Claude Fonnereau

Claude Fonnereau (22 March 1677,^[1] – 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.

Claude Fonnereau
Portrait of Fonnereau, British School, c. 1725
Born	(1677-03-22)22 March 1677 La Rochelle, France
Died	5 April 1740(1740-04-05) (aged 63) Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire
Spouse	Elizabeth Bureau
Children	Thomas Fonnereau, Zachary Philip Fonnereau
Relatives	Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, 1st Baronet (grandson) Philip Champion de Crespigny (grandson) Philip Fonnereau (grandson) Martyn Fonnereau (grandson)

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

Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich c. 1890

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]

References

1. Agnew, Rev. David C. A. (David Carnegie Andrew) (1886). 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. Edinburgh: Turnbull & Spears. p. 400.
2. Namier, L.B. (October 1927). "Brice Fisher, M. P.: A Mid-Eighteenth-Century Merchant and His Connexions". The English Historical Review. 42 (168): 514–532. doi:10.1093/ehr/XLII.CLXVIII.514. JSTOR 552412.
3. "History | Ipswich Borough Council".
4. Lart, Charles Edmund (1967). Huguenot Pedigrees. Genealogical Publishing Com. ISBN 978-0-8063-0207-2. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
5. "FONNEREAU, Thomas (1699-1779), of Christ Church, Ipswich, Suff". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
6. "Benezet family papers 1729-1839". quod.lib.umich.edu. University of Michigan. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
7. Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 20 - Fonnereau
8. "Champion de Crespigny family". www.southlondonguide.co.uk. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
9. Browning, Reed (June 1971). "The Duke of Newcastle and the Financing of the Seven Years' War". The Journal of Economic History. 31 (2): 344–377. doi:10.1017/S0022050700090914. JSTOR 2117049. S2CID 154806047.