DEVISME, LOUIS (1720-1776)

DEVISME, LOUIS (1720-1776), diplomatist, third son of Phillippe de Visme, a Huguenot, of distinguished family, who fled from Normandy to England after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, was born on 25 Sept. 1720. He was educated at Westminster School, and proceeded thence to Christ Church, Oxford, where he took the B.A. degree in 1743 and his M.A. in 1746. Being destined for the church he was ordained a deacon, but abandoned that career for the diplomatic service. In 1763, a few months after the second Catherine's accession to the throne of Russia, Devisme was appointed secretary to the British embassy at St. Petersburg. His next appointment was as minister plenipotentiary to the electorate of Bavaria. He was afterwards the representative of England at the diet of Ratisbon, and finally he succeeded Sir John Goodrich as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at Stockholm, where he died, un-married, on 4 Sept. 1770. Frederick the Great of Prussia allowed him, as a proof of esteem, to bear the Prussian eagle as a crest. Devisme's character for penuriousness peeps out in Lady Minto's ‘Memoir of Hugh Elliot,’ whose predecessor he was at the court of Munich (1775). ‘He had no secretary, contenting himself with a boy who understood no language but his own, merely to [p.449] copy for him.’ He was also apparently shocked at Elliot’s extravagance in giving a hundred louis to the widow of a kind friend, Baron garny (Mem. of Elliott, pp.45,46).

[[Welch’s Alumni Westmonasterienses (1852), p.320; Oxford Graduates; Burkes Commoners iv. 321; Memoir of Hugh Elliott, by the Countess of Minto (1868).]

R. H.

Dictionary of National Biography volume 14

A ALAMEDA DE S. DOMINGOS DE BEMFICA

Quasi em frente dos pórticos e pavilhoes da quinta las Larangeiras vem desembocar um caminho estreito, que couduz á alameda de S. Domingos de Bemfica¡ por entre as quintas de sua alteza a sra. infanta D. Isabel Maria, e do sr. marquez de Fronteira.


A Alemeda de S. Domingos de Bemfica é pequena, mas agradavel, porque a povóam arvores copadas e annosas, e porque a guarnecem, por um lado o palacio e jardim d'aquelle fidalgo, e por outro os arvoredos da quinta de sua alteza, que fazem sombra a uma fonte publica, e á entrada principal do seu palacio, e em seguida a egreja e extincto convento dos dominicos. É celebre este logar das cercanías de Lisboa pela feira de arraial que ahi se faz durante o mez de maio, com grande concurrencia de povo aos domingos.

Ex Libris Gerard De Visme

VALÉRIO MÁXIMO, séc. 1 Valerii Maximi Dictorum factorumque memorabilium libri IX : annotationibus in usum studiosae juventutis, instar commentarii illustrati / operâ et industriâ Johannis Min-Ellii. - Roterodami : ex Officina Arnoldi Leers, 1662. - [24], 554, [22] p. ; 14 cm Marca de impressor na página de título Texto e glosa. - Ass.: *//12, A-Z//12, Aa//12 Picos de traça. - Encadernação em pele castanha marmoreada, lombada profusamente gravada a ferros dourados e rótulo de título vermelho; corte vermelho. - Incompleto faltam as últimas páginas Pertence ms.: Ex-libris de G. de Visme

Letter received by Banks from Francis Masson, 17 March 1783

Author:
Masson, Francis, 1741-1805
Date:
17 March 1783
Series title:
Series 13: Correspondence, being mainly letters received by Banks from Francis Masson, 1776-1800, 1805
Frame numbers:
CY 3680 / 46
CY 3680 / 47
Subjects:
Aiton, William, 1731-1793

Botanical gardens - Portugal

Devisme, Gerard, 1726-1785+

Lee, James, 1715-1795

Natural science - Portugal

http://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/banks/series_13/13_20.cfm

Letter received by Banks from Francis Masson, 1 February 1779

http://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/banks/series_13/13_15.cfm

Series title:
Series 13: Correspondence, being mainly letters received by Banks from Francis Masson, 1776-1800, 1805

Frame numbers:
CY 3680 / 38
CY 3680 / 39

Subjects:
Devisme, Gerard, 1726-1785+
Plants - Canary Islands (Atlantic Ocean)
Plants - Madeira Island (Atlantic Ocean)

Masson sends plants from Madeira to Banks care of De Visme

De Visme Monument Wimbledon

On the north side of the church is a large pyramid enclosed by iron rails.
"Sepulchrum hoc Gerardus de Visme, pro se et suis extruxit."


