Claude Fonnereau Explained

Claude Fonnereau (22 March 1677, – 5 April 1740) was a French Huguenot refugee who settled in England and became a prominent merchant.^{[1] [2]} He was the founding father of the Fonnereau family in England.

Early life

Fonnereau was born on 22 March 1677 at La Rochelle.^[1] He was the son of Zacharie Fonnereau and Marguerite Chataigner.^[1]

Career

From 1738 to 1740, he was a Director of the Bank of England.

In 1735 he purchased Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich, Suffolk, from Price Devereux, 10th Viscount Hereford.^[3]

Personal life

He married Elizabeth Bureau, also a Huguenot, the daughter of Anne Bureau, and had several children:^{[1] [4]}

• Thomas Fonnereau (1699–1779), a merchant and politician, who inherited his father's estates, including Christchurch Mansion.^[5]
• Claudius "Claude" Fonnereau (1701–1785), a doctor who inherited Christchurch Mansion on his elder brother's death.
• Elizabeth Frances Fonnereau (b. 1702), who married Jacques "James" Benezet, also from a Huguenot family, who had settled in London.^{[6] [4]}
• Abel Fonnereau (1703–1753)^[4]
• Anne Fonnereau (b. 1704), who married Philip Champion de Crespigny, proctor of the Admiralty court,^[7] also from a Huguenot family, who had settled in Camberwell.^[8]
• Zachary Philip Fonnereau (1706–1778), a merchant and politician who married Margaret Martyn.
• Peter Fonnereau (1709–1743)
• Marie Anne Fonnereau (b. 1711), who married John Martyn.
• Elizabeth Fonnereau (b. 1712), who married Mr. De Hauteville^[4]

Fonnereau died on 5 April 1740 at Hoddesdon.

Descendants

Through his daughter Anne, he was a grandfather of Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, 1st Baronet, and Philip Champion de Crespigny, MP for Sudbury and Aldeburgh.^[8]

Through his son Zachary, he was a grandfather of Philip Fonnereau and Martyn Fonnereau (both MPs for Aldeburgh) and great-grandfather of author and artist Thomas George Fonnereau.^[9]

Notes and References

1. Book: Agnew, Rev. David C. A. (David Carnegie Andrew). Protestant Exiles from France, Chiefly in the Reign of Louis XIV: Or, The Huguenot Refugees and Their Descendants in Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 2. 1886 . Turnbull & Spears . Edinburgh. 400.
2. Namier . L.B. . Brice Fisher, M. P.: A Mid-Eighteenth-Century Merchant and His Connexions . The English Historical Review . 42 . October 1927 . 514–532 . 168 . 10.1093/ehr/XLII.CLXVIII.514 . 552412.
3. Web site: History | Ipswich Borough Council.
4. Book: Lart . Charles Edmund . Huguenot Pedigrees . 1967 . Genealogical Publishing Com . 978-0-8063-0207-2 . 25 December 2019 . en.
5. Web site: FONNEREAU, Thomas (1699-1779), of Christ Church, Ipswich, Suff. . www.historyofparliamentonline.org . . 15 November 2023.
6. Web site: Benezet family papers 1729-1839 . quod.lib.umich.edu . University of Michigan . 24 December 2019.
7. [:s:Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 20 - Fonnereau|Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 20 - Fonnereau]
8. Web site: Champion de Crespigny family . www.southlondonguide.co.uk . 24 December 2019.
9. 10.1017/S0022050700090914 . The Duke of Newcastle and the Financing of the Seven Years' War . Browning . Reed . The Journal of Economic History . 31 . June 1971 . 344–377 . 2 . 2117049. 154806047 .