Ferdinand de Lesseps - Ancestry

Ancestry

The origins of de Lesseps' family are traceable back as far as the end of the 14th century. His ancestors, it is believed, came from Spain, and settled at Bayonne during the region's occupation by the English. One of his great-grandfathers, Pierre de Lesseps (Bayonne, 2 January 1690 – Bayonne, 20 August 1759), son of Bertrand Lesseps (1649–1708) and wife (m. 18 April 1675) Louise Fisson (1654–1690), was town clerk and at the same time secretary to Queen Anne of Neuberg, widow of Charles II of Spain, exiled to Bayonne after the accession of Philip V, and married on 7 January 1715 his great-grandmother Catherine Fourcade (2 June 1690 – 22 August 1760), by whom he had fourteen children, six of whom died in childhood: Dominique de Lesseps (1715–1794), Pierre de Lesseps (1716 – ?), Marie de Lesseps (1717–1722), Arnaud de Lesseps (1719–1726), Jean-Barthélémy de Lesseps (1720–1795), Marcel de Lesseps (1720–1730), Jean-Pierre de Lesseps (1721–1721), Catherine de Lesseps, Gracy de Lesseps (1725–1791), Plaisance de Lesseps (1727–1735), Michel de Lesseps (1729–1801), married in 1769 to Florence Verdier (1739–1822) (parents of Louise Thérèse de Lesseps (1770–1866), married in 1788 to Mathieu Belland (1764–1817)), Martin de Lesseps (1730–1807), married to Anna Caysergues (1730–1823) and had issue, Jeanne de Lesseps (1733 – ?), married in 1759 to Alexandre Dubrocq, and Etiennette de Lesseps (1735 – ?), married in 1761 to Pierre Simonin.

From the middle of the 18th century the ancestors of de Lesseps followed diplomatic careers, and he himself occupied several diplomatic posts from 1825 to 1849. His uncle was ennobled by King Louis XVI, and his father was made a count by Napoleon I. His father, Mathieu de Lesseps (Hamburg, 4 May 1774 – Tunis, 28 December 1832), was in the consular service; his mother, Catherine de Grévigné (Málaga, 11 June 1774 – Paris, 27 January 1853, was Spanish on her mother's side, and aunt of the countess of Montijo, mother of the empress Eugénie. She was a daughter of Henri Grevigné (baptised Notre-Dame-aux-Fonts, Liège, 2 June 1744) and wife (m. Málaga, 1766) Francisca Antonia Gallegos (1751–1853).