Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester area. The most obvious reason why it is relevant to the British community in Moscow in the 19th and early 20th century is because Richard Knill Freeman, the architect who was chosen to design the building of St.Andrew's Anglican church in Moscow, lived there. But this kind of reasoning is certainly backwards. It is mixing up cause and effect. The architect was chosen from Bolton because many parishioners had connections with this place. This is exactly what we read in the Supplement to the Manchester Courier, and Lancashire General Advertise, of Saturday, October 4, 1884: As liberal contributions have been provided by firms in Bolton towards the cost of erecting the church and providing the organ, and as many of our townsmen have been prominently identified with industrial pursuits at Moscow, in addition to which the architect of the new structure is a Bolton gentleman (Mr. R. K. Freeman), the following particulars as to the history of the British community in Moscow, and a description of the church, will be perused with interest.
And indeed, while researching different Moscow British families, now and again, I stumble upon Bolton. Here's a list of these occasions (incomplete, so far).
- William Hopper of Hopper & Co in Moscow (1816-1885), born in Penicuik near Edinburgh, in 1842 went to Mr.Benjamin Hick, Bolton, by whom he was sent in June 1843 to Russia to undertake the erection of the gearing in a cotton-mill then being built near St.Petersburg by Messrs. Egerton Hubbard and Co.
- James Russel Hopper of Hopper & Co in Moscow (son of William Hopper)for several years worked at John Musgrave & Sons Ltd., manufacturers of Lancashire established in Bolton, to gain experience working with steam machines, before he returned to Moscow and used all that experience at his father's plant.