Bonnel(l), Thomas

133 Long Acre, London; upholder and cabinet maker (1744–d.1782)

Thomas was in partnership with William Simmon(d)s, a cabinet maker in St Martin-in-the-Fields, when declared bankrupt [Gents Magazine, April 1744]. A sale was announced in Daily Advertiser, 14 March 1744, of  ‘All the entire genuine Stock in Trade of those ingenious and eminent Cabinet Makers, Mess. Bonnell and Simmonds, consisting of several curious pieces of Work in Mahogany, Walnut-Tree, Amboyna and other Woods, viz. Buroes, Cabinets, Bookcases and Tables, with many other pieces of Furniture, finish'd in the most elegant Taste …’. 

He was recorded on his own account at 133 Long Acre, 1774-79 [Kent's Directory].

Probably the Thomas Bonnell who married Elizabeth in 1734 at St Martin-in-the-Fields and had a son, also Thomas (b.1835) baptised at the same church.

Thomas snr.'s death was reported in Gents Magazine, 9 March 1782, stating he was ‘many years a cabinet-maker in Long Acre, and lately retired from business’.

Probably the Bonnell of London named in the St John's College, Cambridge account book in 1748 supplying ‘chairs for the Lodge’, totalling £19 13s 6d and the Bonnel who was paid £18 0s 6d in 1771 for work at Longford Castle [V&A archives].

Source: DEFM