thePeerage.com

[Michael Rhodes]

The ancestry of Timothy Laurence, husband of HRH The Princess Royal:-

Timothy Laurence's pedigree is:-

Zaccaria Levy, born Venice, 1751, d. London, 1828, m. Simcha Anna
(1787-1838)

Joseph Levy (changed surname to Laurence),
(1791-1878), of Beddington, m. Penelope, daughter of John Jackson (she
d. 1841)

Rev. Percival Laurence, Clerk in Holy Orders
(1829-1913), m. Isabella Sarah, dau of Capt. William Scarth Moorsom

Henry Hamilton Laurence
(1864-1923), m. Mary (d. 1953), dau of Francis George Butler

Guy Stewart Laurence
(1896-1962), m. Barbara Alison Symons

Timothy James Hamilton Laurence
(b. 1 March, 1955), m. 1992, HRH The Princess Royal, KG, KT, &c.


Timothy's ancestor settled in London in 1785. Zaccaria came to Britain with his elder brother, Elezar, to dispose of a diamond they had collected in Baghdad. It was more profitable to do so in London than in Venice where, as it was arbitrarily controlled by the legendary Council of Ten, you never knew where that body was going to tax your profits, or confiscate them altogether.

Elezar invested profits with the Bank of England and went back to Venice. The younger brother remained.

In 1943 Elazar's will was discovered an an action group was formed in Israel by some 200 descendants to claim the money from the Bank of England: estimated by 1957 to amount to some $300m. The claim, at the
time of the wedding of Laurence and the Princess Royal, was still being proceeded with. Most of the claimants are in Israel. But one, Mr Philip Levy, was living in London.

Some of Timothy Laurence's ancestors, I think the Jackson family, came from the Streatlam area, near Darlington, where Anne's ancestors, the Bowes Lyons, had a home at Streatlam Castle.

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Michael Rhodes