Simon Demetrius Count de Wuits

Simon Demetrius Graf de Wuits (* around 1768 in Poland , Russia or (less likely) in Montenegro ; † after 1828) was (or at least called himself so) Major General (Maréchal-de-Camp), Chamberlain and Privy Councilor of the Polish King Stanislaus II August Poniatowski and since 1790 Knight of the Polish Order of St. Stanislaus . In 1805 he left Hamburg for London , leaving behind debts of at least 477,607 Reichstalers . It seems certain that Count de Wuits a bourgeois impostor was.

Life

Count de Wuits was married three times, the name of the first wife is unknown. The second wife was Sarah Agnes de Courcy Cholmondeley, widowed Countess Bothal (1775-1846). She was married to William Henri Viscount Bothal's first marriage.

King's Bench Prison (1830)

In 1814 signs of a stay in Paris can be seen, where Count de Wuits presumably had his third wife (Jeanne Marie Prat née du Verdier, * approx. 1767 Le-Puy-en-Velay - † August 31, 1817 Paris; first Before she was married to Jacques Nézier Prat). He was a member of the Freemasons in Paris around 1816 , must be in Paris around 1817 (Rue Saint-Nicolas 36, 12th Arrondissement (Reuilly) near Place de la Bastille ) and around 1828 in "Castle" Lachenen near Lier, southeast of Antwerp have lived. He was imprisoned in King's Bench Prison in London for bankruptcy in 1826 and has given his profession as “General in the French Service”.

Count de Wuits on a secret mission

The French princes Comte de Provence (later King Louis XVIII. ) And Comte d´Artois (later King Charles X. ), brothers of the imprisoned French King Louis XVI, who were then living in emigration in Koblenz . In 1792, as a counter-revolution to revolutionary France, had commissioned the “Polish adventurer” de Wuits, “alias Wieski, alias de Wiltz” to “ recruit 4,000 Illyrians for the army of the [French] princes, to embark them to Trieste and from there to Germany "Wieski disappeared with the money and such plans were no longer discussed." In 1793, De Wuits had offered Archduke Karl von Österreich-Teschen , Austrian governor general in Belgium, in vain to set up a free corps to defend the Austrian Netherlands against France. The claim that de Wuits served Napoleon and subsequently lived in different countries such as France, England and Holland after Napoleon's defeat and exile has not been proven. He has mainly been described as a "famous adventurer" and confidant who first made claims to the throne of Montenegro and later placed personal strength and position in an independent Cyprus . Last but not least, he campaigned for Greek independence and was in London in 1824 to arrange a British loan for the Greek revolutionary government as well as for Cyprus. In 1828, Count de Wuits had eight months of secret negotiations with Christopher Hughes, American Chargé d'Affaires in The Hague, about the US taking of a sea port in Cyprus as a foothold in the Mediterranean region.

Acquisition of goods

Count de Wuits acquired Gut Borstel including the Meierhof Grabau in 1803 for 510,000 Reichstaler. According to a convention held in Hamburg on February 4, 1804, the total debt from the Borsteler estate purchase was increased by Rthlr 105,000 through the separation and (back) transfer of the Meierhof Grabau with Hoherdamm to the previous owner Joachim Christoph Janisch . reduced.

Countess Sarah von Bothal, born Baroness de Courcij, “a born Englishwoman”, has “with the assistance of Herr von Occolowitz” with a contract signed in Schwerin on October 31, 1806, the fiefdom of Cölpin (today Kölpin, municipality of Demen ) at a price of 34,500 ⅔ Reichstaler acquired from Moritz Caspar Friedrich von Schuckmann. She never made the down payment of 1,600 ⅔ Reichstaler, which had to be made within four weeks, but exploited the Cölpin estate in the same way as at Gut Borstel. Count de Wuits has also lived in Cölpin since 1808 at the latest, where his son Adolph Hannibal Ludwig was born on January 20, 1809 from his marriage with Countess Sarah von Bothal, presumably in 1808. Countess de Bothal certified with a letter of June 15, 1809, "that the purchase contract that had been concluded with [von Schuckmann] about Colpin canceled and he withdrew Guth." After the bankruptcy of the Lehngut Cölpin opened on October 31, 1812 this was the highest bid of 9.240 ⅔ Rthlr in 1813. auctioned to Herr von Winterfeldt on Stieten.

Son of Caesar Adam Marcus Graf de Wuits

Count de Wuits' son, Caesar Adam Marcus Graf de Wuits, chamberlain of the abdicated Duke Charles II of Braunschweig-Lüneburg , who lived in London, had Catharine Middleton Gwyn officially and ecclesiastically in Paris on November 6, 1828 in the church of the English embassy , Daughter of a Welsh mine owner, married and made a good match (“lady of fortune”).

The son pretended to be “a Mecklenburg count”, “a chamberlain of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Rittmeister of the Austrian cavalry.” He paid almost 200,000 francs for his father's debts in cash and in bills of exchange, around 1834 in London going bankrupt even with £ 10,000 and being briefly jailed in London's Fleet Prison for bankruptcy . He was involved in bankruptcy proceedings several times, which also show that he - perhaps fleeing from his creditors - has lived in an infinite number of places both in mainland Europe and in Great Britain . Like "his whole family, father and brother" - he was "generally decried as a swindler and bankrupt in London ."

children

• Demetrius, born November 1, 1803 in Hamburg, † March 19, 1804 in Borstel (adopted son from the marriage of William Henri Viscount Bothal and Sarah Agnes Viscountess Bothal, nee Courcy Cholmondeley).
• Caesar Adam Marcus, * in Schwerin (or Cölpin); ⚭ on November 6, 1828 in Paris with Catherine Middleton Gwyn, * in London - † December 6, 1841.
• Alexandre Charles Demetrius, * approx. 1807 London - † May 31, 1845 with paralysis in Oberhausen (coming from Brussels); ⚭ January 28, 1843 Saint Luke, Chelsea (London), Middlesex with Harriet Wildes, † April 15, 1864 in Southborough.
• Adolph Hannibal Ludwig, born January 20, 1809 in Cölpin (east of Schwerin).

literature

• Otto Julius Bernhard von Corvin-Wiersbitzki: From the life of a pioneer. Volume 2, Amsterdam 1861, p. 383
• Otto Julius Bernhard von Corvin-Wiersbitzki: Memories from my life. 1880, Volume 2, 3rd edition, Leipzig 1880, p. 215
• Christian Henke: symbol for the counter-revolution; the French emigration to Koblenz and Kurtrier 1789-1792 and the political discussion of revolutionary France 1791-1794. Stuttgart 2000, pp. 266 and 424
• James F. Hopkins (Ed.): The papers of Henry Clay. Volume 8: Candidate, compromiser, Whig, March 5, 1829 - December 31, 1836, Kentucky 1984, p. 397
• Axel Lohr: The history of the Borstel estate up to 1938. Hamburg, 2014 ISBN 978-3-00-046413-3
• Stanisław Łoza: Kawalerowie Orderu Świętego Stanisława 1765-1813. Warsaw 1925, p. 101

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Papers of Henry Clay (lit.), p. 397