Peter Gaussen

Governor of the Bank of England

Peter Gaussen (1723–1788)^[1] was Governor of the Bank of England from 1777 to 1779.

He was born Jean-Pierre Gaussen in Geneva, the son of Paul Gaussen, a French Huguenot, and moved to London in 1739.^[2]

He was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England from 1776 to 1777. He replaced Samuel Beachcroft as governor in 1777 (in doing so he became the first foreign-born governor of the Bank of England)^[3] and was succeeded in turn by Daniel Booth in 1779.^[4] Gaussen's tenure as Governor occurred during the Bengal bubble crash (1769–1784).

On 16 February 1755 he had married his second cousin Anna Bosanquet, the daughter of Samuel Bosanquet.^[2]^[5] Their first son, also Peter, was born on 19 January 1756, their daughter Jane on 24 February 1757, and their son Samuel Robert on 27 February 1759.^[6] The eldest son, Peter, was buried in the North choir of St Helen's Church, Bishopsgate on 3 November 1781.^[7] Peter himself died on 20 November 1788 and was buried in the chancel of the same church on 28 November.^[8]^[9] A funerary monument depicts a woman, probably Charity, holding a medallion portrait of Peter Gaussen, and with three children below.^[10]^[11]

Their third-born son, Samuel Robert Gaussen (1759–1812) was MP for Warwick (1796–1802)^[3] and a collector of the works of prominent landscape painter Paul Sandby.^[12] Peter bought Brookmans Manor in Hertfordshire as a gift for Samuel in 1786.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b Finn, Margot and Kate Smith eds (2018). The East India Company at Home, 1757-1857. London: UCL Press. p. 264. ISBN 978-1-78735-028-1. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
^ ^a ^b Higonnet, Patrice. Favourites of Fortune. p. 258.
^ ^a ^b "GAUSSEN, Samuel Robert (1759-1812), of 3 Mansfield Street, Mdx. and Brookmans Park, North Mimms, Herts. | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
^ Governors of the Bank of England. Bank of England, London, 2013. Archived here. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
^ The registers of St. Helen's Bishopgate, London, ed. W. Bruce Bannerman (London, 1904), p.192. [1]
^ The registers of St. Helen's Bishopgate, London, ed. W. Bruce Bannerman (London, 1904), p.85, 86, 87. [2]
^ The registers of St. Helen's Bishopgate, London, ed. W. Bruce Bannerman (London, 1904), p.393. [3]
^ Minnie Reddan and Alfred W Clapham, St. Helen's Bishopsgate: Monuments within the church, in Survey of London, Volume 9, the Parish of St Helen, Bishopsgate, Part I (London, 1924), pp. 52-79. British History Online
^ The registers of St. Helen's Bishopgate, London, ed. W. Bruce Bannerman (London, 1904), p.395. [4]
^ Minnie Reddan and Alfred W Clapham, 'Plate 71: St Helen's, Bishopsgate, monuments', in Survey of London, Volume 9, the Parish of St Helen, Bishopsgate, Part I (London, 1924), p. 71. British History Online [5].
^ Minnie Reddan and Alfred W Clapham, St. Helen's Bishopsgate: Monuments within the church, in Survey of London, Volume 9, the Parish of St Helen, Bishopsgate, Part I (London, 1924), pp. 52-79. British History Online
^ "HG :: Hamilton Art Gallery". www.hamiltongallery.org. Retrieved 23 February 2018.