The Mallet family () is a family of French businessmen and bankers.
During the 16th century, the Mallet family first fled from Rouen to Geneva to escape mounting religious oppression by the state. In 1810, one branch was titled under the French Empire, followed by a lesser branch under Louis XVIII in 1816. Besides banking, fields in which members have excelled include science, the military, law, and politics.
History Etymology According to the official genealogies from the Banque de France, the surname Mallet is likely derived from either the name of the city of Saint-Malo in Brittany or the parish of Saint-Maclou in Rouen, both namesakes of the 6th century Saint Malo of Aleth. This theory is one of several posed by modern lexicographers and onomasticians.
Origins In the mid—late 16th century, religious civil war in France drove many Calvinist Huguenots, such as the Mallets, to seek refuge in Geneva, which had declared itself Lutheran in 1536. The earliest members of the Mallet family known to have escaped from Normandy were Jacques (1530–1598), from whom all future generations descend, and his brother, Esaïe. After the death of his first wife, Jacquemine Favre, Jacques married Laure Sartoris, daughter of Jean-Léonard, former secretary to Charles III, Duke of Savoy. The couple had eleven children. The descendants of Gabriel (1572–1651), the ninth child, include Jacques-André Mallet and the family of the Barons de Chalmassy. All other significant extant lines descend from Jacques (1575–1657), Gabriel's younger brother.
Notable members
Jacques Mallet du Pan Jacques Mallet du Pan (1749–1800) was a journalist and political propagandist from Geneva.
In 1772, upon the recommendation of his colleague Voltaire, he accepted a professorship of French literature at Kassel. Due to severe political criticism of his writing, however, he soon left the continent for England in search of greater journalistic freedom. In 1789, he was recruited by Panckoucke as an editor of the Mercure de France in Paris. He resided in the city until 1792, when he was enlisted by Louis XVI, who saw du Pan as his political ally, as a special envoy charged with gathering military support from neighboring leaders. Du Pan participated in drafting precursors to the Brunswick Manifesto, and was forced into exile to Bern in 1797. He returned to England the following year, founded the Mercure britannique, and died of consumption in 1800.
Mallet du Pan followed a Calvinist philosophy, (c. 1700‒1930) and was known as a conservative counter-revolutionary. His work was largely neglected until after World War II, when it was rediscovered and championed by historians and philosophers such as Alessandro Passerin d'Entrèves and Jacques Godechot. It is accepted that du Pan originated the term suffrage universel (English: universal suffrage).
His grandson was the British civil servant Sir Louis Mallet. Through Louis and his brother, Charles (1824–1892), Jacques is the ancestor of many English civil servants and other public figures, including Louis du Pan Mallet, Charles Mallet the younger, Victor Mallet, and John and Richard Butler, Barons Dunboyne.
Paul Henri Mallet Paul Henri Mallet (1730–1807) was a scholar and diplomat from Geneva. His nephew, Paul Henri Mallet Prevost (1756–1835), was the progenitor of the American Mallet-Prevost branch.
In 1752, he replaced La Beaumelle as professor of French belles-lettres at the Academy of Copenhagen. He became interested in ancient Denmark and other Northern lands and published several volumes on Danish history with the help of the government. In 1755, perhaps due to Mallet's works having been vocally supportive of monarchical absolutism, queen consort Louisa of Denmark employed Mallet as the tutor of literature and French language for her son, Christian, the future king of Denmark and Norway. Mallet's writings on mythology and religion, translated by Bishop Percy, also inspired the poet William Blake, among others.
After he had completed his duties in Denmark, Mallet journeyed to England to visit the royal family, which included Caroline Matilda, the betrothed of his former pupil, Christian. Mallet became the princess' epistolary literary advisor when she left for Denmark. In 1760, Mallet returned to Geneva, where he was offered a professorship as chair of the department of history and, four years later, a position on the Council of Two Hundred. Despite his apparent success as an educator, Mallet refused empress Catherine's offer to tutor her young son, Paul I. Instead, he chose to accompany Lord Mount Stuart on a Grand Tour through Europe.
While in England, Mallet received a commission to create a history for the House of Hanover. This work, along with another from Frederick II for the House of Hesse, was completed in 1785. However, over the next few years, the wealth Mallet had accumulated, including his pensions from the nobility, was essentially dissolved due to ongoing political turmoil. When the occupying French government found out about his poor financial state, however, Mallet was supplied with a generous allowance, which he took advantage of for a brief period until his death in 1807 from an acute attack of paralysis. A volume of Mallet's first biography, by Sismondi, was published in the same year.
Jacques-André Mallet Jacques-André Mallet (1740–1790) was a mathematician and astronomer from Geneva. He is best known for founding the first observatory in Geneva.
He was expected to follow the career of his father, who had been a soldier. However, an accident in Jacques-André's youth caused damage to his legs, and he shifted his fascination to academia. In 1755, he began his education at the Academy of Geneva, studying first with mathematician Louis Necker. His pursuit of knowledge brought him next to Basel in 1760, where he studied with Daniel Bernoulli, and in 1765 to England and France, where he was inspired by astronomers Jérôme Lalande, John Bevis, and Nevil Maskelyne, among others. Mallet was subsequently invited by Catherine II and the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences to travel to Russia to observe the 1769 transit of Venus from Lapland. Due to an overcast sky that obscured his view, Mallet's observations in Lapland provided the scientific community with little useful data. Nonetheless, he was awarded honorary membership in the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
Upon his return to Geneva, Jacques-André was granted a position within the Council of Two Hundred and an honorary professorship at his alma mater, the Academy of Geneva. In 1772, he successfully petitioned the council for approval to build an observatory in Geneva, the first in the canton. The observatory's structure and technology were state-of-the-art. As director of the observatory, Jacques-André and his students, which included Marc-Auguste Pictet and Jean Trembley, conducted research concerning planetary movements, solar eclipses, and other celestial phenomena. As Jacques-André grew ill in subsequent years, he continued his research at the Mallet family chateau in Avully.
