Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 11 - Section V

by David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

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V. Janssen, Baronets.^[1]

As related in my chapter I., Theodore Janssen de Heez, a son of the martyred Baron de Heez, fled from Brussels in 1585, and took refuge in France. He became a naturalized French subject and a Huguenot worshipper, and settled in Angoulesme. His son, Abraham Janssen, of Angoulesme, was the husband of Her.riette Manigault. Their son, Theodore Janssen, was born in 1654. Sharing in the troubles of the Huguenots, he removed to England in 1680, and was naturalized by Royal Letters Patent at Westminster, on 2nd July 1684 (see my vol. ii., Historical Introduction, list ix.). He became an eminent merchant, and was knighted by King William III., at Kensington, on 1st May 1696. Having successfully taken part in the commercial arrangements of the Utrecht Treaty, he was created a Baronet by King George I., on 11th March 1715 (n.s.).

Sir Theodore Janssen was a public-spirited man and also attentive to business, so that he amassed a large fortune. He purchased the Manor of Wimbledon. Having invested money in South Sea Stock, he was made a Director of the Company, an honour which cost him dear. His reverses of fortune, however, did not shorten his life. His manor was sold to the Duchess of Marlborough for £15,000. His property was seized and sequestrated by the House of Commons, as were the properties of all the directors, in order to pay the Company’s creditors; at the same time a sum of money was returned to each as a grant or allowance. In the list he appears as follows:—

Person.	Estate.	Allowance.
Sir Theodore Janssen.	£243, 244, 3s. 11d.	£50,000.

This was a higher rate of allowance than was granted to any other on the list (except in the cases of two or three small estates), his private character and public services were generally acknowledged. He died at Wimbledon on 23rd September 1748, aged ninety-four. The Gentleman’s Magazine says, “He left France several years before the persecution of the Protestants, and settling here as a merchant, improved a fortune of £20,000, given him by his father, to above £300,000, which he possessed till the year 1720, when (so far from being in any secret) he lost above £50,000 by that year’s transactions. Yet, as he was unfortunately a director of the South Sea Company, the Parliament was pleased to take from him above £220,000 (nearly one-half being real estate), by a law made ex post facto, which was given for the relief of the proprietors of that company, though they had gained several millions by the scheme, and though it appeared, when his allowance came to be settled in the House of Commons, that he had done many signal services to this nation.” (The writer gave his figures from memory.)

Over the entrance to a vault in Wimbledon Church are engraved the arms of the Janssens, and this inscription, “This vault contains the remains of the body of Sir Theodore Janssen, Bart., once Lord of this Manor, 1748. Likewise Sir Abraham Janssen, Bart, 1765.”

Sir Theodore married Williamse, daughter of Sir Robert Henley, of the Grange, Co. Somerset, Knight (she died in September 1731), and had five sons and three daughters, who survived him. One of the daughters, Barbara, was the wife of Thomas Bladen, M.P. for Ashburton; Mary was married on 20th July 1730 to Charles Calvert, sixth Lord Baltimore, and was the mother of Frederick, seventh Lord Baltimore. Sir Theodore’s sons were:—

1. Sir Abraham, second baronet, died at Paris, 19th January 1765.
2. Sir Henry, third baronet, died at Paris, February 1766.
3. Sir Stephen Theodore, fourth baronet, of whom presently.
4. William, married a daughter of James Gaultier.
5. Robert.

It will be observed that his three elder sons successively became baronets. The baronetcy expired with the third, who maintained the high character of the family, and I give some incidents in his life.

Stephen Theodore Janssen was a leading London merchant. His signature appears to the merchants’ loyal manifesto, in view of the Rebellion of 1745, and he was considered to have done very good service to the Government at this epoch. In 1747 he was elected one of the Members of Parliament for the city of London. In 1748, the year of his father’s death, he became an alderman. He was Master of the Company of Stationers in 1749 and 1750. He married Catharine, daughter of Colonel Peter Soulegre. The British Chronologist notes:— “1754, Sept. 28. Stephen Theodore Janssen, Esq., alderman and stationer, vice-president of the British Herring Fishery, was elected into the high office of Lord Mayor of London for the year ensuing.”

