Person:Peter Cassanet (2)

France

Peter Vincent Cassanet's origins have yet to be established with any clarity. The ages he gave as an adult suggest he was born around 1761, and all sources which mention his origins agree that he was French. However, all confirmed sightings of him are from after he moved to England, with his first sighting there being in 1798.

Some clues as to Peter's early life were later recounted by others, but they have to be treated with caution as they have high potential for errors or exaggerations. One of Peter's pupils, John Hodgkin (1800-1875), gave a brief description of Peter, noting that "Cassanet was born in Brittany and brought up for the priesthood, but he had left his homeland and religion at the outbreak of the French Revolution and settled in England, where he raised a family of his own [and] became a tutor to young English boys...". John Hodgkin's brother, Thomas Hodgkin (1798-1866) (the doctor after whom Hodgkin's Disease was named) was also taught by Peter. When Thomas Hodgkin died in 1866 an obituary address was read at the Ethnological Society of London, which mentions how Peter was "...a Frenchman, who was not only master of his own language, but who had a particular facility in writing elegant Latin, both in prose and verse, to whom principally Dr Hodgkin owed the purity of his Latin style, and his facility in French, both as a written and a spoken language...".

Peter's grandson, Peter Vincent Timothy, writing as an old man in 1910 to his own daughter, agreed that Peter Vincent Cassanet had originally intended to join the church, but adds that Peter was from a noble family, describing him as the "Visconte de Cassanett", and claiming that he had fought in the war in the Vendée in 1793 on the royalist side against the forces of the revolutionary government based in Paris. The Vendée region on the west coast of France was immediately south of Brittany's ancient borders, supporting the notion that Peter was from that area of France.

Peter's great-grandson, Frederick William Donald Timothy (who used the stage name Donald Cassinette Cornwallis), later toured Australia in the first half of the twentieth century with a stage show in which he recounted how his ancestor had been the "Count de Cassinette" and a close friend of King Louis XVI, who had fled France to escape death by the guillotine, and how even once in England he still had to evade assassination by "the revolutionary agents who infested England". Doubtless this version of the story was embellished for the purposes of making a good show. Nevertheless, it is clear that stories about Peter's French background pervaded through the family for many years.

Only one record from France mentioning Peter has been found. Following the July Revolution of 1830 in France, in which Charles X was overthrown and Louis Philippe installed as king, the French civil list was revised. It appears that laws were passed in March and December 1831 detailing who was entitled to a pension from the French government under the civil list of the pre-revolutionary Ancien Régime. Many of those who were entitled to payments had not claimed them by the end of 1832, and a list was published in 1833 of those who had not claimed their pensions, along with the reasons. One such person was "Pierre-Vincent Cassanet", who had been entitled to a pension of just over a thousand francs, but had not claimed it as he was an émigré. The list does include titles for some of the people on it, so the fact that Pierre-Vincent Cassanet is listed without a title strongly suggests that he did not have one. However, the fact that he was entitled to a pension on the civil list at all does support the notion that he was from a noble family. Moreover, the pension to which he was entitled was relatively substantial. The vast majority of pensions set out in the 1833 list were for amounts in the tens or hundreds of francs. Whilst there were some pensions in the thousands of francs, they were the minority. Some of those entitled to thousand franc pensions did have titles: the Comte de Caumont and the Baron de Castellane-Mazague, for example, each had pensions of 1,000 francs.

It is also worth noting that Peter's work once in England was based around him being a mathematician and linguist, being particularly noted for his Latin teaching, suggesting that he must himself have had a good education.

England

Whilst the precise circumstances of Peter's departure from France remain unclear, it is clear that he left France and settled in England. Like many French émigrés at the time, he settled in the London area. It is likely that he only anglicised his name from Pierre to Peter on arrival in England.

In England, Peter started a relationship with a woman called Ann Dean. They had a son, also called Peter, born in March 1795, and a daughter called Mary born in April 1798. Peter and Mary were baptised together in November 1798 at the church of St Giles Cripplegate in London. That double baptism in 1798 is the first documentary evidence specifically naming Peter which has yet been found, although it does also imply that Peter and Ann must have got together prior to mid 1794. Presumably therefore Peter was in England by 1794 at the latest. The baptism record also describes Peter as being a teacher of mathematics.

