David Willaume II

Son of David Willaume I, Citizen and goldsmith of London, born 5th March 1693 and apprenticed to his father 6th March 1707. While still apprenticeship he was sent by his father to Metz to claim his inheritance. Free 2nd May 1723 and also recorded as free by patrimony the same date, making his apprenticeship a mere formality. Livery, March 1727/6. Married firstly, 17 April 1721, Marianne, daughter of Samuel Le Febure (le Fevre) at the church of Le Carre, then described ‘orfevre, par(oisse) de St. Martin des Champs’. Subsequently married Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Dymoke of Ampthill, Bedfordshire. Settlement dated 23 November 1733. First and second marks (New and Sterling Standards) entered as largeworker, 2 April 1728, on or about the date of his father’s retirement. Address: ‘in St James Street of St. George Hanover Square’. Third (Sterling) mark, 19 June 1739, entered by Edward Jordens ‘by Verteu of a Letter of Eturney’. The phrase ‘of St. George Hanover Square’ is presumably to indicate his private address. Heal records him from the date of his apprenticeship in 1706 to 1746, of which he gives his address as the Golden Ball, on the terrace in St. James’s Street, 1716-20, but this, as has been shown above, must apply to David I, and in any case the son was not free till 1723, though no doubt he may well have been playing an active part in the business by then, since it is clearly his signature in the entry of his father’s Sterling mark in 1720. Heal also records him as in St. Martin’s in the Fields, 1721, based on the register of his first marriage, which then presumably referred to his residence. He is presumably the –William, Subordinate Goldsmith to the King, 1744 and 1746 (Major General H. W. D. Sitwell, ‘The Jewel House and the Royal Goldsmiths’, Arch, Journ., CXVIII, p. 155). He became High Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1737. His wife Elizabeth died and was buried at Tingrith, 20 June 1746, and Willaume died 26 January 1761. By his second marriage there were four sons and two daughters. The eldest child Mary married her cousin Rev. Thomas Tanqueray, rector of Tingrith (cf. David Willaume I). The eldest son, Edward, became in due course holder of his brother-in-law’s benefice. The Willaumes’ belief in family solidarity is clearly apparent. The quality of work bearing David II’s mark is not so strongly marked in character as that of his father, and it would seem fairly evident that the business had grown to the extent that he had little to do with the plate bearing his mark, which scarcely shows Huguenot influence, probably being largely executed by native English journeymen. Presumably the banking side of the business continued to flourish and indeed there is little doubt that it was this and not plate-working which formed the foundation of the family fortunes (Wagner, op. cit, under David Willaume I, above).