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Jean B Jaunay
| François M Jaunay
| Louis B Jaunay | Frank
C Jaunay | Robert JC Jaunay
| Frank JC Jaunay
François Marie Jaunay 1776–1838
An English interlude The story of François
Marie Jaunay 1
In 1815 the discreet brass plate on Nos 24-27 Leicester
Square in London's Soho changed its name from Brunet's
Hotel to Jaunay's Hotel [pictured].
This establishment had first opened for trading in mid 1800
after Louis Brunet acquired the lease of 25 Leicester Square.
Louis' connections with the Prince de Condé and the
French émigrés ensured that the hotel would
be a thriving success. The place soon became a popular rendezvous
for all the French exiles living in London as a place to
catch up with friends and the latest gossip. Moreover, as
Brunet's reputation for cooking spread, English clientele
increased in numbers too.
Louis Brunet was baptised Jean Louis Philogene Brunet on
11 April 1758 at St Sulpice Church
in Paris. He was son of Louis Brunet and Marie Louise nee
Viard. Like his father, who died while he was a young boy,
Louis was to join the household of Louis Joseph de Bourbon
Prince de Condé and work himself up to a high position
of trust. Shortly after his father's death his mother remarried
Jean Baptiste Jaunay who was also in the employ of the Prince.
The Jaunays and Brunets lived in very turbulent times in
France. The general populace was becoming quite discontented
with the king and his foreign queen who looked down on the
French with disdain. This antagonism was soon to degenerate
into the French Revolution and the beginning of the end
of the monarchy in France. The Prince de Condé supported
the royalist side and became the mouth-piece for royalist
sympathies. With the guillotine working overtime, this campaign
had to be conducted from beyond the French borders.
The close association with the Prince enjoyed by the Jaunay/Brunet
family forced the family to leave the country! Brunet profited
from his support of the Prince in exile and accumulated
enough funds to establish his hotel in London. Initially
François Jaunay went his own way, firstly as a partner
with Richard Mandry at the Sablonière
Hôtel in Leicester Square and then as
a free-lance cook while he lived at 33 Conduit Street. When
his half brother chose to retire in 1815, François,
now married to Ann Howell with two young daughters, was
offered the successful business which he gladly took-over.
Louis returned to Chantilly, with the Condés.
Continued...
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