Desmercières, Jean Henri

Born 8.5.1687 in Paris. Died 1778 in Copenhagen. Buried initially at the Reformist Church (both French and German) in Gothersgade, Copenhagen, and was later moved to Flemhude Church (BioLek III) (Janssen, 2014)

Family Father: Huguetan, Jean Henri, a book merchant and later bankier (Desmercières was an illegitimate child). The construction of his name Jean Henri came from his father's names, and the Desmercières allegedly came from his mistress who worked as a fashion designer in Rue des Merciers in Paris. His father did not deny his kinship with Desmercières, but he did not wish for his son to inherit his own huguenot surname (Janssen, 2014)

Mother: ?

Marriage: 1751, to Elisabeth Sophie Friis of the old nogle family, Friis. They never had any children, Desmercières was 64 years old at the time of their marriage.

Timeline

1720: Given a position to lean the trade at his father's business enterprise in London (Janssen, 2014). After this time, Desmercières spent some time in Berlin as chamberlain to Frederik Wilhelm I (Janssen, 2014)

1727: Konferensraad (BioLek III)

1736: His father provided Desmercières with a place as deputy in Kommercekollegiet in Denmark (BioLek III)

1745: Gehejmeraad with the title of excellency (BioLek III) (Janssen, 2014)

1736-1767: Worked for Kommercekollegiet, including a brief period as president (i.e. minister of finance) (January to March 1767). He was given responsibiliy for the area of fishing, but had a keen interest in banking and the trading companies (BioLek III) (Janssen, 2014)

1751: Established the connection for the marriage between Bernstorff and Charitas Emilie von Buchwald from Holstein (Janssen, 2014)

1755: Gehejmekonferensraad

1776: Enobled (BioLek III)

Property

1743-1764: Owned the Emkendorf estate near Kiel, amongst others.Emkemdorf was a very large estate that comprised more than 5000 hectar of land (BioLek III) (Janssen, 2014)

Desmercières owned shares in Asiatic Company. Partial in the establishment of the African Company in 1755. Partial in the establishment of Kurantbanken (BioLek III) (Janssen, 2014) His large inheritance at 440.688 Rigsdaler was left to a fideicommis to both his nieces, Marguerite de Monteleone, the Countess Knuth on Fyn and Anna de Monteleone, the princess Reuss in Schleswig Holstein (Janssen, 2014). In his testament, he had decided to grant 200.000 Rigsdaler to the Reformist Churches in Copenhagen and Fredericia (Janssen, 2014)