Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    X928
  • Title
    Argenti Family Papers
  • Date free text
    C19-20
  • Production date
    From: 1800 To: 2000
  • Admin/biog history
    The Argenti family were part of the Chian diaspora being descended from families who had left the Aegean island of Chios after the massacre of 1822. The massacre was part of the Greek War of Independence, but Chios remained part of the Ottoman empire until joining the modern Greek state in 1912. The family were part of a network of wealthy Chian merchants spread around the globe. This collection relates to Ambrose Nicolas Argenti (1866-1952), his wife Henrietta and their children. There are a few documents and references to their extended family. Ambrose and Henrietta’s mutual ancestor, Leonidas Pandely Argenti, was one of those killed in the 1822 massacre. His wife and children escaped the island. Future generations moved to London where Ambrose Leonidas Argenti had, amongst others, two daughters: Marigo and Marietta. Another branch of the Argenti family descended from Pandely Leonides Argenti (1716-1793), father of the aforementioned Leonides Pandely Argenti, had escaped Chios to Marseilles, one of the centres for Chian merchants. Here Nicolas Andreas Argenti was born in 1834. He later settled in London and on 14th June 1862 Nicolas Andreas Argenti, merchant, aged 28, son of Andreas Nicholas Argenti, married Marigo Argenti aged 21, daughter of Ambrose Leonidas Argenti at the Transfiguration Greek Church, London Wall. Nicholas and Marigo's son, Ambrose Nicholas Argenti (1866-1952), was a merchant, a member of the Baltic Exchange and Chairman of the Commercial Union Insurance Company and of the Ionian Bank. In 1890 he married his cousin, Arietta 'Henrietta' Sechiari (1867-1942), daughter of Marietta Ambrose Sechari nee Argenti. Ambrose and Henrietta had three children: Marigo (1891-1975), Virginia Marietta 'Gina' Argenti (1893-1981) and Nicholas Andre Argenti (1896-1961). Nicholas married in 1920 Elfrida Mary Ionides and they had two children: Anne Virginia Henrietta (1923-?) and Ambrose John Alexander (1926-?). Nicholas and Elfrida divorced in 1933. Nicholas remarried in 1934 Iris Fast (Jerrold). In 1939 Nicholas and Iris moved to Renhold. Ambrose, Henrietta and their family rented the small Picts Hill estate at Turvey as their country home from late 1899. They purchased the property in 1921 and the house remained in the family until Gina's death in 1981.
  • Scope and Content
    The collection contains a lot of material created by Henrietta, Marigo and Gina Argenti including diaries, educational material, household accounts, photographs, travel. There is also material relating to their property, particularly Picts Hill, its rental, decoration and maintenance.
  • Archival history
    The collection was deposited in the record office by Mrs A Conran, the daughter of Nicholas and Elfrida.
  • Loan status
    BECATbeing catalogued
  • Level of description
    fonds
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