Peter and Ann did not actually marry until 1799. They married on 19th August 1799 at St Leonard's Church in Shoreditch, just outside the City of London to the north-east. Peter signed the marriage register, although Ann merely marked it, suggesting she was illiterate.

After their marriage, Peter and Ann had another daughter, Jane, baptised back at St Giles Cripplegate in London in 1800. Shortly afterwards they moved a couple of miles north-east to Bethnal Green in Middlesex, in London's growing suburbs but outside the city boundaries. Baby Jane died there in 1801, when she was just under a year old.

Peter and Ann named their next daughter Jane too, who was born in 1803 at Bethnal Green. Four more children followed, all baptised at Bethnal Green: John Vincent in 1804, Sarah in 1806, Emma in 1808, and Eliza in 1810. The youngest, Eliza, died when she was only five months old.

Peter supported himself by working as a tutor. As well as being described as a teacher of mathematics on some of his children's baptism records, he was described as a teacher of languages and a linguist on his son John's marriage records. Two of Peter's students were Thomas and John Hodgkin. They were the sons of a Quaker couple called John and Elizabeth Hodgkin. Peter was clearly a significant part of their lives and a good teacher to them, being mentioned in Thomas's obituary and in an autobiographical account written by John.

Peter's eldest son married in 1816, and Peter's first grandchild was born in 1818.

Peter continued to have associations with the Hodgkin family, long after the two boys had grown up, and they referred to him as a warm friend. When Thomas Hodgkin spent a year studying in Paris in 1821-1822, one of Peter's relatives, "F. Cassanet", helped Thomas improve his French. This suggests that Peter had relatives in or near Paris, and that he had managed to stay in touch with them despite his having emigrated to England.

In 1822-1823, when Thomas Hodgkin was a student at Edinburgh University, drafts of his dissertation were regularly sent back and forth between Edinburgh and the Hodgkins' home in Tottenham, just north of London, with Peter helping with advice and corrections on the Latin (dissertations had to be in Latin at the time). Thomas's dissertation was apparently commended for the excellence of the Latin prose. When John Hodgkin junior had children of his own, he asked Peter to be a tutor to them too, "desiring for them a classical education as good as his had been".

Peter's eldest son and his wife and son emigrated to America in 1828, although they left a daughter behind, presumably being looked after by family.

After the Reform Act of 1832 the number of people allowed to vote in Britain substantially increased, and electoral registers were kept of those eligible to vote. Peter was listed in each register from 1835 to 1840 at Goldsmith's Row in Shoreditch, a street off Hackney Road, near the border between the parishes of Shoreditch and Bethnal Green.

Peter's wife Ann died in 1837. She was said to be 72 years old. She was buried at St Giles Cripplegate in London on 15th January 1837.

Peter does not appear in the electoral registers again after 1840. He left Goldsmith's Row and moved in with his daughter Sarah and her husband and children. They lived at 2 Wood Street (later renamed Rossington Street) at Upper Clapton, in the parish of Hackney. Peter appears living there with them in the 1841 census.

In 1845, John Hodgkin senior died. In his will, he left a bequest of nineteen guineas to "my friend Peter Vincent Cassanet".

Peter died at 2 Wood Street on 17th June 1848. He was said to be 88 years old. He had lived to see at least 33 grandchildren born in his lifetime, although some had died young. He was also a great grandfather. He was buried at Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 England. 1841 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class HO107; Piece 700; Book 11; Folio 7; Page 8, 6 Jun 1841.

   Address: Wood Street, Hackney, Middlesex
   John Field, male, 25 [1811-16], Carpenter, not born in county
   Sarah Field, female, 30 [1806-11], born in county
   Sarah Field, female, 3 [1837/8], born in county
   John Field, male, 8 months [1840], born in county
   Ann Payne, female, 12 [1828/9], F[emale] S[ervant], born in county
   Peter Cassanet, male, 79 [1761/2], Ind[ependent], French

2. ↑ Death register, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).