His sister married the astronomer Jean-Louis Pictet, who had joined Mallet on his journey to Russia. Pictet's son, Jean-Pierre, was the father of François Jules Pictet, whose own son would marry back into the Mallet family in 1863. Jacques-André died in 1790 without issue.
Barons de Chalmassy
Isaac Mallet (1684–1779) was first employed by Gédéon Mallet, Cramer et Cie, a Genevan bank founded by Isaac's second cousin Gédéon Mallet. While on business in Paris, Isaac established his own financial enterprise, Isaac Mallet et Cie., 1713. Notably, the bank was charged with managing the capital of Chancellor Maupeou, a descendant of whom married Isaac's fourth-great-grandson, Arthur, 5th Baron de Chalmassy. Isaac was a member of the Grand Council of Geneva. ∞ 1722 Françoise Dufour. They had six children, including: Jacques Mallet (1724–1815), who was a partner of his father's bank, which assumed the name Dufour, Mallet and Le Royer. Like his father, he was a member of the Grand Council. ∞ 1744 Louise Madeleine Bresson. They had six children, including: Guillaume Mallet, 1st Baron Mallet de Chalmassy (1747–1826). Increasingly upset with the violent conditions of the French Revolution, he and several other bankers, including Claude Perier and Jean-Conrad Hottinguer, helped to install Napoleon on the French throne. In 1810, Emperor Napoleon awarded Guillaume a knighthood and ennobled him as Baron de Chalmassy. Furthermore, Guillaume and his colleagues were given complete control over the newly established Bank of France, on whose Council of Regents Guillaume was engaged from 1800 until his death. Guillaume's title was subsequently confirmed by Louis XVIII during the Restoration. ∞ 1779 Elisabeth Boy de La Tour († 1781), whose wealthy widowed mother, Julie, had assisted a young, displaced Rousseau in managing his financial affairs. Elisabeth's sister, Madeleine-Catherine, married Étienne Delessert and bore Benjamin Delessert, both of whom were successful bankers. ∞ Anne-Julie Houel (1761-1849), whose sister, Marthe-Henriette, was married to Guillaume's younger brother, Isaac Jean-Jacques, also a banker. Adolphe-Jacques "James", 2nd Baron Mallet de Chalmassy (1787–1868). He was awarded a knighthood for his outstanding conduct in the defense of Paris at Barrière de Clichy in 1814. Under his leadership, the Mallet Bank acquired Passage Choiseul for the construction of the Opéra-Comique's theatre, Salle Ventadour. Adolphe-Jacques assumed his late father's seat on the Council of Regents, and served as valet de chambre for kings Louis XVIII and Charles X. ∞ 1818 Laure Oberkampf, daughter of industrialist Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf. Her sister, Émilie, was married to James' brother, Louis Jules. Alphonse, 3rd Baron Mallet de Chalmassy (1819–1906), a banker. Alphonse assumed his late father's seat on the Council of Regents. ∞ 1873 Hélène Bartholdi (1825–1896), second cousin of the sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, designer of the Statue of Liberty. Jacques-Frédéric-Albert, 4th Baron Mallet de Chalmassy (1846–1927) ∞ 1873 Jeanne Zélie Poupart de Neuflize (1851–1935), sister of the banker and equestrian, Jean de Neuflize. They had no issue. Arthur Mallet (1821–1847) Théodore Mallet (1860–1882) Arthur Auguste Jacques, 5th Baron Mallet de Chalmassy (1884–1948) ∞ 1914 Jacqueline Marie Aimé Diane de Maupeou (1825–1896), a direct descendant of René de Maupeou, Chancellor of France. They had two children, including: Jean-Pierre Théodore Mallet, 6th Baron de Chalmassy (1915–2003) ∞ 1939 Christine de Watteville de Berckheim, great-granddaughter of the French general Sigismond Guillaume de Berckheim, and 2x-great-granddaughter of the Swiss-French banker and art collector James-Alexandre de Pourtalès. They had three children, including: Etienne Mallet (b. 1941), who is the president of the film and performing arts company Cinéfrance. He is also the president of the Mallet Foundation, an organization that assists people with disabilities. Etienne served in the Ministère de l'Equipement and Ministère de l'Intérieur, as well as on several boards, including that of his family bank Neuflize OBC. Jacques Robert Mallet (1945–2001), an investment banker and president of the art dealer Mallet Fine Art Ltd. He had two children with his first wife, Laurie. Ernest Mallet (1863-1956), a regent of the Bank of France. In 1915, as a member of the Anglo-French Financial Commission, he and his colleagues successfully appealed to the United States for a $500 million loan for France and England. Ernest assumed his late uncle Alphonse's seat on the Council of Regents until the council was abolished in 1936. ∞ 1905 Hon. Mabel Georgina St. Aubyn (1872–1944). She was the daughter of John St Aubyn, 1st Baron St Levan and Lady Elizabeth Clementina, daughter of John Townshend, 4th Marquess Townshend. They had three children, including: