Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson

Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson (Lewis-William Ferguson-Tepper, Tepper von Ferguson, Louis-Guillaume Tepper de Ferguson; 18 December 1768, Warsaw – 12 September 1838, Paris) was a Polish–Russian musician and composer, a music teacher mainly associated with the Imperial Lycée in Tsarskoye Selo (near St Petersburg, Russia).

Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson was born in Warsaw as the sixth child and third son of the extremely wealthy Polish banker Piotr Fergusson Tepper and his wife Maria-Philipina, née Valentin d'Hauterive. The surname 'Ferguson' indicates the Scottish origin of the family. Indeed, in 1703, his grandfather William Ferguson of Inverurie had emigrated from Scotland to Poland. In 1714, William Ferguson married Katherina-Concordia Tepper, a sister of the wealthy and influential merchant and banker, furrier and fur trader Pjotr Tepper of Poznan. Pjotr Tepper managed the large-scale international trade using family connections, and imported goods to Poland from many countries, including Britain.

William Ferguson and Katherina-Concordia had three sons. One of them, Peter (1732–1794), who would become Ludwig-Wilhelm's father, entered into partnership with his maternal uncle Pjotr Tepper. In 1767 he was officially adopted by Pjotr Tepper on the condition he would add the name Tepper to his name Ferguson.

In 1779, the Scottish origin of Peter Ferguson Tepper was recognised and confirmed in England, in consequence of which the Scottish and Polish branches of the family re-established relations. According to a column of James Boswell in a later issue of The Scots Magazine (1786): "In June 1779, he [Peter Ferguson-Tepper] had his arms matriculated in the Herald Office, London, and obtained permission to use the surname and arms of Tepper jointly with the surname and arms of Ferguson. The father's writings being destroyed during the civil war in Poland, the son did not know from what part of Scotland his father came; and his Scots relations, not having heard from Poland for near fifty years, believed their friend in that country had died without issue; but the above paragraph in our Magazine caused them to make inquiry, when with equal joy they discovered other; and in a few months thereafter, Mr Ferguson Tepper came to Edinburgh to see them./.../Mr Peter Ferguson Tepper, of Warsaw is supposed to be the second banker in Europe. Mister Walter Ferguson, writer in Edinburgh, and he are brothers' children."

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