The Charles Merlin Family

The Merlins

While wandering through the Protestant section of the First Cemetery we noticed the name Merlin. That aroused our curiosity and, upon investigating, we discovered that Charles Merlin (1821-1896), founder of the Greek branch of the Merlin clan, was indeed something of a wizard.  As a British official, collector, and merchant/financier, he was one of many foreigners who, after 1830, saw real advantages in residing in the new Kingdom - and he got rich in the process. Charles would die in England but his offspring remained and have worked their own little bits of magic on the Greek countryside.

 

Family Beginnings

Charles Merlin was born in London in 1821 to French parents. He became a clerk and administrator at the British consulate in Piraeus in 1839 at the tender age of 18. His qualifications were pretty much the norm for the time: fluency in languages, good penmanship, and a willingness to further British trading interests.  When he arrived in Greece, Athens had a population of about 5,000 souls.  Piraeus had 1,000.

In 1846 Merlin became the British Vice-Consul. This was an honorary title requiring an income from other ventures, in his case as an employee of the Ionian Bank.  Between 1865 and his retirement in 1887 he served as the British Consul at Piraeus.

This latter position was salaried, but throughout his diplomatic career he, like most diplomats, was allowed to engage in commercial activities alongside his official duties. The post itself assured his desirability as a business partner and offered one more perk besides: access to the British diplomatic pouch, thus assuring his smooth rise to riches. Antiquities could be handily transferred to Britain with the utmost discretion.

 From 1865 to 1892, Merlin supplied some 460 items to the British Museum and sold others on the London art market.

Demeter and Persephone, sold to the British Museum by Merlin in 1884 for 150 pounds (see footnote 1)

The practice of diplomats dealing in antiquities was widespread and at the time a perfectly acceptable pastime for ‘gentlemen’. Even the great Heinrich Schliemann marketed his finds on occasion.

 

The antiquities law in Greece (from 1834 to 1899) permitted sales of antiquities within the country and their exchange rapidly came to be understood as a profitable investment – among gentlemen of course, and all the more so if they could ultimately be trafficked abroad. There seems to have been a friendly rivalry among those in the know about Greek antiquities. Merlin commented rather unflatteringly during Schliemann’s excavations at Mycenae that his friend Schliemann was always wont to claim all “his geese as swans”. He had to eat those words when Schliemann discovered the famous grave circle there! 

Merlin was not at all shy writing about his activities. He explained that it was not just for profit but was his “patriotic duty”.  His many dispatches on the subject have become a source for researchers trying to investigate just how the antiquities trade worked in the 19^th century. (1)

 By the 1860s Merlin was firmly ensconced as part of the Athens elite and was responsible for securing a number of loans for the Greek government through the mediation of the Ionian Bank. 

He returned to reside in England in 1887 -  a wealthy man and still working for the Ioanian bank, this time in London.  But he returned to Greece often. He built a wonderful mansion in the 1890s opposite the royal palace on Ag. Sophias Street and rented it to the French Embassy. The building was to be his daughter’s inheritance. (2)  

His children remained, becoming large landowners in Corfu, Crete, Lamia, and Attica. His son, Sidney, a crack shot, took part in the 1896 Olympic Games and two more as well. He was a trained botanist and introduced the now famous Merlin orange to Greece:

These oranges are prized for their sweetness 

  He was also responsible for a more exotic import, - introducing the elegant Kumquat tree from Japan, a wonderful addition to the Greek country side: 

No visit to Corfu would be complete without tasting a kumquat liqueur. It is the only citrus fruit that can be eaten skin and all.

An Interesting Footnote: The Enigma Machine, the Merlins and the Greek Royal Family

At the beginning of the Second World War and for several months, the Merlins housed the Greek royal family on their estate in Crete.  Because Bletchly Park had cracked the Enigma code, they knew of the impending German invasion of Crete.  It was one of the few times that they shared what they knew, - and warned the king.  The Merlins  remained at their house as if all was as usual in order to fool any German spies while the royal family escaped to Egypt. They themselves escaped only at the last moment. (3)

A small street near the French Embassy is still named after the family.

Their grave lists many Merlins

Map of the Protestant Cemetery

The Merlins are number 5 just inside the entrance

(μιαβολτα.γρ)

Footnotes

(1) See: On Her Majesty’s Service: C.L.W. Merlin and the Sourcing of Greek Antiquities for the British Museum by Yannis Galanakis

http://www.chs-fellows.org/2012/11/30/on-her-majestys-service-c-l-w-merlin-and-the-sourcing-of-greek-antiquities-for-the-british-museum/

 

(2) It was bought by France in 1913 but is still named after  the French branch of the Merlin family, Hôtel Merlin de Douai, in their honour.

(3)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Merlin