| AdminHistory | The Le Bas family originated from Caen and owned a sugar refinery. The first member of the family recorded in England was Paul Pierre Le Bas, a woollen draper of St Paul's Covent Garden. In 1702, he married Marie Fouace and the couple emigrated to Carolina. Their son, Stephen Le Bas (c. 1720-1784) returned to England and became a brewer in St Giles in the Fields. He had four children, Charles (1745-1819), Paul Peter, Anne and Mary. Charles was an hosier in Old Bond Street, but when his business failed, he left London and became a master of ceremonies at Bath and later at Margate and Ramsgate. His son, Charles Webb Le Bas (1779-1861) gained academic distinctions at Trinity College Cambridge and became a mathematics professor and dean at the East India College, Haileybury, and subsequently its principal. He was a prolific author, a member of the Bar and Church of England prelate. Charles' brother, Paul Peter, emigrated to Dublin and his sisters Anne and Mary married respectively Huguenot descendants Charles Dalbiac (1726-1808) and the Rev. Gabriel Tahourdin (1743-1814).</p><p>
Charles Webb Le Bas's third son, Henry Vincent Le Bas (1828-1914), carried out extensive genealogical research into his family and corresponded for 34 years with Henry Wagner, Huguenot genealogist and a French Hospital director. The correspondence is available in the Le Bas Wagner Pedigree (HUGUENOT LIBRARY/T/8/1).
Further information on the family can be found in Barbara Julien, 'Le Bas bequest', The Huguenot Society Journal, vol. 34 (2021), pp. 93-94. |