Peter Du Cane (22 April 1713 – 28 March 1803), a descendant of

Jean Du Quesne, the elder Jean du Quesne, the elder (died December 1624), also known as Jan or Jehan, was a particularly well-documented Huguenot refugee from Flanders reported to be from Ath in Hainaut, the son of Jean Du Quesne, native of Valenciennes. David Carnegie An ...

and son of

Richard Du Cane Richard Du Cane (13 October 1681 – 3 October 1744) was a British businessman and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1722. Du Cane was the son of Peter Du Cane, the elder and his wife Jane Booth, daughter of Richard Booth ...

, M.P., was a leading 18th century British merchant and businessman . Du Cane amassed great wealth in land and fund holdings, as well as in

marine insurance Marine insurance covers the physical loss or damage of ships, cargo, terminals, and any transport by which the property is transferred, acquired, or held between the points of origin and the final destination. Cargo insurance a sub-branch of mari ...

. He was

High Sheriff of Essex The High Sheriff of Essex was an ancient sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the invasion of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of th ...

in 1744–5, a Director of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

, a Director of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

from 1750 to 1753, vice-president of the London Infirmary, and patron of the vicarage at

Coggeshall Coggeshall ( or ) is a town and civil parish in the Braintree district, in Essex, England, between Braintree and Colchester on the Roman road Stane Street and the River Blackwater. In 2001 it had a population of 3,919. It has almost 300 li ...

where he was lord of the manor. In 1745, he established the family at

Braxted Park Braxted Park, formerly called Braxted Lodge, is a country house in the Queen Anne style set in a landscaped 2,000 acre park near the village of Great Braxted, Essex. In the Domesday Book of 1086, Eudo Dapifer is shown as owner of the manor. All ...

in Essex. In 1735, Du Cane married a wealthy heiress, Mary Norris, the only daughter of Henry Norris (1677–1762) of Hackney, another London businessman and Justice of the Peace with extensive trading interests in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Du Cane's portrait, painted while travelling in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ** Austria-Hungary ** Austria ...

artist

Anton von maron Anton von Maron (8 January 1733 – 3 March 1808, Rome) was an Austrian painter who specialized in portraits. Life and work Maron was born on 8 January 1733, in Vienna, to painter Johann Leopold Maron (1696–1770) and his wife Anna Cathari ...

(1733–1808) hangs in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. In another painting by

Arthur Devis (1712–1787) Arthur Devis (19 February 1712 – 25 July 1787) was an English artist whose father, Anthony, was progenitor of what became a family dynasty of painters and writers. The place of Arthur Devis in art history is generally as painter of the type ...

known as the 'Du Cane Triptych' (1747), the Du Cane family are depicted in the grounds of their house at

. The house itself appears in the middle distance of the central panel depicting the three Du Cane children.

References

1713 births 1803 deaths Directors of the British East India Company High sheriffs of Essex 18th-century English people English businesspeople 18th-century British merchants {{UK-business-bio-1710s-stub