Jean B Jaunay | François M Jaunay | Louis B Jaunay | Frank C Jaunay | Robert JC Jaunay | Frank JC Jaunay

François Marie Jaunay 1776–1838

An English interlude The story of François Marie Jaunay 3

The predecessor of Jaunay's Hotel, Brunet's Hotel was established on Lady Day [March 25], 1800 at No 25 Leicester Square, by Jean Louis Philogene Brunet, usually known as Louis Brunet, who initially rented the property from a Charles Augustus Tulk. It was previously occupied by James Maitland, the eighth Earl of Lauderdale as a private residence. The home had been rebuilt in 1734 by James Gibbs for Philip Parker Long, third baronet of Ewarton Hall, Suffolk. The property contained a basement, three storeys and a garret. The thirty-seven foot frontage to the Square was completely plain except for a pedestal-course below the four evenly spaced windows in the second storey and a full entablature above the third storey. The entablature was finished with a parapet behind which were visible the tops of four dormer windows. Apart from this the most prominent feature was the entrance porch with a triangular pediment atop of columns. (You can clearly see this feature in the header above.) In 1806, the adjacent property at No 24 formerly occupied by a George Brookes was incorporated into the hotel. The property leased by a Christopher Emmott on the other boundary at No 26 was added to the complex by 1808.

Louis Brunet accompanied the Condé family to London in late 1801 and in early 1802 the Prince gave up the fight to restore the French monarchy. Records place the Brunets and Jaunays in Chantilly in the early part of 1791 at the time of the death of a Brunet son, Louis Henry, at the age of twenty-two months. It is recorded that Louis Brunet was resident in Paris at the time of his divorce in January 1794. During his time with the Condé family Louis must have accumulated sufficient resources and a reputation which enabled him to fund the purchase of the lease on a property on 25 Leicester Square in 1800. The hotel prospered quickly and became the meeting place of the French émigré nobility. Also Louis had a wide reputation for his French cooking. No doubt his popularity was enhanced by his ability and willingness to financially assist his noble clients when the need arose!

François Marie Jaunay took over the property from his half-brother in 1815 and it eventually became known as Jaunay's Hotel and continued its reputation as established by Brunet as a rendezvous for the French living in the London area. Louis Brunet returned to France with the Condés to live in retirement at Chantilly. The relationship between the Brunets and the Jaunays took time to unravel due to the confusion over several generations of Brunets using the same name and just how the link between the two families was established.

It was no accident that the Brunets and the Jaunays established themselves in the Soho part of London. It was a very French area indeed with three main immigration surges from France. The Huguenot religious refugees were the first to establish themselves in the area. Subsequently they were supplemented by those escaping the tyranny of the French Revolution. Following Waterloo the number of French settling in London also showed a significant increase.

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