Charles de Salis

This article is about the count. For the bishop, a many times great-nephew, see Charles de Salis (bishop).
Letter from Charles to his father, 1771
Salis crest, Bellona
Das Altes Gebau in Chur. The house his grandfather built c1728

Charles de Salis, was born 25 July 1736 in the Parish of St. James, Westminster and died sine prole, Hieres, Provence, July 1781.

He was the eldest son of Jerome, Count de Salis-Soglio by his wife Mary, daughter of Charles, 1st Viscount Fane.

After some schooling with his younger brothers (Peter, Henry and William) in his father's ancestral homeland, the Grisons Republic, he was at Eton from 1747, where he was one of the c250 pupils there at the time. He travelled abroad 1757-1760, the tour included: Lausanne (university); Northern Italy; Rome; Naples; Coire; Paris; Turin; and Holland.

His maternal uncle, 2nd Lord Fane (an Opposition/Bedford Whig), had been one of the two Members of Parliament (MPs) for Reading 1754-1761. In 1761 de Salis stood in his place, but having been admitted a Freeman/Burgess of the Corporation of Reading on 4 March 1761 he was well beaten at the poll on 25 March 1761. De Salis had 258 votes, whereas the elected candidates polled 396 and 355.

Apart from returning to execute his uncle's will in 1766, he subsequently lived in Provence; at Arles, Salon, Nîmes and Hieres (also spelt: Hyères), where he died and was buried at the Convent des Cordeliers in 1781.

On 6 April 1764 Charles' contemporary Edward Gibbon wrote in his diary whilst in Laussanne: De Salis d'une indifférence qui vient plus d'un défaut de sensibilité que d'un excès de raison.[1][2]

He seems to have shared with his mother, maternal-grandmother (Mary Stanhope), and to a greater degree his maternal-aunt a prediliction for the vapours. De Salis and his mother both received treatment in Provence to cure their own low-spirits from the vapeurs theorist M. Pierre Pomme, Medecin consultant du Roi and Docteur en Medecine de l'Universite de Montpellier.[3] She paid for Dr. Pomme's Traite des Affections Vaporeuses des deux sexes, 1767,[4] to be translated into English, and arranged for William Sharp to engrave his portrait (the eventual outcome of this project is not yet clear).[5]

Ancestors

Charles de Salis's ancestors in three generations
Charles de Salis Father:
Jerome, Count De Salis		 Paternal Grandfather:
Peter, Count de Salis-Soglio		 Paternal Great-Grandfather:
Antonio de Salis-Soglio
Paternal Great-grandmother:
Perpetua v. Planta-Zuoz
Paternal Grandmother:
Margherita v. Salis-Soglio		 Paternal Great-Grandfather:
Hercules v. Salis-Soglio
Paternal Great-Grandmother:
Maria Magdalena v. Salis-Seewis
Mother:
Hon. Mary Fane		 Maternal Grandfather:
Viscount Fane		 Maternal Great-Grandfather:
Sir Henry Fane, KB
Maternal Great-Grandmother:
Elizabeth Southcott
Maternal Grandmother:
Mary Stanhope		 Maternal Great-grandfather:
Hon. Alexander Stanhope
Maternal Great-Grandmother:
Catherine Burghill

References

  1. ↑ Translates as: De Salis [has] an indifference that comes more from a lack of sensitivity due to excess [of grape]., quoted from: The Life of Edward Gibbon, by Rev. H. H. Milman, Paris, 1840, page 125.
  2. ↑ It is possible that Gibbon is referring to Charles' brother Peter.
  3. ↑ http://www.biusante.parisdescartes.fr/sfhm/hsm/HSMx1977x011x001_2/HSMx1977x011x001_2x0060.pdf
  4. ↑ German Wikipedia article on Pomme
  5. ↑ Fane de Salis MSS

printed (History of Parliament, GEC, VCH), manuscript & family knowledge

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