Jerome, 2nd Count de Salis

Jérôme de Salis, 2nd Count de Salis-Soglio (8 July 1709 – 8 August 1794) was a Count de Salis-Soglio. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and sometime British Resident in the Grisons. He was also known as Hieronimus, Gerolamo, Geronimo, Harry, Jerome the grandfather and Monsieur le Comte de Salis.[1] He is the founder of the English branch of the de Salis (or Fane de Salis) family which produced a number of politicians, diplomats, officers and clerics.

Jerome de Salis 2nd Count de Salis-Soglio
Born	8 July 1709
Died	8 August 1794
Spouse(s)	Mary Fane
Children	4

Early life

He was born on 8 July 1709 in Chur, capital of the Grisons, then an independent republic whose rule extended into present-day Italy, including the areas of Chiavenna and the Valtellina. He would be the only surviving son of Colonel Peter de Salis-Soglio (1675–1749), by his wife Margherita (1678–1747), daughter of Hercules de Salis-Soglio.

The de Salis family[2] belongs to the old nobility of the Three Leagues of which they were one of the leading families between the 16th and 18th centuries. They probably descend from the patrician family Salici of Como, Italy, traceable since 1202, and firstly appear in Soglio, Switzerland with ser Rodolfus de Salice de Solio between 1285 and 1293. The Palazzo Salis in Soglio, built in 1630, is still today owned by the Swiss Salis-Soglio family branch, just as the Palazzo Salis in Bondo, Switzerland, which was built by Jerome, is still today owned by the British Salis-Soglio branch. During the Bündner Wirren (Revolt of the Leagues between 1618 and 1639) members of the von Salis family, such as Herkules von Salis-Grüsch (1566–1620) and Ulysses von Salis (1594–1674), stepped on the French-Venetian side, providing mercenary leaders who guarded the Alpine passes, and thus gained considerable influence on the country's fortunes.

His father,[3] of a distinguished branch of his family,[nb 1] had been a soldier in France, in the Dutch Republic and in England, where he became envoy of the Grisons Republic to the Court of St. James's during the reign of Queen Anne. There he became an Anglophile and made influential friends amongst the Hanoverians. On his return to Chur he resolved to send his son to London and Jerome De Salis became a naturalised British subject by private Act of Parliament on 24 March 1730/31.[4]

Cobham and Schaub's signatures on the De Salis – Fane marriage settlement.[5]

On 7 January 1734/35, de Salis married Mary Fane (baptised 18 September 1710), eldest daughter of Charles, the first Viscount Fane. Sir Luke Schaub, Lord Harrington and Lord Cobham were among signatories of the marriage settlement. They were to have four sons: Charles (1736–1781), who died at Hieres; Peter (1738–1807), who became 3rd Count de Salis; Henry Jerome (1740–1810) and William (1741–1750).

De Salis was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 19 March 1741, proposed by Philip, 2nd Earl Stanhope (his wife's cousin), Martin Folkes (former president of the society), Andrew Mitchell, and his brother-in-law, Lord Sandwich.[6] (He may have introduced Sandwich to his native bresaola and hence help to associate his brother-in-law with the sandwich).

Diplomatic service in the Grisons

Palazzo Salis in Bondo, Switzerland

In 1743, de Salis was appointed British Resident. This means he served as King George II's extraordinary envoy or minister plenipotentiary to the Grisons Leagues. He arrived in Coire on 10 April 1743, and resided there in a public character until 13 March 1750.

In 1748, by a patent dated of 12 March Emperor Francis I created his father Peter, together with his descendants, a Count of the Holy Roman Empire; the father died the following year.

During and after his time as British Resident in the Grisons he lived in both Chur and in Chiavenna and, in the mid-1760s, he started to build an Anglo-Palladian double-pile summer villa[7] in Bondo, a village in the Val Bregaglia between Chiavenna and the Maloja Pass. The house was completed by his son Peter in 1774.

_{His wife, the Hon. Mary Fane, Madame de Salis, later Countess de Salis (died 1785)}

Return to London

De Salis returned to London in 1768 and lived in Harley Street until his death on 8 August 1794, at the first door on the left-hand from Cavendish square (then no. 1).[5] In the meantime, his wife lived in Knightsbridge, Margate, Marseilles, Harlington and, from 1780, at Smallborough Green, Isleworth. She died there of dropsy on 31 March 1785 aged 74 and was buried at Harlington, on the same day as her granddaughter, the first of six generations of her family to be buried there.

