Richard Du Cane, M.P. was the Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Colchester

Colchester (UK Parliament constituency)

Colchester is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-History:...

 (Essex) from 1715 to 1722. Du Cane was from a leading Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

 family of merchants and politicians having distinguished Huguenot

Huguenot

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

 descent. The son of Peter Du Cane, the elder

Peter Du Cane, the elder

Peter Du Cane , a descendent of Jean Du Quesne, the elder and son of Pierre du Quesne and Jeanne Maurois, was a third generation English-born descendant in a family of prominent and noble Huguenot refugees who escaped from Flanders and originally settled in Canterbury in the reign of Elizabeth I,...

 and Jane Booth, he married Anne Lyde, daughter of Nehemiah Lyde and Priscilla Reade on August 17, 1710. A prominent businessman in the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

, Du Cane served as a director of the Bank of England

Bank of England

The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...

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