agassiz left the company in 1784 to retire to Margate in Kent. He had two sons, Arthur David Lewis Agassiz (who took over the family business) and James John Charles Agassiz. In 1792 the name was changed to Agassiz and Wilson when Thomas Wilson joined the business. From 1802, the company was listed as Wilson, Agassiz and Company. Around 1818 the company split. Thomas Wilson and Richard Blanshard traded from 4 Jefferies Square, St Mary Axe under the name Wilson and Blanshard, while Agassiz, Son and Company moved to 15 New Broad Street. After 1825 the Agassiz firm no longer appears in the trade directories.
The company was based at 92 Little St Helen's (1771-92), 36 Fenchurch Street (1793-1812), 4 Jefferies Square, St Mary Axe (1813-19), 15 New Broad Street (1820-4) and 6 Finsbury Square (1825).