Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Janssen, Theodore
JANSSEN, Sir THEODORE (1658?–1748), director of the South Sea scheme, was born in France about 1658. His father, Abraham Janssen, was the youngest son of Baron de Herz, who made himself prominent on the popular side during the rising against Spain in the Netherlands, and was finally captured and beheaded by the Duke of Parma. Janssen came to England in 1680 with a fortune of 20,000l., received from his father; engaged in trade so successfully as to increase this to 300,000l., and was naturalised in 1685 (Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. ii. 300). He was of service to the governments of King William and Queen Anne. William knighted him, and Anne made him a baronet on 11 March 1714, at the special request of the elector of Hanover, afterwards George I. The same year he was elected M.P. for Yarmouth. In South Sea days he became a director of the company, but on the collapse was a loser of 50,000l. It was part of Walpole's relief plan to make scapegoats of the directors, and Janssen was forced to hand over about a quarter of a million of money, ‘near one-half real estate.’ Part of this was the manor of Wimbledon, which he had bought in 1717, and which was now sold to Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, for 15,000l. He was also expelled the House of Commons, and was committed to the keeping of the sergeant-at-arms in 1721. In the Chauncy MS. of Pope's ‘Moral Essays’ (epistle iii., ‘On the Use of Riches’) he is mentioned in the lines:—
When still we see the dirty blessing light
On such as Bl—n, Ja—n, W—rd, and Kn—t;
i.e. Bladen (who married Janssen's second daughter, Barbara), Janssen, Ward, and Knight. The reference to Janssen in the ‘Dunciad,’ iv. 326, and ‘Satires,’ vii. 88, is to a son, a notorious gambler (see Elwin and Courthope's edition).
Janssen died at Wimbledon 22 Sept. 1748, and was buried in the churchyard there. He was married to Williamsa (d. 1731), daughter of Sir Robert Henley of the Grange in Hampshire, and sister of Anthony Henley [q. v.] He had a large family. His three eldest sons—Abraham (d. 1765), Henry (d. 1766), and Stephen Theodore, lord mayor of London (d. 1777)—were successively baronets. On the death of the last, in 1777, the title became extinct. A tract by Sir Theodore Janssen, entitled ‘General Maxims in Trade particularly applied to the Commerce between Great Britain and France,’ appeared in 1713. It was reproduced in substance as part of vol. i. of ‘The British Merchant,’ edited by Charles King in 1721, and reprinted in vol. xiii. of the ‘Somers Tracts.’
[Gent. Mag. September 1748, p. 428; London Mag. 1748, p. 429; Burke's Extinct Baronetage, p. 281; Historical Register for 1721, pp. 49 and 221; Lysons's Environs of London; Brayley's Surrey; Sloane MS. 4310, f. 427.]