Henry Casimir de Rham (15 July 1785 – October 1873) was a Swiss–American merchant and diplomat.

Early life

Henry Casimir de Rham was born on 15 July 1785 in

Giez Giez is a municipality in the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. History Giez is first mentioned in 1011 as ''Gies''. Geography Giez has an area, , of . Of this area, or 58.5% is used for agricultural purpo ...

, Switzerland. He was a son of Johann Christoph Wilhelm de Rham of

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

, Germany and the former Anne ( Kinloch) de Rham (1742–1813). His elder brother was Jacques de Rham, who married Adélaïde Doxat whose family owned the Château de Champvent. His maternal grandfather was Sir James Kinloch, Bt. of Scotland. He attended the military school in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Career

In 1803 he had opened a business in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

.Junold, Louis J. (1926),p.4 After the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

he entered business relationship with Isaac Iselin Roulet. After his 1815 marriage, two of his wife's brothers became partners in the business known as de Rham, Iselin & Moore (later known as de Rham & Moore, but at the time of his death as de Rham & Company).Junold, Louis J. (1926),p.5 In July 1822 de Rham was appointed to be one of the first two Swiss consuls to the United States by the

Federal Diet of Switzerland The Federal Diet of Switzerland (german: Tagsatzung, ; french: Diète fédérale; it, Dieta federale) was the legislative and executive council of the Old Swiss Confederacy and existed in various forms from the beginnings of Swiss independe ...

. He assumed responsibility for a district encompassing the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

states,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

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, and the states north of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

. In 1842, de Rham retired from his office as the Swiss consul. In his later life he was an avid Whist player and joined a Whist club.

Personal life

In 1815, de Rham married Maria Theresa Moore (1784–1855), a daughter of Jane (

Fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

) Moore and Dr. William Moore (a brother of

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

Benjamin Moore). Together, they had four children, including: *

Charles de Rham Charles de Rham (October 22, 1822 – February 23, 1909) was an American merchant and clubman who was prominent in New York society. Early life Charles was born in New York City on October 22, 1822. He was one of four children born to Henry Casimi ...

(1822–1909), who married Laura Friedrich Schmidt, daughter of Eliza Ann ( Bache) Schmidt and John William Schmidt, who served more than fifty years as Consul-General in New York for

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

, and

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. Her paternal grandfather, Dr. Georg Schmidt, was court physician to

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

Louise Louise or Luise may refer to: * Louise (given name) Arts Songs * "Louise" (Bonnie Tyler song), 2005 * "Louise" (The Human League song), 1984 * "Louise" (Jett Rebel song), 2013 * "Louise" (Maurice Chevalier song), 1929 *"Louise", by Clan of ...

, and her maternal grandfather, William Bache, was a son of Theophylact Bache. He died in October 1873 in New York City. He was interred alongside his wife at

St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery is a parish of the Episcopal Church located at 131 East 10th Street, at the intersection of Stuyvesant Street and Second Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The property has been ...

Descendants

Through his son Charles, he was a grandfather of Elise De Rham (1850–1879), who married John Jay Pierrepont; Charles de Rham (1854–1933), who married Emily Hone Foster; Henry Casimir de Rham (1855–1916), who married Anna Tayloe Warren and Georgina Louise Berryman; and William de Rham (1857–1881).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rham, Henry Casimir 1785 births 1873 deaths Consuls of Switzerland Switzerland–United States relations American businesspeople