Peter Gaussen (1723–1788)[1] was Governor of the Bank of England from 1777 to 1779.
He was born Jean-Pierre Gaussen in Geneva, the son of Paul Gaussen, a French Huguenot, and moved to London in 1739.[2]
He was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England from 1776 to 1777. He replaced Samuel Beachcroft as governor in 1777 (in doing so he became the first foreign-born governor of the Bank of England)[3] and was succeeded in turn by Daniel Booth in 1779.[4] Gaussen's tenure as Governor occurred during the Bengal bubble crash (1769–1784).
On 16 February 1755 he had married his second cousin Anna Bosanquet, the daughter of Samuel Bosanquet.[2][5] Their first son, also Peter, was born on 19 January 1756, their daughter Jane on 24 February 1757, and their son Samuel Robert on 27 February 1759.[6] The eldest son, Peter, was buried in the North choir of St Helen's Church, Bishopsgate on 3 November 1781.[7] Peter himself died on 20 November 1788 and was buried in the chancel of the same church on 28 November.[8][9] A funerary monument depicts a woman, probably Charity, holding a medallion portrait of Peter Gaussen, and with three children below.[10][11]
Their third-born son, Samuel Robert Gaussen (1759–1812) was MP for Warwick (1796–1802)[3] and a collector of the works of prominent landscape painter Paul Sandby.[12] Peter bought Brookmans Manor in Hertfordshire as a gift for Samuel in 1786.[1]
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