Wimbledon Lodge, the residence of the Hon. Lady Murray, was built by her father, Gerard de Visme, Esq., an eminent merchant, who resided for many years at Lisbon. He died Nov. 20th, 1797. During her minority the house was inhabited by Earl Bathurst. He was third earl, born 22nd May, 1762; was elected M.P. for Cirencester on attaining the age of twenty-one; a few months after he became Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty. From July, 1789, until June, 1791, he sat at the Treasury Board, having, in May, 1790, succeeded the Earl of Hardwieke as Teller of the Exchequer, the reversion of which office had been previously granted to him. In 1793 he was Commissioner of the Board of Control and a Privy Councillor. The first of these offices he held till the dissolution of the ministry in 1802 ; he succeeded to the peerage in 1794, and moved the address in 1796. In 1804 he was Master- worker of the Mint; in 1807, President of the Board of Trade; in 1809, Secretary for Foreign Affairs for about two months. On the 11th of June, 1812, he became Secretary for the Colonies till 1828, when he was elected President of the Council, an office of which he was deprived by the accession of the Whig party to power in 1830. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1817 ; he died" July 26th, 1834.
The Hon. Sir Henry Murray, who married the daughter of Gerard de Visme, Esq., resided at Wimbledon, except when on duty, till the time of his death. He was a distinguished general. A more detailed account of his military exploits will be found in the epitaph which is copied from his monument at page 82.

The history and antiquities of the parish of Wimbledon, Surrey By William Abraham Bartlett

Account of an Earthquake at Macao

XL Account of an Earthquake at Macao, and a short Description of a singular Species of Monkeys without Tails, found in the Interior Part of Bengal.*

By Stephen De Visme, Esq. at Canton, in China, p. 71.

The following account of an earthquake, at Macao, was sent to Mr. D. from that place, in a letter, dated Nov. 23, 1767, viz. " Last night, at 50 minutes after 9 o'clock, we were all surprized with a heavy shock of an earthquake which continued above a minute. This shock was so great that the house rocked, and I was afraid we were all going down into the bowels of the earth. Another shock we felt 5 minutes after 11 o'clock, but not so great: and at 3 this morning another pretty great. In all we have had 5 shocks, but the first the greatest. It came with a rolling, and a dreadful noise in the air; so that at first some people thought it to be the firing of guns, or thunder at some distance. At the first shock I could hardly hold my feet; but, thank God, no bad accident has happened. The wind was northerly, but faint, and it was sultry hot; the sky close and cloudy, and not a star to be seen. The oldest people here say, they never remember to have felt so violent a shock, and of so long continuance. The ships in the harbour shook and whirled about, and those on board imagined at first that it had been a whirlwind."—At Manilla earthquakes are often very violent, so as to overturn steeples, houses, and other buildings; and I observed, when I was there, that, to prevent such accidents, their timbers in building are placed in a very particular manner; they have no attic story, only warehouses, and one floor over them.

* The species of ape here mentioned by Mr. De Visme is the Simla Lar, once described by Linnaeus under the name of Homo Lar. It is figured in Miller's plates of Natural History, pi. 27.

Perhaps the drawing, now sent you, of a singular sort of monkeys, male and female, may not prove unacceptable. These animals are called golok, or wild people, and are thought to be originally a mixture with the human kind, having no tails. They come out of the forests in the interior part of Bengal from the country called Mevat. They inhabit the woods: their food is fruit, leaves, bark of trees, and milk: flesh only when caught. They are very gentle, and extremely modest. They are of the height of a man; their teeth are as white as pearls; and their legs and arms are in due proportion to their body.*

The Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London, Volume 12 1769

O Palácio Pombal

O Palácio Pombal e o Morgado da Rua Formosa: a propósito de uma campanha de obras,

António Miranda e Helena Pinto Janeiro
revista Monumentos, nº 21, Setembro de 2004, págs. 256 - 263

De Visme Mausoleum

THE MAUSOLEA & MONUMENTS TRUST

http://www.mausolea-monuments.org.uk/home.php?image_file_name=44bb6a534cc4c&admin_page=gazetteer&ref_id=4414756cb4cf3


History

The de Vismes were French Protestants who settled in England following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Gerald de Visme (1726-1797) who built the mausoleum belonged to the third generation of the family to live in this country. He is said to have "held high office at Lisbon (being) there at the time of the great earthquake".

Description

A large stone pyramid raised on a square base designed to shelter a sunken vault. The base has acroteria at the four corners two of which are decorated with some form of bean pod. The pyramid is built of vermiculated stone and bears an oval plaque with the family crest (a black, two-headed eagle with outspread wings). The overall form of the monument is similar to that of the Greg Mausoleum in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church at Hampton, also built in the last decade of the 18th century.

