Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00448, Jean Hennessy

Jean Patrick Hennessy (26 April 1874 – 4 November 1944) was a French politician. Hennessy was born at

Cherves-Richemont Cherves-Richemont () is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France. It was formed by the merger of Cherves-de-Cognac (before 1956: ''Cherves'') with Richemont in January 1973.Charente

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

, son of Maurice Hennessy and his wife Jeanne, née Foussat. His family, of Irish origin, were the proprietors of the

Hennessy Jas Hennessy & Co., commonly known simply as Hennessy (), is a French producer of cognac, which has its headquarters in Cognac, France. It is one of the "big four" cognac houses, along with Martell, Courvoisier, and Rémy Martin, who together ma ...

cognac Cognac ( , also , ) is a variety of brandy named after the commune of Cognac, France. It is produced in the surrounding wine-growing region in the departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime. Cognac production falls under French appella ...

business, now part of LVMH. Hennessy was elected to the

French Chamber of Deputies Chamber of Deputies (french: Chambre des députés) was a parliamentary body in France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: * 1814–1848 during the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy, the Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of ...

in the French elections on 1924 for the

Cartel des Gauches The Cartel of the Left (french: Cartel des gauches, ) was the name of the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party, the socialist French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), and other smaller left-republican parties that ...

. In doing so, he continued the tradition begun by his great-grandfather Jacques Hennessy, an

Orléanist Orléanist (french: Orléaniste) was a 19th-century French political label originally used by those who supported a constitutional monarchy expressed by the House of Orléans. Due to the radical political changes that occurred during that cent ...

deputy from 1824 to 1842, and his grand-uncle Auguste Hennessy, senator from 1876 to 1879. Hennessy was re-elected in the election of 1928 and served as agriculture minister from 1928 to 1930, and then as French ambassador to Switzerland. His elder brother

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguati ...

had been elected before him to Parliament as député and senator, but he chose to dedicate himself to the management of the family business. In the 1932 general election Hennessy was defeated by Henri Malet of the

Democratic Republican Alliance The Democratic Alliance (french: Alliance démocratique, AD), originally called Democratic Republican Alliance (, ARD), was a French political party created in 1901 by followers of Léon Gambetta such as Raymond Poincaré, who would be presiden ...

. Out of parliament, he founded the Social-National Party and was elected again as deputy for Alpes-Maritimes, sitting with the Independent Left group in the Chamber of Deputies. On 10 July 1940, at the joint session of the French parliament which granted extraordinary powers to Marshal

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, ) or Marshal Pétain (french: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of Worl ...

, Jean Hennessy and his brother James were part of the 80 parliamentarians who opposed the measure. He had been married to Marguerite de Mun, who bore him two sons, Patrick and Kilian, and a daughter Jacqueline.

Kilian Hennessy Kilian Hennessy (; 19 February 1907 – 1 October 2010) was a French business magnate of Irish extraction, and co-patriarch, with Maurice his first cousin, of the Hennessy cognac company. Kilian Hennessy, the son of Jean Hennessy and Margu ...

(1907-2010) later became chairman of the Cognac business and contributed to its merger into the LVMH group. Jean Hennessy died at

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...

in Switzerland in 1944 where he had lived since 1941.

References

*François Dubasque, ''Jean Hennessy (1874-1944). Argent et réseaux au service d'une nouvelle République'', Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2008.
Jean Hennessy dictionnaire des parlementaires français de 1889 à 1940 (J.Joly)
1874 births 1944 deaths People from Charente French people of Irish descent Politicians from Nouvelle-Aquitaine Republican-Socialist Party politicians Social-National Party (France) politicians French Ministers of Agriculture Members of the 10th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 11th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 12th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 13th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 14th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 16th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic The Vichy 80 Lycée Janson-de-Sailly alumni Recipients of the Military Cross Hennessy family {{France-diplomat-stub