Francis Jenison

Count Francis von Jenison zu Walworth ( Francis Jenison) JP (20 January 1732 – 30 June 1799), was a British landowner who settled in the Electoral Palatinate.

Early life

Jenison was born on 20 January 1732 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was baptised into a prominent English Catholic family at Heighington in County Durham. He was a son of John Jenison (d. 1759) and Elizabeth ( Sandford) Jenison (d. 1773) of Low Walworth, in County Durham. His brothers John and James both became a Jesuit priests and Francis inherited the family estate.

His paternal grandparents were John Jenison (a great-grandson of Thomas Jenison of Walworth Castle and Sir Thomas Gerard of Bryn) and Sarah ( Williams) Jenison, of Hereford. His maternal grandfather was Francis Sandford of Twemlow.

Career

Jenison served as a Justice of the Peace of County Durham and was an officer in the Dragoons. He sold the family estate, Low Walworth, and retired to the continent, settling in Heidelberg in 1775 where he became Chamberlain (office), Chamberlain to the Elector Palatine Prince Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, Charles Theodore (who also became Elector of Bavaria in 1777 upon the death of his 12th cousin, once removed, Prince Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, Maximilian III Joseph).

In 1791, he was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire.

Personal life

On 10 September 1758, Jenison was married to Charlotte Smith (1744–1803), the London born daughter of Alexander Smith. Together, they lived in the family mansion at Low Walworth and were the parents of:

* Charlotte Jenison (b. 1759), who married Count Alexander Zimmermann, a Lt.-Gen. in the Army of the Two Sicilies, Neapolitan Army.
* Francis Jenison (b. 1760), a twin who died in infancy.
* Henry Jenison (b. 1760), a twin who died in infancy.
* Harriet Jenison (b. 1761)
* Franz von Jenison-Walworth, Francis "Franz" von Jenison-Walworth (1764–1824), who served as Chamberlain to the King of Württemberg; he married Baroness Charlotte von Cornet. They divorced and he married Anne ''Mary'' Beauclerk, a daughter of Topham Beauclerk (a great-grandson of King Charles II of England, Charles II) and Lady Diana Beauclerk, Lady Diana Spencer (a daughter of the Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough , 3rd Duke of Marlborough), in 1797. Before their marriage, Mary had four sons with her half-brother, George St John, 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke.
* John Jenison (b. 1765), who died young.
* Winifred Jenison (b. 1767), who married Count Alexander von Westerholt.
* Octavia von Jenison-Walworth (–1820), who married Dutch Baron François van Zuylen van Nievelt, who had settled in Kingdom of Bavaria, Bavaria; she became lady-in-waiting to the Palatine Zweibrücken, Duchess of Zweibrücken and the Duchess Therese of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Princess of House of Thurn und Taxis, Thurn und Taxis.
* Susan von Jenison-Walworth (1770–1839), who married Count Franz von Spreti, son of Count Sigismund von Spreti (a son of Count Hieronymus von Spreti and Baroness Maria Caroline Charlotte von Ingenheim). After his death in 1791, she married William Robert Spencer, the younger son of Lord Charles Spencer (a younger son of the Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, 3rd Duke of Marlborough), in 1791.Mosley, Charles, editor. ''Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes.'' Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999, volume 2, pps. 1867-1868.
* Frances Clementina Jenison (b. 1772), who died unmarried.
* Catherine Jenison (b. 1773), who died in infancy.
* Rudolf von Jenison-Walworth (b. 1776)
* Carl Friedrich von Jenison-Walworth (1777–1843)
* Carl Theodor von Jenison-Walworth (1779–1802)

Count von Jenison died in Heidelberg on 30 June 1799. His widow died in Heidelberg on 2 December 1803.

Descendants

Through his son Franz's first marriage, he was a grandfather of Franz Oliver von Jenison-Walworth (1787–1867), a Bavarian politician and diplomat. Through Franz's second marriage, he was a grandfather of another two boys, only one who survived to adulthood, and four girls, the youngest of whom was Countess Emilie (or Amelia) von Jenison-Walworth, from whom descended the princes of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, and through them, other German royalty.

Through his daughter Susan's second marriage, he was a grandfather of Louisa Georgina Spencer (wife of Edward Joseph Canning),Edmund Lodge, compiler, ''The Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire'' (London, U.K.: Hurst and Blackett, 1859) Aubrey Spencer (the first Diocese of Newfoundland#Bishops, Bishop of Newfoundland), William Spencer (born 1796), William Spencer (who married Frances Garland), Harriet Caroline Octavia Spencer (who had an illegitimate child with the George Spencer-Churchill, 6th Duke of Marlborough, 6th Duke of Marlborough before marrying her cousin, Karl Theodor von Westerholt),Marquis Ruvigny, ''Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal, being a complete table of all the descendants now living of Edward III, King of England: Essex Volume'' (Baltimore, Maryland, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1907), p.89. and George Spencer (bishop), George Spencer (the second Diocese of Madras of the Church of South India, Bishop of Madras who married Harriet Theodora Hobhouse, daughter of Sir Benjamin Hobhouse, 1st Baronet).John Goldworth Alger, J. G. Alger, ''rev.'' S. C. Bushnell, "Spencer, William Robert", in ''The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, eds. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), vol. 51, p. 899.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jenison, Francis

1732 births
1799 deaths
People from County Durham (before 1974)
Counts of the Holy Roman Empire
Chamberlains
Counts of Jenison-Walworth
Immigrants to the Holy Roman Empire
British emigrants