Peter eThellusson (27 June 1735 — 21 July 1797) was a

Genevan , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

businessman and banker who settled in

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 became a British subject in 1762. He amassed a fortune through commerce and, when he died in 1797, he owned more than 4,000 acres of land in England. His descendants built the new

Brodsworth Hall Brodsworth Hall, near Brodsworth, north-west of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, is one of the most complete surviving examples of a Victorian country house in England. It is virtually unchanged since the 1860s. It was designed in the Italianat ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

, which is maintained by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. Thellusson was a member of a

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

family which had fled France for Geneva in the 16th century.John Debrett, ''Debrett's Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland'' 1820:1282-84 His father Isaac had started a bank in Geneva (Thellusson, Necker et Cie) and became the Genevan ambassador to Paris. Peter, with the help of his brother George-Tobie, managed the successful bank in partnership with

Jacques Necker Jacques Necker (; 30 September 1732 – 9 April 1804) was a Genevan banker and statesman who served as finance minister for Louis XVI. He was a reformer, but his innovations sometimes caused great discontent. Necker was a constitutional monarchi ...

, the Thellussons managing the London branch of the bank from 1760 with Necker managing the Paris branch. Both partners became very rich by loans to the treasury and speculation in grain. On 6 January 1760 he married Ann, daughter of Matthew Woodford and sister of Sir Ralph Woodford of

Carlby Carlby is a small village and civil parish in the district of South Kesteven in Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 542. It is located four miles south of Bourne on the A6121 near the Lincolnshire/Ru ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

. Peter started his own finance house in

Philpot Lane Philpot Lane is a short street in London, United Kingdom, running from Eastcheap in the south to Fenchurch Street in the north. It is named after Sir John Philpot, Lord Mayor of London from 1378 to 1379. It is the site of London's smallest pu ...

and in 1761 took British nationality by Act of Parliament. He was also involved in other businesses, becoming a director of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

, part owner of several sugar refineries, and an importer of tobacco and sugar from the West Indies. This role saw him provide loans to slave ship and plantation owners. As these slave owners defaulted on debts, Thellusson amassed interests in Caribbean plantations. The Thellussons continued to own slaves in

Grenada Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...

and

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

until 1820.Madge Dresser and Andrew Hann (ed.): Slavery and the British Country House, 2013
/ref> Thellusson built a large house for himself 'Plaistow Lodge' at

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...

in Kent (Now Bromley Parish CofE Primary School) and in 1790 bought the Brodsworth estate in South Yorkshire (The existing Victorian building was erected in 1861 for Charles Sabine Thellusson, but the original estate was constructed in 1791 for Peter Thellusson. House and gardens now belonging to English Heritage). After his death his substantial estate was embroiled in the Thellusson Will Case, as he had written an unusual will whereby his fortune and estates were put into a trust fund for the benefit of future generations at the expense of his children and grandchildren. The two ultimate beneficiaries, decided by the courts after protracted legal wrangling, were the grandchildren of his eldest son Peter Isaac Thelluson, who was created

Baron Rendlesham Baron Rendlesham, of Rendlesham, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1806 for the businessman Peter Thellusson, who also represented Midhurst, Malmesbury and Bossiney in Parliament. The Thellusson (pronounced "Tellusson") famil ...

in 1806 and one of his other sons, Charles. It is believed that the Thellusson Will case provided the basis for the fictional case of

Jarndyce and Jarndyce ''Jarndyce and Jarndyce'' (or ''Jarndyce v Jarndyce'') is a fictional probate case in ''Bleak House'' (1852–53) by Charles Dickens, progressing in the English Court of Chancery. The case is a central plot device in the novel and has become a ...

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

' novel ''

Bleak House ''Bleak House'' is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode serial between March 1852 and September 1853. The novel has many characters and several sub-plots, and is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and ...

''. Thelluson may also be the inspiration for the Tellsons Bank mentioned in Dickens' ''

A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the ...

''. As a result of the case, legislation, commonly known as the Thellusson Act, was passed to prevent a recurrence of such problems in the future.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thellusson, Peter Bankers from the Republic of Geneva 1737 births 1797 deaths 18th-century British businesspeople British slave owners Plantation owners