ANGERSTEIN, John (?1774-1858), of Woodlands, Kent.

Angerstein’s father came to England from his native Russia as a youth, became an underwriter at Lloyd’s, was naturalized in 1770 and after a long partnership with his father, acquired a fortune as a loan contractor during the French revolutionary war.1John Julius, who described himself, as a tontine nominee, as son of Peter and Ever Angerstein, was reported to be one of the illegitimate children of Andrew Thomson, a Russia merchant. There is an uncorroborated story that Angerstein’s mother was the Empress Elizabeth and that Thomson was endowed by her with a fortune of 100,000 gold roubles, N. and Q. (ser. 10), iv. 66; Farington Diary (Yale ed.), vi. 2059. The Gent. Mag., however, reports the death of Angerstein’s mother at St. Petersburg, 12 Aug. 1807, aged 93. He retired from the City in 1811, living in princely style, a patron of the arts and of charities. Not he himself (as has often been stated) but his only son, John, came into Parliament in 1796 for Camelford on the government interest, after a contest. Angerstein asked the Treasury to find him a seat and ‘unexpectedly’, reported George Rose, agreed to pay £4,500, whereupon Rose allocated to him a seat ‘where less will not be taken’.2E. Suff. RO, Tomline mss, Rose to Pitt, 11 Apr. 1796. He silently supported Pitt, voting with ministers on the loyalty loan, 1 June 1797, after his father had subscribed £60,000 to it, but proceeded to join opposition on the question of the Ferrol expedition, 19 Feb. 1801, as also on Tierney’s motion of 22 Apr. He went out of Parliament at the dissolution. By 1806 he was an East India Company stockholder.

At his next successful nomination (in January 1835 for Greenwich) he reminded his hearers that he had once sat for a nomination borough for which the full equivalent had been paid, but it was with feelings of pain he did so, as he objected to such a system of representation. He now described himself as a constitutional reformer, ‘a Radical to a certain extent, but no Destructive’.3The Times, 7 Jan. 1835.

He died 8 Apr. 1858, aged 84.