Jerome, 4th Count de Salis Soglio

Life

Count Jerome was the eldest surviving son of Peter De Salis and his third wife Ann, daughter of Bundespresident Antonio de Salis. His paternal grandfather was Jerome, (2nd) Count de Salis.

Born in Chiavenna 14 February and baptised at Soglio 17 February 1771, he died 2 October 1836 at Dawley Lodge, Harlington, and lies buried in the ancient church of St Peter and St Paul, Harlington, London which was at the time in Middlesex.

In a letter of 1830 he proposed spending the winter in Madeira whence:

'...should the Antichrist appear next year, I can easily get a passage to Chilli... by the dream I had in 1815, or rather a waking vision during an illness I had in Dublin, the application of aerial navigation to military operations will be a sign of the coming of the Antichrist.'

De Salis was a friend of Samuel Wix, the high-churchman, and paid for his Reflections concerning the expediency of a council of the Church of England and the Church of Rome being holden, with a view to accommodate religious differences (1818) to be translated into several languages.

Family

He married three times:

(1) 12 August 1797 (Shirburn Castle): Sophia (1765 – 14 June 1803), daughter of Admiral Francis William Drake (1724–87), brother of Sir Francis Henry Drake, 5th and last Bart. Mother of Petrus Johannes, 5th Count.

(2) 14 March 1807 (Stoke Poges): Penelope (died 20 December 1807), daughter of Dr. Robert Freeman, MD, of Uxbridge. Mother of one daughter.

(3) 10 May 1810 (St. Thomas's, Dublin): Henrietta (Harriet) (9 October 1785 – 26 October 1856), daughter of Rt. Rev. William Foster, DD (1744–97), chaplain to the Irish House of Commons (1780–89), and then variously Bishop of Cork and Ross; Kilmore; and of Clogher. Brother of John Foster, of Collon, county Louth, Baron Oriel, and last Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. She was second cousin to one or two of the children of Lady Bess Foster. John Leslie Foster was her brother.

Early life residences

Chiavenna (1771-

Göttingen

Upper Seymour Street (1791–94)

21 Portman square (c. 1800–1808).

His children were born in

St. Marylebone, Westminster (February 1799, Petrus Johannes);

Langley, Bucks (December 1807, Sophia Juliana Penelope), married William Filgate of Lissrenny, co. Louth. Mother of Charles Roden Filgate;

Dublin (May 1811, Rodolphus Johannes Leslie Hibernicus), Colonel of the 8th Hussars;

St. Marylebone, Westminster (October 1812, (Willy) William Andreas Salicus (Fane));

Dublin (May 1814, (Nina) Catherina Barbara), (see her son John Warren, 3rd Baron de Tabley);

Florence (April 1816, (Leo) Leopold Fabricius (Fabius) Dieteganus), of Cuppacumbalong Homestead, went to New South Wales;

Paris (November 1817, Henrietta Maria Felicitas);

Paris (December 1819, (Johnny) John Jenry Anthony Gubertus) went to India;

Dublin (Dublin 1821, (Charly) Charles Louis Maximilian), Captain the Hon. C. Louis Fane De Salis (d. Pimlico, July 1845);

Bath (13 April 1826, (Hadie) Henrietta Emma Helena), (d.16.8.1863), wife to Col. Challoner, (11.12.1788–26.7.1872); and

Pisa (February 1828, (Harry) Henry Jerome Augustine), of Portnall Park, Virginia Water, formerly Rector of Fringford. (See his fourth son, Charles).

Some events

Appointed Deputy Lieutenant county Middlesex 9 April 1797.

Commissioned as a lieutenant in the Loyal Uxbridge Volunteers (Corps of Yeomanry), 5 September 1803.

In Armagh and Limerick settling Partition of estates with Lord Sandwich, September 1805 – February 1806.

Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, December 1808. His proposers were:

Succeeds his father, 20 November 1807.

Royal Licence to use title Count in the UK granted by George III, 4 April 1809.

Appointed deputy-governor of county Armagh, 21 July 1809.

He was appointed High Sheriff of Armagh in 1810.

Rev. Dr. Henry Jerome de Salis, his uncle dies 2 May 1810.

Patron of the new school at Mullavilly, Laurelvale, Ballylisk, Tandragee, county Armagh, 1811.

Takes 21-year lease on Rokeby Hall, near Dunleer, from 29 April 1822, (550 pounds per annum).

Royal Licence to use the name (& arms) of Fane before that of Salis, 1835.

Ends his translation of all the extant works of St. Cyrillus of Jerusalem, 26 May 1835.

Elected member of the Zoological Society of London, 1836 (probably).

Recumbent figure made by Richard Cockle Lucas, for Harlington church, 1836.

His house has five Carlton gardens, and it was sold with stables March 1845 for 12,600 pounds. The site is now occupied by BAE Systems.

His widow lived at Dawley (near Hillingdon); the Continent; and after 1845 at Mivart's hotel and then its successor Claridge's.

Recumbent figure made of his widow, Henrietta, by William Theed the Younger, for Harlington, 1856.

His brother

Jerome's younger brother: His Excellency, Count Giovanni, aka Graf Johann von Salis, aka John, Count de Salis-Soglio-Bondo (Chiavenna 1776 – Modena 1855) of Bondo, Bregaglia; schloss Sulzberg, San Gallen (a Salis-Zizers house, sold on 2 June 1857 for 160,000 Franks); houses in Monstein and Avers; and the grafliche Salis house in Chur, L'Obere Spaniöl. He converted to Catholicism in Vienna, February 1813. Nearly 20 years later he married Grafin Emilia Elisabetha 'Luisa' (1804–1875), daughter of Feldzugmeister (Comte François) Graf Franz-Simon Fidelis Rudolf von Salis-Zizers (1777–1845), in Coire/Chur, July 1831 or 1832. She became a 'Sternkreuz-Ordens-Dame & Oberhofmeisterin' of the Modena Archduchesses Thereses and Beatrice von Oesterreich-Este. Educated in Chur and Chiavenna and then studying law at Göttingen, John was briefly at the London bar but went back to the Grisons to try to right the wrongs of Napoleon in the Three Leagues and Valtelline. After that he was a Grisons statesman: Bundespräsident of the Gotteshausbund (League of God's House) in 1811, 1813 and 1817; Landammann of the Bregaglia-Sopra-Porta 1816–26. Later he was an Austrian Privy Councilor and from 1836 Minister, 'grand-maitre de la cour', Principal Chamberlain of Their Royal Highnesses the Archdukes Francis IV and Francis V of Modena. A reactionary, supporter of the Ultras, and one of the founders of the 'comite de Waldshut', he was a correspondent with people like von Haller and Senft-Pilsach.