Georg Wolff (1736–1828) was a Norwegian-born merchant who served as the Danish Consul to Great Britain from 1787 to 1804.

Biography

In 1759 Georg Wolff moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and worked as an assistant for Jens Pedersen, the owner of a timber export business. The company was part of a small Danish-Norwegian community centered on

Wellclose Square Wellclose Square is a public square in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, between Cable Street to the north and The Highway to the south. The western edge, now called Ensign Street, was previously called Well Street. The southern edge was cal ...

in London. Most residents were involved in the export of Norwegian timber to London, a trade following the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

in 1666. In 1760 Wolff married Elizabeth Gorham, an 18-year-old woman from the English parish of

St Neots St NeotsPronunciation of the town name: Most commonly, but variations that ''saint'' is said as in most English non-georeferencing speech, the ''t'' is by a small minority of the British pronounced and higher traces of in the final syllable ...

. They had two daughters, Elizabeth (who married John Dorville but later became the mistress of George Montagu) and Martha Ann, as well as one son, Jens. In June 1770 the elder Elizabeth died. Wolff later married Sarah Cheesement, who bore him two additional daughters, Sarah Augusta, and Inger Maria. Following Sarah's death in 1790, Wolff never remarried. In 1767 Georg was joined in London by his brother, Ernst Wolff. Together they established Geo. & Ernst Wolff. In 1792 Georg Wolff's son-in-law John Dorville became a partner and the firm name was changed to Wolffs & Dorville. The firm of Wolffs & Dorville flourished until it went bankrupt in 1812 largely due to the British war with Denmark. In 1787 Wolff was appointed the Danish Consul in London. The Danish consulate in London was responsible for Danish-Norwegian interests throughout the southern coasts of England, the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

, and the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

. All Danish-Norwegian ships arriving in London were required to report information concerning their cargo and journey to the consulate, placing Georg Wolff and his firm at the center of the northern timber trade. Upon Britain's entry into the

War of the First Coalition The War of the First Coalition (french: Guerre de la Première Coalition) was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797 initially against the Kingdom of France (1791-92), constitutional Kingdom of France and then t ...

in 1793, the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

began taking Danish ships as prize ships. In 1804, Georg Wolff's son, Jens Wolff was appointed Adjunct Consul and spent most of his time assisting Danish captains whose ships had been captured. Though few timber shipments from Norway were taken as prizes of war, in total nearly 1,000 Danish and Norwegian ships were sized by the British between 1793 and 1807. Jens Wolff served as acting consul until the closing of the consulate in 1807 following the Bombardment of Copenhagen. Wolff died in 1828. He and his wife Elizabeth were buried at the Danish Church in

References

Other sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolff, Georg 1736 births 1828 deaths 18th-century Norwegian businesspeople Norwegian merchants Norwegian expatriates in the United Kingdom 19th-century Danish businesspeople 18th-century merchants 19th-century Norwegian businesspeople