Jerome, 2nd Count de Salis



Jerome de Salis, 2nd Count de Salis- (1709-1794), was sometime British Resident in the  and a. He was also known as: Hieronimus ; Gerolamo ; Geronimo ; Harry ; Jerome the grandfather ; and Monsieur le Comte de Salis.

Origins
On 1709 Salis was born in /Coire, the capital of the Grisons (aka /the Three Grison Leagues//Grischuns). Now a canton at the east end of Switzerland and home to the at , then it was an independent republic: The Grisons Republic. On  he died 84 years later in England, and was buried at, Middlesex on 18 August.

He was the only surviving son of the Envoy Colonel Peter de Salis-Soglio (1675-1749), by his wife Margherita (1678-1747) a daughter of Hercules de Salis-Soglio. An elder sister Margaretha (1704-1765) married a cousin and remained in Chur.

The father, Peter (Pierre or Pietro l'Inviato), was in England as envoy of his ancestral homeland the Grisons to the during the reign of. Through his various diplomatic duties around the time of the (1713) and earlier soldiering in France, the  and England the father saw how green the grass was in London and having made some good and influential friends amongst the Hanoverians there returned home to Chur but resolved instead to send his son to. The son was duely Naturalized by Private Act of Parliament (4 Geo II, cap. 5); the bill, the Naturalization of Hieronimus de Salis, was given Royal Assent and passed into law, by the words Le Roy le veult, on Lady Day Eve, 1730/31.

London
On 1734/35 Jerome (Hieronimus) was married, by, at  to the Hon. Mary Fane (ffane), eldest daughter of Right hon. Charles, first  (I), by his wife Mary (1686-1762) daughter of the envoy hon. Alexander Stanhope (1638–1707), FRS, and sister of soldier-statesman  (1673-1721). Sir Richard Temple (field-marshall and the first and Sir Luke Schaub (sometime secretary to Lord Stanhope then to Lord Cobham) were trustees of the marriage settlement, and a cousin William Stanhope, Lord Harrington, (aka first ) was a signatory.

Salis's wife, Mary Fane who was baptised 18 September 1710, died of (dropsy) 31 March 1785 at Isleworth, aged 74, and was buried at Harlington. Her brother, the second, died without issue and his estates in Berkshire, Armagh and were inherited by her and her surviving sister , who was wife to John Montagu, fourth , First Lord of the Admiralty, Secretary of State, and popularizer of the eponymous snack. (Dried meat being something of a speciality of the Grisons it is possible that it was de Salis who introduced his brother-in-law, Lord Sandwich, to ).

Jerom de Salis Esqr of London was elected a Fellow of the 19 March 1741. His proposers were his wife's cousin Philip, 2nd Earl Stanhope (1714-1786); (late President FRS); Andrew Mitchell (1708-1771); and his brother-in-law,.

Meanwhile, in the early 1730s Salis had stayed in Great Suffolk street, within the liberty of Westminster. From 1740-1745, he is recorded as being the first occupier of a house, still extant, in belonging to the Grosvenor estate; 14 South Audley street (east side), a 34 foot frontage house with a rent of 13 pounds and 12 shillings.

Back in the Grisons
In 1743 he was appointed British , that is to say extraordinary envoy, or minister plenipotentiary, to the Grisons Leagues. He arrived in on April 10 1743 and resided there in a public character till 13 March 1750. During and after his time as British Resident in the Grisons he lived in both Chur and in, which was at that time, along with the (which during the 17th century's  was known as the cockpit of Europe), the Graubunden's subject territory. In the mid 1760s in lieu of rebuilding his father's house on the Piazza Castello in Chiavenna and probably in lieu of having any proper seat to offer his wife in England or Ireland, he started to have built, up the valley at the village of in the Bregalia (Bergell), a decent Anglo-Palladian double-pile summer villa. The house, was completed by his eldest surviving son, in 1774. The Val Bregalia is the 20 mile long valley that runs south from the foot of the to Chiavenna in today's Italy. Not far from Bondo is, the birth place of the.

England again
From his return to London, from the Grisons and its subject territory the Valtelline, in 1768 until his death in 1794 Jerome lived at the Cavendish square end of, the first door on the left-hand from Cavendish square (then no. 1). In the meantime his wife, Hon. Mary de Salis or Donna Maria, then lived in Knightsbridge, Margate, Marseilles, Harlington and finally at Smallborough Green, Isleworth (from 1780).

They had four sons.
 * (1736-1781);
 * the heir (1738-1807);
 * (1740-1810);
 * and William (1741-1750).

The eldest son,, after years of ill-health and living variously in , , and Hieres, died there and was buried in the Convent of the Cordeliers. His mother frequently visited Provence to cure her own low-spirits and patronised the vapeurs theorist M. Pierre Pomme, Medecin consultant du Roi and Docteur en Medecine de l'Universite de. She paid for his Traite des Affections Vaporeuses des deux sexes, 1767, to be translated into English, and arranged for to engrave his portrait (the eventual outcome of this project is not yet clear).

Honours
By Patent dated Vienna 12 March 1748 created Jerome's father Peter, together with his descendants, a  of the  in recognition of (translated): '...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 persude 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...' '...and to his descendants as above this privilege that in future they may be perpetually named called and distinguished by us, and by our successors in the Holy Roman Empire, Emperors and Kings, with the title of Illustrious and Magnificient, High and Well born,...' On 4 April 1809, by Royal License, granted and gave Salis's descendants, of both sexes, those who were Subjects of Our Realm, the right to fully avail themselves of the title of Count of the Holy Roman Empire. The right to use the name of Fane before that of de Salis was granted, by Royal License and Authority as published in the, on 11 December 1835. In the same April 1809 license the same was granted assumption and use of the arms of Count, with the arms, crest and supporters of de Salis, with the quarterings of, Neville,, and.

Salis's great-grandfather Antonio (1609-1682) had with his brothers Rudolph and Friedrich bought the Seigneurie d'Ober Aich and Engishofen in on 10 June 1646. Their father, Giovanni Battista (1570-1638), was a knight of the Order of San Marco (22 August 1603) and in turn his father, another Giovanni Battista a Salis-Soglio (1521-1597), had been invested an hereditary (omnibusque masculis eorum descendent in infinitum creatus) Knight of the Golden Spur (eques auratus) 11 April 1571 by Pope Pius V. Earlier the had also made him a (life) Knight of the Order of St. Mark.

External

 * Salis family described by German Wiki.
 * Salis-Seewis (1762-1834), the minister and poet, Schweizer Dichter, of the Schloss Bothmar, Malans.
 * Rodolphe Salis (1851-1897), of Le Chat Noir on French Wiki.
 * Jean-Rudolf v. Salis (1901-1996), on German Wiki.