Author: Legoux, L.
Biography:
LEGOUX, L. (fl 1810)
The author was certainly Louis Legoux, engraver in London, pupil of Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815) and friend of the print-maker Luigi Schiavonetti (1765-1810) who is lamented in the Elegiac Acrostick. Both the BM and the National Portrait Gallery hold examples of his work. The British Museum identifies Legoux and provides further details about his career: dates 1763-1836, born in London to French parents. Those details match the genealogical records of Lewis or Louis Legoux, baptised on 20 Jan. 1763 in the parish of St. James, Piccadilly, son of Elizabeth and Bernard Petitjean Legoux (who must have married in France but no marriage record has been found). He himself married Petronille Besise in 1790 in the same parish, and paid rates for an address on West Poland St. there from at least 1789 to 1797. They had two sons. He died on 8 Oct. 1836 and was buried at the Carnley Street Cemetery at King’s Cross/St. Pancras; his remains were among those removed “as a result of work on the Channel Tunnel rail link” in 2002-3. There is some cause for doubt, however, since the individual so recorded is identified in the Rate Books as “Dr.”—i.e. as a physician—and “L. Legoux” held a government post as registrar of medical licences and labels between 1817 and 1825. It seems very unlikely that the same man could carry on two careers as a professional engraver and as a physician, therefore the identification is only tentative. But this is the only Louis Legoux in the public record in the period. (ancestry.com 30 Dec. 2023; findmypast.com 30 Dec. 2023; britishmuseum.org; “Schiavonetti, Luigi” ODNB 30 Dec. 2023) HJ