It was during his Mayoralty that a reverse of fortune threatened him. And soon after, he had to compound with his creditors. He retired to a country house, and on the death of his wife, in 1757, he returned to London, as a lodger — living in the most frugal manner, in order to pay his creditors in full, one after another. The office of Chamberlain of the city of London becoming vacant, he for the same honourable purpose desired its emoluments, and offered himself as a candidate. Of course, there were many competitors, and much “strife of tongues.” But the election terminated in his favour, the numbers at the poll being — Janssen, 1316; Turner, 1202; Till, 250; Ellis, 229; Freeman, 180. Toone’s Chronological Record notes: “1765, January 15. Alderman Janssen was elected Chamberlain of the city of London, in the room of Sir Thomas Harrison, deceased; the poll, which closed on the 19th, gave him 1316 votes; there were five candidates for the office.” The following letter to the Livery of London was issued on 16th January 1765:—

“Gentlemen, — As it has been impossible for the whole of what I said to the Livery of London, on the day of election, and what I intended further to say, could be all got ready for the papers, through the multiplicity of business in which I am engaged, I hope the conclusion of what I intended saying with respect to my debts, on account of which I have been so much traduced, will be satisfactory to my fellow-citizens for the present.

“During the year I had the honour of being Lord Mayor, I met with very unexpected disappointments of considerable sums of money; this occasioned my leaving several debts unpaid contracted during that year. Soon after, a commission issued against me, upon which I laid down my equipage, discharged all my servants except three, and retired with my wife and child to a house of thirty-six per annum, in Hertfordshire. My wife died about two years after. I then took a lodging in town of eighteen shillings a week, and lived there — as I have ever since done — without a servant, although many times afflicted with illness. I may also aver that I have spared myself clothes, and that in my diet I have been as sparing as a mechanic.

“All this while my income has been about £600 per annum, consisting of an annuity of £300 from my late father-in-law, and further allowance from my family. Out of this I can safely say I have not spent more than £120 per annum, and that all the rest has been faithfully paid among my creditors (although not obliged by law, they having signed my certificate), amounting in the whole to between £4000 and £5000. A list of many of them paid in full is left with the Common Council of Bread Street Ward, of which I am alderman. I do further declare, that it is my determined resolution to continue living in the same frugal manner, till the last shilling is discharged; and in case any turn of fortune should happen to me, my whole just debts shall be discharged so much the sooner, as I am determined to persevere in preserving the character of an honest man.

“Stephen Theodore Janssen,”
Thrift Street, Soho.”

His brother, Sir Abraham, left him an annuity of £500 (this was in 1765). Stephen offered it for sale at Garraway’s, when his brother, Sir Henry Janssen, bought it for £5000; this was paid to the creditors. The amiable brother did not long survive; he died in 1766, and the City Chamberlain succeeded to his title and fortune. Sir Stephen had some years of prosperity. He was elected a Director of the French Hospital on 4th October 1769. On 6th February 1776 he resigned the office of Chamberlain, “by reason of age and infirmity.” He died, the last survivor of the five brothers, on 7th April 1777, “universally respected for his many public and private virtues” (Gent. Mag.). He had no son, so that the baronetcy became extinct. He left an only daughter, Henrietta, born in 1752, to whom her grandfather, Soulegre, had bequeathed £20,000.

NOTE.

The South-Sea Company was one of those Joint-Stock Companies which were known as Bubbles, and induced people to subscribe large sums of money, under an assurance that the King in Council would grant charters to all such companies. However, an Order in Council, dated 12th July 1720, gave warning that petitions for charters would be dismissed. The Historical Register of that year gave many names of such Bubble Companies, some of which are worthy of our friend Punch:—

For carrying on a General Insurance from losses by Fire.
For supplying London with sea-coal (£3,000,000).
For erecting salt-pans in Holy Island (£2, 000,000).
For carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.
For insuring of horses (£2,000,000).
For a wheel for perpetual motion (£1,000,000).
For importing beaver fur (£2,000,000).
The Bottomry Society.
For insuring to all masters and mistresses the losses they shall sustain by servants (£3,000,000).
For effectually settling the Island of Blanco and Sal-Tortugas.
For extracting silver from lead.
For the transmutation of quicksilver into a malleable metal.

Nearly 100 such undertakings, proposing to raise about £300,000,000, are named in the list. “Most of the said Bubbles found many subscribers, some of whom sold their permits, or first subscriptions, at a great profit, whereby the last buyers were at last bubbled out of considerable sums.”

1. I am much indebted to Nichols’ “Literary Anecdotes,” and to Henry Wagner, F.S.A.