Ancestors

Jerome de Salis's ancestors in three generations

Jerome de Salis	Peter, 1st Count de Salis-Soglio (1675–1749)	Antonio de Salis-Soglio (1649–1735)	Antonio de Salis-Soglio (Casa Antonio) (1609–82). Brother of Rudolf
			Cornelia de Salis (1624–96). Sister of Margaretha
		Perpetua v. Planta-Zuoz	Peter v. Planta-Zuoz (1617–1703)
			Anna v. Perini
	Margherita v. Salis-Soglio (1678–1747)	Ercole de Salis-Soglio (1650–1727)	Rudolf de Salis-Soglio (Casa di Mezzo) (1608–80). Brother of Antonio
			Cleophea de Salis-Grusch (1622–98)
		Maria Magdalena de Salis-Seewis (1653–97)	Jerome de Salis-Seewis (1621–1710)
			Margherita de Salis (1627–1707). Sister of Cornelia

Notes

1. Salis's great-grandfather Antonio (1609–1682), with his brothers Rudolph and Friedrich, had bought the seigneurie d'Ober Aich and Engishofen in Thurgau on 10 June 1646. Their father was a Knight of the Order of San Marco (22 August 1603) and in turn his father had been invested an hereditary Knight of the Golden Spur on 11 April 1571 by Pope Pius V, omnibusque masculis eorum descendent in infinitum creatus. Earlier the Venetians had also made him a (life) Knight of the Order of St. Mark.

Further reading

• R. de Salis, Quadrennial di Fano Saliceorum, volume one, London, 2003
• Rachel Fane De Salis, De Salis Family : English Branch, Henley-on-Thames, 1934..
• C. de Salis, secretary of the British Salis Family Association.
• Die Zeitschrift Der Kultur, du, Heft Nr. 3, Marz 1989.
• Der Grafliche Hauser, Band XI [volume 11], Genealogisches Handbuch Des Adels, C. A. Starke Verlag, Limburg an der Lahn, 1983 (pps 331–356).
• William Coxe, Travels in Switzerland (London, 1789)

References

1. Der Grafliche Hauser, Band XI [volume 11], Genealogisches Handbuch Des Adels, C. A. Starke Verlag, Limburg an der Lahn, 1983 (pps 331–356).
2. See German article Salis
3. Extract of the 1748 (signed Vienna) diploma enobling his father read: ' ...his famous integrity & prudence whilst in the beginning of this century he gave repeated specimens of his diplomatic skill in his embassies to London and to the Hague, and afterwards being devoted to the most august House of Austria and the public welfare in the year 1741 he rendered vain and fruitless the pernicious project of the French to persuade the Grisons to take their part, & furthermore during this whole time with the most faithful attachment gave himself up to the good cause; & furthermore that his son Jerome for several years minister of England in the Grisons was always attentive to cement the bond, of friendship between the Holy Roman Empire the House of Austria, & the King in whose service he was...' '...Being then fully confident that as well he the said Peter de Salis as well as his son Jerome will not omit an opportunity of distinguishing themselves and of deserving well of us, the Holy Roman Empire, and the most Serene House of Austria; we consider him worthy of giving him some testimony of Our special seal and favour, and of transmitting it to the latest posterity...'
4. "House of Lords Journal, vol. xxiii, March 1731,pp 632 and 649". BHO: British History Online. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
5. Fane de Salis MSS
6. Their citation ran as follows: Jerom de Salis Esqr. of London. A Gentleman of great merit & distinction, being desirous of becoming a fellow of this Honourable Society, we accordingly recommend him as a Person of Learning, well Skill'd in Philosophical & Natural knowledg, and every way qualified to be a usefull and valuable member of the Society. ‘Salis, Jerome de’, Library and Archive catalogue of the Royal Society.
7. "7 – Bondo". Via Bregaglia (in Italian). Consorzio per la Promozione Turistica della Valchiavenna. Retrieved 8 February 2014.

External links