Baron Ferdinand Moritz Delmar born Salomon Moses Levy (21 March 1781 – 27 November 1858) was a wealthy Prussian banker. He also owned coffee and tea plantations in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) including the namesake Delmar Estate. Salomon Moses Levy was born in Charlottenburg, Berlin to a Jewish family that came from Poznan. His father was Moses Salomon Levy, also a banker and

grain merchant The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other ...

and his mother Belle was the daughter of the court banker Ruben Hesse Goldschmidt in Kassel. Delmar was also a banker and financier involved in the Prussian war tributes after the

Treaties of Tilsit The Treaties of Tilsit were two agreements signed by French Emperor Napoleon in the town of Tilsit in July 1807 in the aftermath of his victory at Friedland. The first was signed on 7 July, between Napoleon and Russian Emperor Alexander, when t ...

. He inherited Delmar and Co in 1809 and along with his brothers, he adopted the name of "Delmar" (meaning "of the sea") and converted to Christianity. He then became a councilor for Berlin and was a friend of the French aristocracy there. In 1810 he received the Prussian title of ''

Freiherr (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...

'' (baron) von Delmar. He moved around 1815 to Paris where he married Emily (1790-1861), the daughter of

Sir George Rumbold, 2nd Baronet Sir George Rumbold, 2nd Baronet (17 August 1764 – 15 December 1807) was a British diplomat who was ambassador to the Hanseatic League. Early life George Berriman Rumbold was born in Fort William, India, where his father Thomas Rumbold worked fo ...

(1764-1807). Delmar adopted his wife's niece Emily Victorine Elizabeth Rumbold, created ''

Freifrau (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...

'' von Delmar in 1869 (1824-1904, daughter of

Sir William Rumbold, 3rd Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

), who married in 1848 (div 1866) George Henry Cavendish (1824-1889, grandson of

George Cavendish, 1st Earl of Burlington George Cavendish, 1st Earl of Burlington (31 March 1754 – 9 May 1834), styled Lord George Cavendish before 1831, was a British nobleman and politician. He built Burlington Arcade. Background Cavendish was the third son of William Cavendish, ...

), then in 1870 to Count Gaston de la Rochefoucauld (1834-1915). The Delmar company went out of business in 1825. Baron Delmar's estates in Ceylon were mortgaged to

Baring Brothers Barings Bank was a British merchant bank based in London, and one of England's oldest merchant banks after Berenberg Bank, Barings' close collaborator and German representative. It was founded in 1762 by Francis Baring, a British-born member ...

and in 1897 the Ceylon lands were liquidated after a complicated court settlement between his adopted daughter Emily and coffee plantation owner

John Boustead Colonel Sir John Edmond Hugh Boustead KBE CMG DSO MC & Bar (14 April 1895 – 3 April 1980) was a British military officer, modern pentathlete, and diplomat who served in numerous posts across several Middle Eastern countries, including am ...

who had taken possession of the estates.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Delmar, Ferdinand German bankers 1781 births 1858 deaths German people of Jewish descent Converts to Christianity from Judaism