Contents
I. Introduction
The origins of the Blacque family	2
The Eastern branch of the family	4
II. The controversial reporter of Izmir
The French press of Izmir	8
Blacque, the foremost representative of merchants	15
Navarino: The disappointment	17
The determined stirrer	22
The historian Michaud as witness	26
Disputes with the Russians	28
III. The reasons behind a war
The Greek enemy	32
The Russian enemy	39
Authentic but critical nationalism	41
Combating the European twisting of facts	43
Combating the dreams of the Philhellenes	47
Combating civilization’s betrayal	48
A turn-coat? Or a devout liberal?	50
Against all forms of ethnic discrimination	53
Thoughts on Turkish evolution	57
The last stage of the Turkish transformation: Economic union with Europe	61
IV. In the service of the Bâbıâli
Le Moniteur Ottoman	65
The mysterious death of Blacque Bey	75
V. The descendants of Blacque Bey
The son Blacque, The first Turkish Ambassador in Washington	80
The third generation: A pacha and an ambassador	87
INDEX	93
PHOTOS	101

I- INTRODUCTION
The origins of the Blacque family

This study aims to discover the origins and story of the family whose branch lived for a while in Turkey and whose roots go back to France, England, Scotland (and maybe Ireland), whose descendants today live in France, Ireland and America.

A family folklore places a Blacque in 1688 in the service of the English king Charles II, the sovereign who was to be deposed by William of Orange. The elder brother of the family, the marquis of Wales remained in the country following this change of regime, but Sir Reginald Black (or Blake) accompanied the hapless king in his life in exile in France and in 1701 following the death of the king with a law passed by parliament obtains French citizenship.

Various publications of this time helped to spread this version of events, however none were able to verify the claims through documentation. In the contrary, the latest researches done by a descendant of this family, Jean-Claude Huvê points to an origin well before the exile of King Charles II, middle 17th century and pure French heritage¹. Following extensive researches on baptism, marriage, death and other legal records, it appears that a family by this name had lived for a long time within the region of Champagne and Brie at Nogent-sur-Seine and surroundings.

The earliest Blacque to be traced (through one of his son’s wedding records) is Jacques Blacques whose profession is noted as a ‘marinier’². He was born around 1625 [?], and his wife is seen as a widow in 1694. The eldest son was also named Jacques (1615-1726) who in various documents is either referred to as an hotelier, inn keeper or merchant. He had many children as a result of his first marriage, and their descendants also lived for a long time in Nogent-sur-Seine. Following the death of his wife, he marries a Genevieve Suinot and had children with her too. The eldest of these, Edmé Blacque (1698-1767) would settle in Paris.

The social position of the Blacque family is assessed by priest Huvê thus:
Without a doubt these were a provincial family. Some members of this family are somewhat well-off farmers tending their crops and vines. At a time when the majority of the population were poor with frequent famines and what is more a non-fertile region (Champagne has dry soils, thus the region is called ‘dusty’) their middle situation points to them being ready to make the jump to the social strata occupied by minor merchants, artisans and officers of the king. However they are still far from what one historian termed as ‘Paris high society’³.

Edmé Blacque in Paris marries Elisabeth Guénard (1717) and thus enters into an established family of the city of merchants and lawyers.


1- At the time the spelling of personal names was not fixed. The variations of spelling of the name Blacque makes investigations difficult. In archive documents, in addition to Blacque, these manner of spellings are also encountered; Blacques, Blacq, Blaac, Blasque and Black. In the years when Alexander Blacque lived in Smyrna, the English J.N. Black was a clerk in the Abbott firm (FO/78-147-Constantinople 1826); in 1838 another Black was a member of a commission that set the level of the customs taxes; in 1840 amongst the merchants who suffered losses during the bombardment of Beirut by the British fleet, were William and Robert Black together with James Black (FO/78-399, 18 December 1840). According to the author Philippe K. Hitti, the once prevalent notion of honest trade by an English merchant and the associated saying of ‘word of an Englishman’, is attributable to James Black (Lebanon in Historia, Macmillan, London 1957, p. 427).
2- Marinier: ‘Those engaged in shipping in rivers and canals’ (Petit Robert). In that time at Nogent these would have been working for the transport of goods but mostly people.
3- ‘In the 18th century the Blacque family was part of the Paris high society.’ (Choix d’Est-Ange, Dictionaire des familles anciennes et notablesa la fin du XIXe siecle). This statement would only be true from Edmé Blacque, that is the period of Louis XVIth.



Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank the descendants of the Blacque family, The Jesuit priest Jean Claude Huvê resident in Paris as well as Madame Dorry Von Friesen (née Madame Valentine Edward Blacque) resident in Ireland, for all their assistance in providing me with documents and valuable information.