Peter Meyer (merchant)

Grave of Sir Peter Meyer at St. Andrew, Totteridge, London
Grave of Sir Peter Meyer, detail, with his arms (a savage with a club upon his shoulder) and (a variant of) the arms of the Berenberg family (a bear sitting under a tree holding a palm branch in his paws ppr.)

Sir Peter Meyer (born in Hamburg, died 1727 at Poynter's Grove, Totteridge, Hertfordshire (now London)) was a major City of London merchant in the West Indies trade, merchant banker and a co-owner of the leading London international trade firm Meyer & Berenberg. The son of the Hamburg merchant Jacob Meyer, he settled in London, became an English citizen in 1691 and was knighted at St James's Palace on 9 October 1714. He owned plantations on Barbados, a sugar refinery in London and the estate Poynter's Grove in Totteridge.[1][2][3]

In 1697, he was married to his business partner John Henry Berenberg's sister Sarah Anna Berenberg (1665–), a member of the Berenberg family and a descendant of the Amsinck family. His wife was a great-granddaughter of Hans Berenberg (1561–1626), co-founder of Berenberg Bank.[4][5] They were the parents of the London merchant Peter Meyer (died 1756), who married Sarah, Paul Rudolph Meyer, Elizabeth Meyer, who married her relative William Amsinck (who had become an English citizen in 1711) and Sarah Meyer, who married the Hamburg merchant Paul Heeger (died 1731).

He was buried at Totteridge. His monument is in the churchyard of that parish, to the north of the church. At the north end are the Meyer and Berenberg arms.[6]

Arms

These Arms are the Right of Sir Peter Meyer, Knt. and Citizen of London, and his Descendents:

Argent, on a Mount a Savage in a walking Posture, about his Head and Waist Oak Leaves, in his Right-Hand a Club resting on his Shoulder, his Left-Hand on his Hip between two Oaks proper.[7][8]

References

  1. Margrit Schulte Beerbühl, The Forgotten Majority. German Merchants in London, Naturalization, and Global Trade 1660–1815. Berghahn Books, 2014. ISBN 1782384480.
  2. Margrit Schulte Beerbühl, "German Merchants and the British Empire," in John R. Davis, Stefan Manz, Margrit Schulte Beerbühl, Transnational Networks: German Migrants in the British Empire, 1670–1914, Brill Publishers, 2014
  3. Uwe Israel, Michael Matheus, Protestanten zwischen Venedig und Rom in der Frühen Neuzeit, p. 212
  4. "Die Berenberg-Gossler," in: Vierteljahrsschrift für Heraldik, Sphragistik und Genealogie, Vol. 9, 1881
  5. Hamburger Geschlechterbuch, vol. 8, Berenberg, 28
  6. "The Parish of East Barnet", p. 160
  7. Coll. Armor. Lib. VI fol. 252. Mag. Regist.
  8. John Warburton, London and Middlesex Illustrated: By a True and Explicit Account of the Names, Residence, Genealogy, and Coat Armour of the Nobility, Principal Merchants, and Other Eminent Families, C. and J. Ackers, 1749

External links

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