John & Anna Pasteur
George Lewis Coke of Melbourne Hall was the son of the Right
Honourable Thomas Coke, Vice-Chamberlain to Queen Anne and King George I and
owner of Melbourne Hall. When he was 19 he went on a Grand Tour of Europe and
returned with a “tutor and companion” called John Lewis Pasteur (I). Many tales
and explanations have been put forward about this man and his origins, and also
the origin of his name.
What is true however is that Pasteur started a hosiery business in Melbourne hiring out frame-work knitting machines to workers to produce stockings, gloves, etc. He married Elizabeth Clarkson in 1750 and they had a son in 1754 also called John Lewis Pasteur (II), who was the subject of this memorial. They also had a daughter, born 1757 who sadly died at the age of 10, in 1767. (see Hardinge Chapel for her memorial).
In 1779 the hosiery business, then called John Lewis Pasteur
& Son went into receivership and in 1780 they sold off 40 Stocking Frames.
John Lewis (II) married Anna Maria Clifford in 1777. They
had a daughter, Maria Rosetta Pasteur in 1778 and a son, also called John Lewis
Pasteur (III) in 1781. Unfortunately John Lewis (II) died in 1782 when he was
only 28 years old.
His wife Anna Maria (ne Clifford) was an illegitimate daughter of Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers and his mistress Margaret
Clifford, daughter of Richard Clifford, of Breedon, Earl Ferrers agent.
*See
Mary Godkin for more about Earl
Ferrers, his illegitimate children and his being hanged at Tyburn.