Condition

Good. A few small plants and minor cracks but nothing major (2006).

Two Benfica Quintas

The next morning beautiful, at which we much rejoiced as we had arranged to start for Cintra at mid-day . this we did, and had a fine view, as we were leaving Lisbon, of the church at the Estrella, and not long after, of the three highest arches of the aqueduct, and for several miles here and there we caught a glimpse of this grand work. On the road to Cintra we pass the gay Quinta das Laranjeiras, ot the Orangery, a suburban seat of the Conde de farobo, better known with us as the Baron Quintella. Strangers may obtain a ticket of admittance by application at the Conde’s magnificent town-residence in the Rua do Alecrim – Rosemary Street. Both the town and country mansions were somewhat over-furnished and over-ornate ; the wealth of the owner is everywhere conspicuous. Detached from his villa is a private theatre, one of the most splendid in Europe. In the grounds are various gardens, a labyrinth, summer-houses, costly conservatories. The king of beasts, with his grim court of tigers, panthers and other uncivil brutes, is royally lodged in a marble menagerie. There is an artificial lake, a


canal for irrigation, and a suspension bridge, and an obelisk which was raised by the father of the present proprietor, as a memorial of the expulsion of the French.

The present residence of the princezss Dona Isabel, who was regent till the arrival of her brother Don Miguel, is also in this neighbourhood. It was formerly known as the Quinta of the Marquis of Abrantes, also of De Visme, by whom it was laid out “in the English taste.” It is famous for its botanical rarities. Here are two of the finest cedars of Lebanon in the kingdom ; two South American pepper trees, of rare beauty and height ; two Japan salisburys (Salisburias de Japan ?), the only specimens in Portugal, and an avenue of magnolias.

Journal of a Few Months Residence in Portugal and Glimpses of the South of Spain
Dorothy Wordsworth Quillinan, 1847
pp.33-34

De Visme Quinta at Benfica

The Quinta that was eventually purchased by D. Isabel Maria, and where this Princess passed the last days of her life, was built by Gerard de Visme, an English merchant, in the XVIII century. The building as well as the disposition of the grounds, was planned by the architect Ignacio de Oliveira Bernardes who also directed its construction. De Visme, (who purchased this Quinta in 1767) embellished the grounds with a number of statues and rare plants; decorated the mansion with objets d'art, principally oil-paintings, of which he was especially fond; organised a museum containing antiquities, curios, and works of good craftsmanship. Some years later having suffered some grievous «desgostos» [disillusions] he gave up the Quinta, selling it to the third Marquis of Abrantes, D. Pedro de Lencastro. It was later sold by the fifth Marquis of Abrantes to Princess Isabel Maria in 1834.

Dicionário de Portugal, Vol. 2, p. 283

quoted in translation in Historical association Annual Report, 1943

Gerard De Visme

Gerard De Visme was the fifth son of Philip, Count de Vismes and Marianne daughter of Piquet, Marquis of Magaens, French Hugenôts who took refuge in England where members of that family had previously resided. He came to Lisbon in 1746 at the age of twenty and remained there until 1792. His firm was known as De Visme & Purry, subsequently becoming that of De Visme & Co. as shown in the «Almanach» published in Lisbon, 1794.

The British Historical Association / Lisbon Branch

Seventh Annual Report, 1943, p. 40

Noticias de Alguns Pintores Serie III (Sousa Viterbo)

Portugal illustrated By William Morgan Kinsey

Our next visit was to the modern Gothic quinta called Montserrat, now in a state of complete dilapidation, of which, however, sufficient remains to give evidence of its former splendour. We proceeded thither on Burros, whose movements were constantly quickened by the shouts and blows of a rabble of boys in red nightcaps, blue shirts, and red sashes worn round their waists. A merry party of Portuguese, mounted on Machos, among whom was a fat Dominican monk contesting with a lady for a first arrival at the town, had nearly run down our little unpretending squadron on the road. This once beautiful building is situated midway between Cintra and Colares, upon the extremity of a little knoll shaded by forest trees, and commanding a most lovely prospect over the gardens, vineyards, and orchards, scattered along the valley of Colares, and extending to the sea-side. It is said to have been built by Mr. Devisme, and to have been sold by him to Mr. Beckford, who furnished it in the most sumptuous manner; but the marble halls are silent now, and the voice of music has long ceased to cheer the desolate ruin. Lord Byron's description of its present condition is truly apposite and highly poetical

p. 133

2nd edition 1829

Kinsey was at Cintra in 1827

Carl Israel Ruders, 1800

4 de Setembro 1800

Apesar do calor se tornar bastante incómodo à hora do dia em que regressávamos, não podemos resistir à tentação de visitar uma quinta que ao longe se avistava, com as suas casas azuis claras, perdidas num vale profundo.

