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Menelaus (Zannis) Negroponte[1, 2]

Male 1838 - 1893  (55 years)


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  • Name Menelaus (Zannis) Negroponte 
    • On the birth certificate of his son, his name appears as Mihelas Negropontes.
    Birth 1838  Constantinople/Istanbul, Turkey Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Death 27 Jan 1893  Athens, Attica, Greece Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Notes 
    • Knight of the Order of The Saviour.
    • Residence: 1873, rue Montgrand 39, Marseille, France; 1877, Constantinople; 1878, Syros.
    • Occupation: corn merchant; landowner
    • Menelaus Negroponte was the Constantinople merchant who created an eponymous scandal in Britain. M.J. Negroponte had corresponded with William Ewert Gladstone in 1877, when the latter was in opposition, in between stints as four-time prime minister. During what became known as "The Negroponte Affair" Gladstone was accused of fomenting Greeks living under Ottoman rule into sedition and the affair dragged on into a libel case against the press in which Gladstone testified. Except for his writing letters to Gladstone and to The Times of London (to explain, in fact to further complicate), Negroponte was not otherwise involved; but he had effectively created a political hellstorm, consciously or not. He, like Gladstone, was misrepresented and demonized in the press. Briefly covered in the French press: Le XIXe siècle (Paris), 2 Feb 1878, p. 1; Le Temps [Paris], 28 Aug 1877, p. 3; 26 Sep 1877; 29 Mar 1881, p. 3; Journal des débats politiques et littéraires, 26 Sep 1877;
    • Supporting Gladstone and treating Negroponte as an unfortunate victim, one newspaper opined: "As for M. Menelaus Negroponte, who has been rendered very miserable by the fuss which has been made about the letter, all who know him are amazed and amused that he should for the moment be regarded as a conspirator. He is a comfortable and rather 'crummy' corn merchant, of conservative tendencies, and with a correct taste in cereals." (Liverpool Mercury 6 Jun 1879).
    • Mr. Negroponte, a Constantinople merchant, was aboard the Rethymo when it sank on the Bosphorus (The Times [London], 31 Dec 1874). He was rescued and his £T 4,200 was retrieved.
    • 30 Aug 1878: Menelaos I. Negroponte, 40, born Chios, married, merchant, swore allegiance to the Greek government at the town hall, Ermoupolis.
    • Likely appears in the Boudouris Family Archive: Merchantile Correspondence (1879-1882); F. 25.4 (1882); Letters [between Boudouris and] A.E.Mavrogordatos, D.Ch. Pestemalzoglu (Trieste), N.V.Kavour (Syros), M. Negrepontis, S. Evripides, D. and M. Lenos (Constantinople), Van der Zee (Smyrna) and others; Merchantile Correspondence (1883-1886); F. 26.1 (1883); Letters [between Boudouris and] D.Ch. Pestemalozoglu (Smyrna), A.E. Mavrogordatos, Men. Negrepontis, G. Flokos (Limni), N.V. Kavour, W.Sastour, I. Marikopoulos and others. [3]
    Person ID I1198  Negroponte-Agelasto
    Last Modified 30 Jan 2016 

    Father Zannis (Theodore) Negroponte,   b. Abt 1797, Chios, Greece Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Bef 1868, Constantinople/Istanbul, Turkey Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 71 years) 
    Mother Catherine (Ulysses) Meimarides,   b. Tatavla, Constantinople/Istanbul Turkey Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1891, Athens, Attica, Greece Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Marriage Abt 1897  Athens, Attica, Greece Find all individuals with events at this location  [4
    Family ID F507  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Eleni (Andreas) Vagliano,   b. 17 Apr 1854, Constantinople/Istanbul, Turkey Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 16 Mar 1927, Athens, Attica, Greece Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 72 years) 
    Marriage 16 Jan 1872  Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur,France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • This marriage is not indexed in the Marseille register.
    Children 
    +1. Miltiades (Menalaus) Negroponte,   b. 04 Apr 1873, rue Montgrand 39, Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur,France Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 16 Apr 1951, Athens, Attica, Greece Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 78 years)
    Family ID F511  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 14 Feb 2010 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - 1838 - Constantinople/Istanbul, Turkey Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarriage - 16 Jan 1872 - Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur,France Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDeath - 27 Jan 1893 - Athens, Attica, Greece Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Photos
    rue Montgrand 39, Marseille, France
    rue Montgrand 39, Marseille, France
    photo 2009
    rue Montgrand 37-39, Marseille, France
    rue Montgrand 37-39, Marseille, France
    photo 2009

    Documents
    Mr. Gladstone and the Greeks
    Mr. Gladstone and the Greeks
    Liverpool Mercury 25 Sep 1877 article treats Mr. Negroponte as a victim
    Menelaos Negroponte 1893 death certificate
    Menelaos Negroponte 1893 death certificate
    English translation by George Agelastos
    Comment on the Negroponte Brothers
    Comment on the Negroponte Brothers
    Henry Du Pré Labouchere, Truth, v. III, n. 64, 21 Mar 1878, p. 355. The Gladstone-Negroponte affair is mentioned in several issues of this publication.

    Headstones
    Negroponte Family Tomb
    Negroponte Family Tomb
    (detail) Sec. 4, site 584; Athens First Cemetery, Athens, Greece; The poet is Kostas Ouranis, interred here with his wife, Eleni.
    Negroponte Family Tomb
    Negroponte Family Tomb
    (detail) Sec. 4, site 584; Athens First Cemetery, Athens, Greece

  • Sources 
    1. [S1] Philip P. Argenti, Argenti 1955, (London Oxford University Press).
      Included in Philip Argenti's Negroponte family tree, number 178.

    2. [S25] Greek State Archives (Syros).
      #146 Registry of Oaths of Allegiance

    3. [S88] Elia, Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive.

    4. [S17] Sturdza, Mihail-Dimitri, Sturdza, Dictionnaire Historique Genealogique ... Grece, (self, Paris, 1983), 364.



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