Succession of British Consuls at Smyrna and Salonica
Smyrna
1762 Anthony Hayes [1]
1794 Francis Werry [2]
1829 Richard William Brant [3]
1856 Charles Blunt [4]
Salonica
1791 Francis Charnaud [5]
1832 John Charnaud, Vice-Consul [6]
1835 Charles Blunt [7]
1856 Charles John Calvert [8]


Notes: "* An asterisk denotes reference to documents at The National Archives (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO).

1. A.C. Wood, History of the Levant Company (1935), p. 253.

2. Mr Tom Rees, author of the Merchant adventurers in the Levant (2003), stated that Francis Werry sailed for Smyrna via Leghorn on 3rd May 1793, but did not take up his appointment officially until 1794. Werry continued as Consul after the dissolution of the Levant Company in 1825. He retired in 1829 and died in Smyrna on 27 July 1832, aged 87 - see website:

3. Brant was appointed in May 1829 according to the Parliamentary Paper, List of all the Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls … in Her Majesty’s Service, prepared by John Bidwell, Superintendent of the Consular Service, Foreign Office, 7 July 1848. In 2004, a Sotheby’s sale catalogue advertised royal letters patent for his appointment dated 25 May 1829. See also London Gazette, 30 June 1829.

4. Blunt was appointed Consul at Smyrna on 31 October 1856 according to the Foreign Office List for 1861. See also London Gazette, 11 November 1856.

5. The list of members (freemen) of the Levant Company (*SP 105/323) shows that Francis Charnaud was admitted on 30 May 1791. A list of officers of the Levant Company in 1825 (*FO 881/2353) shows that he was appointed Consul at Salonica in 1791, with a salary fixed in 1821 at £400 and expenses not to exceed £100. Despina Vlami in 2009, ‘Entrepreneurial History Discussion Papers’ (web link), note 84, says he served at Salonica from 1792 to 1825, with interruptions which she details elsewhere. Francis Charnaud continued as Consul after the dissolution of the Levant Company and died on 15 April 1832 (*FO 352/25B).

6. Hyde Clarke, Levantine Heritage, note 12, says that John Charnaud was licensed to trade at Smyrna on 28 November 1798 and became a member of the Levant Company on 30 November 1804; also (as checked by me in *SP 105/323) a John Charnaud was admitted as a member of the Levant Company on 10 July 1817. Appendix No. 4 to the Report of the Select Committee on Consular Establishment (Parliamentary Papers, 1835), shows that John Charnaud served as Cancellier at Salonica from 1814 and, after the death of his brother, as Vice-Consul at Salonica until the appointment of Charles Blunt. He then served as Vice-Consul and Cancellier at Smyrna from April 1835 – see also Bidwell’s List (1848), where he is described as ‘Foreigner’. The only members of the Charnaud family who appear to have been formally naturalized as British subjects are Jean (24 March 1762, 2 Geo.III, No.54) and James (18 May 1779, 19 Geo.III, No.164), W.A. Shaw, Letters of Denization and Acts of Naturalization …, 1701-1800. Publ. Huguenot Society of London, Vol. XXVII, Manchester, 1927.

7. Blunt was appointed to Salonica on 13 January 1835 (Foreign Office List for 1861) and transferred to Smyrna on 31 October 1856 – see note 4 above.

8. London Gazette, 11 November 1856.


D. A. L. Wilson
Moseley, Birmingham
August 2010