   Superintendent Registrar's District of the Hackney Union / Registrar's District Stamford Hill
   1848 DEATHS in the District of Stamford Hill in the County of Middlesex
   No.	When and where died	Name and surname	Sex	Age	Occupation	Cause of death	Signature, description and residence of informant	When registered	Signature of registrar
   386	Seventeenth June 1848 2 Wood Street, Upper Clapton	Peter Vincent Cassanet	Male	88 years [1759/60]	Independent	Bronchitis a few days Certified	Emma Martin Present at the death Whitewell, Herts	Twenty Second June 1848	John William Montaigne, Registrar

3. ↑ Abney Park Cemetery Registers, accessed 21 Mar 2020.

   bur. 25 Jun 1848, Abney Park Cemetery, grave 3319: Peter Vincent Cassanet, aged 88 [1759/60]

   Peter's daughters Mary and Sarah, and some of Sarah's grandchildren, would later be buried in the same grave.

4.   Liste générale des pensionnaires de l'ancienne liste civile, avec l'indication sommaire des motifs de la concession de la pension, Google Books, accessed 22 Mar 2020
   Imprimerie royale, 1833, Paris, page 86, 1833.
   Les indications qui font connaitre quels sont ceux des Pensionnaires qui n'ont point touche les secours accordes par les lois des 15 mars et 23 december 1831, resultent de la situation des payements effectues au 1er december 1832
   [Indications of which pensioners have not touched the relief granted by the laws of 15 March and 23 December 1831, based on payments actually made by 1 December 1832]
   

   Nos d'ordre.	NOMS ET PRÉNOMS des PENSIONNAIRES	MOTIFS de LA CONCESSION DES PENSIONS	MONTANT des PENSIONS.	OBSERVATIONS
   2,111.	CASSANET (Pierre-Vincent)	Émigré	1,000f 30c

5.   London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1965 (London Metropolitan Archives).

   1835: Cassnett, Peter / House / 1, Goldsmith's-row, St. Leonard Shoreditch
   1836: Cassnet, Peter / House / 26, Goldsmith's-row, St. Leonard Shoreditch
   1837: Cassnet, Peter / House / 26, Goldsmith's-row, St. Leonard Shoreditch
   1839: Cassanet, Peter / House / 27, Goldsmith's-row, St. Leonard Shoreditch
   1840: Cassanet, Peter / House / 27, Goldsmith's-row, St. Leonard Shoreditch

6.   Church of England. Province of Canterbury. Prerogative Court. Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Probate Records, 1384-1858
   Piece 2026.

   I John Hodgkin of Tottenham in the County of Middlesex hereby revoke all my former Wills and declare this to be my last Will I appoint my two dear sons Thomas Hodgkin doctor of Medicine & John Hodgkin junior Barrister Executors of this my Will I bequeath the following pecuniary Legacies duty free (namely)... to my friend Peter Vincent Cassanet nineteen guineas...
   Will written: 19 Nov 1839
   Proved: 5 Nov 1845 at London

7.   Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London
   Volume 5, page 341, 1867.

   Obituary of Thomas Hodgkin, M.D. By RICHARD KING, M.D.
   [Read June 12th, 1866.]
   …Dr. Hodgkin was born on the 17th August, 1798, at Pentonville, then a beautiful village detached from London. He was educated by father, a sound classic and mathematician, assisted by Peter Vincent Cassanet, a Frenchman, who was not only master of his own language, but who had a particular facility in writing elegant Latin, both in prose and verse, to whom principally Dr. Hodgkin owed the purity of his Latin style, and his facility in French, both as a written and a spoken language…

8.   Extract from letter to Constance Mabel Timothy from her father Peter Vincent Timothy dated 20th April 1910 from 33 South Quay, Great Yarmouth.
   20 Apr 1910.

   "Peter Vincent Cassannett, the Visconte de Cassannett, was a Frenchman of Noble Family - a great scholar of Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
   He was intended for the Church but became a soldier and leader in the Vendean Army on the Kings side and when defeated by the Republicans he fled to England and received a pension from the Pitt government until the Peace of Amiens. We all loved him, he was in my opinion a model of a man - a gentleman and a Christian, of immense physical strength - mental excellence and gentle as a child."

   This quote is attached to several member trees on Ancestry.com - the original letter's whereabouts are unknown.

9. ↑ Perfecting the World: The Life and Times of Dr. Thomas Hodgkin 1798-1866 Amalie M. Kass & Edward H. Kass (1988, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York)
   1988.

