The Romance of Madame Tussaud's

John Theodore Tussaud

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The earliest information we have concerning Madame Tussaud is that she was born in Switzerland on the 7th of December, 1760, and w...

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The earliest information we have concerning Madame Tussaud is that she was born in Switzerland on the 7th of December, 1760, and was the only child of Joseph and Marie Grosholtz. Her mother was the daughter of a Swiss clergyman. She married on the 20th of October, 1795, François Tussaud, who, it appears, was her junior by seven years. We are able to trace his family back as far as 1630, when his great-great-grandfather, one Denis Tusseaud-for that is how he spelt his name-was born. There is documentary evidence that Denis was brought from Burgy to Mâcon in 1631, his family also coming from Burzy, close by, in 1658. His descendants lived at Mâcon for more than a century, their occupation being generally that of workers in metal. The great-grandfather of François was Henry Tusseaud (1684-1717), and his grandfather's name was Claude (1716-1767). François' father (1744-1786) was the first of the family to adopt the present spelling of the name, although we find that various members of the family[viii] used the forms Tussot, Tusseau, Tuissiaud, Tussiaut, Tusseaut, Tussiau, or Thusseaud. Madame Tussaud's marriage does not appear to have been a happy one, for we learn that in 1800-two years before she came to England-she separated from her husband, of whom we hear nothing further, although he is known to have been living in Paris in the lifetime of his grandsons. The foundress of the famous Exhibition had two sons, Joseph and Francis. Francis (1800-1873) had several sons, the eldest of whom, Joseph Randall (1831-1892), who was a student and exhibitor at the Royal Academy, was the father of the author of this book. Mr. John Theodore Tussaud was born in Kensington on the 2nd of May, 1858, and at the age of six was sent to St. Charles's College, London, where he came under the influence of Cardinal Manning, who took a keen personal interest in his welfare.