Esta quinta deve as suas belezas ao falecido comerciante «de Visme». homen célebre em toda a Europa, tanto pelo seu bom gosto como por não olhar a despesas em coisas desta índole.

(Numa das minhas cartas anteriores já me referi a ele a propósito dum jardim de Benfica.)

O caminho desce em espiral até ao chão plano em que se erguiam as habitações.

Lá tudo quanto se via era um testamunho irrefragável do genio inventivo desse homen que soube transformar um dos sítios mais rústicos desta redondeza no lugar mais atraente para residência de homens cultivadas.

[132]

A região assinala-se pela sua aparência selvagem, de natureza inculta e forte, mas, no meio dela, a arte ostenta os seus melhores recursos sem que uma ou outra se prejudiquem por qualquer absurda intromissão nos seus respectivos dominios.


Viagem em Portugal, 1798-1802

Trad. do Sueco original por António Feijó

The Connoisseur, 1904

On June 25th, the sale (which realised ;£2 1,714) was also made up of many properties, and among these were a few unimportant pictures removed from the late Duke of Cambridge's residence at Kew; the late Miss G. L. Murray, the late Mr. Adrian C. F. Hope, with many others. Miss Murray's property included a pastel portrait by J. Russell of her mother when young, Miss Emily de Visme, afterwards Lady Murray, in white muslin dress with pink sash, playing a harp, signed and dated 1794, 53 in. by 43 in., by W. Bond, 200 gns., and Lawrence's Portrait of the same lady when a girl, in white dress with crimson sash and straw hat, seated on a bank in a wood, 50 in. by 40 in., 1,050 gns. ; both these pictures were engraved by W. Bond, that of the latter was published under the title of The Woodland Maid, Feb. 6th, 1794.

De Visme's Quinta at Bemfica in 1851

After proceeding for a little time—lam not sure exactly where it was, but not very far from Lisbon— we passed a new "quinta" of a fantastical nobleman, who seemed to fancy something in the Chinese- pagoda style would be a pleasant abode. He revelled, however, in luxuriant gardens. Then we came to the rambling, scrambling village of Bemfica. This place is rather a favourite resort of the Portuguese nobility ; it is pleasantly enough embosomed in groves of orange-trees and cork woods, and must be an agreeable place of abode during the summer months. The hedge-rows in this neighbourhood are commonly formed of fhe aloe and Indian fig. Here resides, or resided, the Princess Isabel Maria, aunt of the reigning queen, and regent before the arrival of her brother, Dom Miguel, from Vienna.
The Infanta's noble palace is built at a little distance from the thoroughfare, on the left side: it is reported to contain a good museum of natural curiosities, and to possess some very rare botanical specimens. It is adorned by two splendid cedars, two very fine American pepper-trees, some Japanese trees, and a small grove of magnolias. Near this stands a Dominican church and convent: the latter has been sold, and turned unceremoniously into a manufactory; but the church is still retained for the purpose of religious worship.

Stuart-Wortley' p. 105

William Morgan Kinsey

The village of Bemfica is situated at the extremity of the liberties of Lisbon, and abounds with pretty quintas, belonging to the nobility and rich merchants of Lisbon ; the most ornamental of which are those of the Marquess of Fronteira, in the Italian style, and of Mr. Devisme, an English merchant, whose national taste has been displayed in the peculiar architecture of his house, and in the arrangement of his gardens.

Portugal illustrated
William Morgan Kinsey
1828
p.126

Memoirs of William Beckford of Fonthill

CHAPTER VIII.
VISIT TO PORTUGAL AND SPAIN—MISTAKES REGARDING THE RESIDENCE THERE—BYRON's CHILDE HABOLD—NARRATIONS OF TRAVELLERS—FALMOUTH AND ITS VICINITY—THE PORTUGUESE CHABACTEB —THE MARIALVAS—REFLECTIONS—HONOURS TO ST. ANTHONY.

It was six months after his return from Switzerland, and the breaking up of his domestic establishment on his favourite shores of the Leman, that he made his voyage to the south; a visit respecting which there has been no end to exaggerations. A visit of eight or nine months has been magnified into one of years in duration, and into housebuilding and permanent establishments in a foreign country, that never had a real existence. He took with him a large household establishment, because it suited the Portuguese taste; and from twenty to thirty persons composed his train. [278] Less would not have comported with the figure he desired to make abroad. The second visit he paid was while the contractor erected the wall round Fonthill, which was completed in about September or October, 1796. Yet Byron apostrophises Montserrat, in Childe Harold, and wrote:—

" There thou, too, Vathek ! England's wealthiest son,
Once formed thy Paradise, as not aware
When wanton wealth her mightiest deeds hath done,
Meek peace voluptuous laws was ever wont to shun.