   Key points relevant to Peter Vincent Cassanet:
   
   Page 6:
   “The Hodgkins chose to educate their sons at home. There were no Quaker day schools near Pentonville and the Hodgkin parents deemed the few Quaker boarding schools too risky… Therefore, Peter Vincent Cassanet was engaged to supplement the lessons that Elizabeth and John, Sr., provided, and he came to Pentonville several times each week to instruct the boys in Latin and French. “His peculiarly lucid method of teaching, remarkably adapted to children… and practical knowledge of grammar, especially of idiom and formation of style” were highly regarded by the parents and the sons.”
   
   Page 92:
   In a chapter on the year 1821-1822 that Thomas Hodgkin spent in Paris whilst a student:
   “He regretted that he was not becoming more fluent in French and began to take lessons from F. Cassanet, a relative of his former tutor.”
   
   Page 112:
   “The completed dissertation won much praise… The excellence of the Latin prose also received commendation; this was no accident. The author had buttressed his own practised Latin with advice and corrections from the devoted and capable classicists in his family and among their friends. Throughout the winter and spring [of 1822-1823], drafts of the dissertation had shuttled between Edinburgh and Tottenham. The two John Hodgkins made revisions and verified quotations, while Elizabeth copied and recopied, their task made additionally troublesome “by the illegibility of the writing” in the original manuscripts. P.V. Cassanet and William Henry Burton, John Jr.’s friend and fellow law student, assisted with the final rendition, working as zealously as did the three Hodgkins.”
   
   Page 528 (in the Notes):
   “Cassanet was born in Brittany and brought up for the priesthood, but he had left his homeland and religion at the outbreak of the French Revolution and settled in England, where he raised a family of his own, became a tutor to young English boys and a warm friend of the Hodgkins. Thirty years later John Hodgkin, Jr., engaged Cassanet to teach his own sons, desiring for them a classical education as good as his had been. In 1845 Cassanet received a small legacy under the will of John, Sr.”
   The source material for this note is given as an autobiography by John Hodgkin junior (1800-1875), brother of the physician. The notes describe it as belonging to members of the Hodgkin family of Ilmington, Warwickshire, descendants of John Hodgkin junior.

10.   The Mail (Adelaide, South Australia)
    Page 6, Saturday 3 Mar 1917.

    DONALD CORNWALLIS.
    The romance of a very old name clings about Donald Cornwallis, the English elocutionist who is present a novel bioscope story act at the Majestic. His father's grandfather was the Count de Cassinette, a French noble who fled to England in the dreadful days of the French revolution, and there adopted the name of Cornwallis, that of the English family into which his sister married.

11.   Traralgon Record (Traralgon, Victoria)
    Page 3, Friday 8 Oct 1920.

    An Interesting Visitor
    A well known society entertainer, Mr. Donald Cornwallis, one of England's leading elocutionists, and a moving picture producer of some note, is at present on a visit to Traralgon. Mr Cornwallis, who has had the honor of appearing before the King, and also before nearly every royal family in Europe, is a descendant of two historical families, one English and one French, and around which hangs a romantic story. Born in 1870 a few miles from London, at Eltham, in Kent, Mr. Cornwallis is of English nationality, but his father's grandfather was the Count de Cassinette, who at the time of the French Revolution, was a close friend of King Louis of France and was compelled to flee to England to escape death by the guillotine. The then Count de Cassinette's sister having married into the English Cornwallis family, he adopted that name to escape assassination by the revolutionary agents who infested England. Thus Mr. Cornwallis is in reality the Count de Cassinette...

    Donald Cornwallis was the stage name of Frederick William Donald Timothy, son of Augustus Frederick Timothy, son of Jane Cassanet, daughter of Peter Vincent Cassanet. Donald Cornwallis appears to have made a living touring Australia in the early 20th Century, often giving speaking engagements based around his illustrious ancestor. It is highly likely the stories were embellished for the entertainment of the audience. Cornwallis also had a reputation as a fraudster, several times being caught securing money from people under a false promise to find them employment on the stage or in the movies. No marriage of a Mr Cornwallis to a Miss Cassanet who might be a sister of Peter Vincent has yet been found.

12. ↑ .

    https://rechercher.patrimoines-archives.morbihan.fr/ark:/15049/vta62b4fe1d6408aead/daogrp/0/28