{{Short description|Governor of the Bank of England (1723–1788)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Peter Gaussen | image = | caption = | birth_date = 1723 | birth_place = | death_date = 1788 | death_place = | occupation = Governor | parents = | website = }}
'''Peter Gaussen''' (1723–1788)<ref name="FS">{{cite book |last1=Finn |first1=Margot and Kate Smith eds |title=The East India Company at Home, 1757-1857 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.doa.006 |date=2018 |publisher=UCL Press |location=London |isbn=978-1-78735-028-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/dli.doa.006/page/n292 264]}}</ref> was Governor of the Bank of England from 1777 to 1779.
He was born Jean-Pierre Gaussen in Geneva, the son of Paul Gaussen, a French Huguenot, and moved to London in 1739.<ref name= FF>{{cite book|title=Favourites of Fortune|first= Patrice|last=Higonnet|page=258}}</ref>
He was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England from 1776 to 1777. He replaced Samuel Beachcroft as governor in 1777 (in doing so he became the first foreign-born governor of the Bank of England)<ref name="HOP">{{Cite web|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/gaussen-samuel-robert-1759-1812|title=GAUSSEN, Samuel Robert (1759-1812), of 3 Mansfield Street, Mdx. and Brookmans Park, North Mimms, Herts. {{!}} History of Parliament Online|website=www.historyofparliamentonline.org|access-date=2018-02-23}}</ref> and was succeeded in turn by Daniel Booth in 1779.<ref>[http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/about/pdfs/governors.pdf ''Governors of the Bank of England''.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303211609/http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/about/Documents/pdfs/governors.pdf |date=3 March 2016 }} Bank of England, London, 2013. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303211609/http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/about/Documents/pdfs/governors.pdf Archived here.] Retrieved 6 March 2016.</ref> Gaussen's tenure as Governor occurred during the Bengal bubble crash (1769–1784).
On 16 February 1755 he had married his second cousin Anna Bosanquet, the daughter of Samuel Bosanquet.<ref name= FF/><ref>''The registers of St. Helen's Bishopgate, London'', ed. W. Bruce Bannerman (London, 1904), p.192. [https://archive.org/details/registersofsthel31sthe/page/192/mode/2up]</ref> Their first son, also Peter, was born on 19 January 1756, their daughter Jane on 24 February 1757, and their son Samuel Robert on 27 February 1759.<ref>''The registers of St. Helen's Bishopgate, London'', ed. W. Bruce Bannerman (London, 1904), p.85, 86, 87. [https://archive.org/details/registersofsthel31sthe/page/84/mode/2up]</ref> The eldest son, Peter, was buried in the North choir of St Helen's Church, Bishopsgate on 3 November 1781.<ref>''The registers of St. Helen's Bishopgate, London'', ed. W. Bruce Bannerman (London, 1904), p.393. [https://archive.org/details/registersofsthel31sthe/page/392/mode/2up]</ref> Peter himself died on 20 November 1788 and was buried in the chancel of the same church on 28 November.<ref>Minnie Reddan and Alfred W Clapham, St. Helen's Bishopsgate: Monuments within the church, in ''Survey of London'', Volume 9, the Parish of St Helen, Bishopsgate, Part I (London, 1924), pp. 52-79. [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol9/pt1/pp52-79 British History Online]</ref><ref>''The registers of St. Helen's Bishopgate, London'', ed. W. Bruce Bannerman (London, 1904), p.395. [https://archive.org/details/registersofsthel31sthe/page/394/mode/2up]</ref> A funerary monument depicts a woman, probably Charity, holding a medallion portrait of Peter Gaussen, and with three children below.<ref>Minnie Reddan and Alfred W Clapham, 'Plate 71: St Helen's, Bishopsgate, monuments', in ''Survey of London'', Volume 9, the Parish of St Helen, Bishopsgate, Part I (London, 1924), p. 71. British History Online [https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol9/pt1/plate-71].</ref><ref>Minnie Reddan and Alfred W Clapham, St. Helen's Bishopsgate: Monuments within the church, in ''Survey of London'', Volume 9, the Parish of St Helen, Bishopsgate, Part I (London, 1924), pp. 52-79. [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol9/pt1/pp52-79 British History Online]</ref>
Their third-born son, Samuel Robert Gaussen (1759–1812) was MP for Warwick (1796–1802)<ref name="HOP"/> and a collector of the works of prominent landscape painter Paul Sandby.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hamiltongallery.org/collection/sandby.asp|title=HG :: Hamilton Art Gallery|website=www.hamiltongallery.org|language=en|access-date=2018-02-23|archive-date=22 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171022095825/http://www.hamiltongallery.org/collection/sandby.asp|url-status=dead}}</ref> Peter bought Brookmans Manor in Hertfordshire as a gift for Samuel in 1786.<ref name="FS"/>
==See also== *Chief Cashier of the Bank of England
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links==
{{Governors of the Bank of England}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaussen, Peter}} Category:Governors of the Bank of England Category:1723 births Category:1788 deaths Category:British bankers Category:Deputy governors of the Bank of England Category:People from the Republic of Geneva Category:Immigrants to the Kingdom of Great Britain
{{England-business-bio-stub}}