"Here didst thou dwell, here schemes of pleasure plan,
Beneath yon mountain's ever-beauteous brow ;
But now, as if a thing unblest by man,
Thy fairy dwelling is as lone as thou!
Here giant weeds a passage scarce allow
To halls deserted, portals gaping wide,
Fresh lessons to the thinking bosom, how
Vain are the pleasaunces on earth supplied;
Swept into wrecks anon by Time's ungentle tide."

This would have been striking had it been true. That Mr. Beckford, going to Portugal for eight or nine months, after his wife's death, when he was still grieving her loss, and that for such a term of residence he should build a house, was rather too extravagant. Indeed, on his first visit, he did not reside at Montserrat at all, [279] because the owner, Mr. De Visme, a merchant, who built the factory hospital, would not let it. On his second visit to Portugal, which lasted some months more than the first, he was successful in becoming a temporary holder. It was a barbarous Gothic imitation house, built by a carpenter from Falmouth, which had been erected on the foundations of the older house of Mr. De Visme; and of this new building Mr. Beckford succeeded in becoming the tenant. The site was lovely, and surrounded by a most delightful country. He proceeded by way of Madrid, in 1794, and spent a year and better in Portugal, during which he inhabited Montserrat.

Hear another jeremiad about Montserrat:— " The princely mansion of Beckford is now mouldering in ruins. It was an exceedingly elegant and tasteful building, quite in the English style. Not a vestige of the roof remains; and within, the bramble, the thorn, and the thistle, flourish in undisturbed luxuriance. A few short years more, and a guide will have to lead the traveller to the spot where the eccentric author of 'Vathek' held his court. It is a most romantic spot, commanding, in its prospect, every [280] beauty that Cintra and the surrounding country affords. The lofty, tree-clad mountains behind, the undulating cultivated plains before, in the distance the illimitable sea, and around groves of the finest orange and lemon trees, force an exclamation of rapture, sadly qualified by regret at the utter destruction to which this most lovely of retreats is fast hastening. On the western turret still stands the flag-staff from which the silken banner of Old England so often fluttered in the breeze; it seemed conscious of the dignity it once possessed; and, in defiance of the ruin going on around, was determined to ' spin it out, and fight to the last!'" This is from " Wilde's Travels," which show un grand talent, as the French have it, for building castles in the air.

Memoirs of William Beckford of Fonthill
Cyrus Redding
London, C.J. Skeet, 1859

William Hickey 1782

We had several very pleasant parties with Mr. De Visme, at a beautiful seat of his a few miles from Lisbon, where he entertained in a manner never surpassed and seldom equalled. The establishment was in every respect princely, the house a perfect cabinet, the grounds laid out with peculiar taste, having in them all the rarest plants of the European world and some even from Asia and America, but what delighted me was the songs of nightingales innumerable pouring out their sweet notes in broad daylight. Mr. De Visme told us he had been at great expense in enticing them by various stratagems to his woods, but had at last so completely succeeded as to have their music for full eight months in the year. This gentleman was brother to the supercargo at China, of whom I have already spoken.

p. 377

I had now the misery to see the health of my darling Charlotte in a declining state, and that, too, without any apparent cause, having no particular malady, yet she gradually fell away, entirely lost her appetite and spirits, and felt it unpleasant to move even from one room to another. I consulted Dr. Hare, the principal physician of the British factory, who had the reputation of being very skilful in his profession. After attending her twice a day for some time, trying a variety of medicines, though without advantage, he recommended me to change the air by taking her away from Lisbon. Mr. De Visme, who happened to be visiting me when Dr. Hare gave this advice, immediately offered a country house of his about eighteen miles from the city, in, he said, as healthy a spot as any in Portugal. I accepted his polite offer. Two days after he sent us thither in one of his carriages with a confidential servant, who had orders to supply all our wants. We found it a romantic and beautiful situation, upon a small rise from the sea, from which it was not quite a mile distant. Charlotte was delighted with everything about it, finding material benefit in four-and-twenty hours. She continued mending so rapidly that in ten days her health was perfectly restored. We therefore returned to Lisbon.

p.383 (March 1782)

Memoirs of William Hickey
Vol. II (1775-1782) 7th ed
William Hickey

London Hurst & Blackett, Ltd., 1782