(John) Frederick Andrew [formerly (Johann) Friedrich Andreas] Huth

London merchant banker, founder of Frederick Huth & Co., a counterclaimant as assignee of a charge of 100,000 florins, for compensation on the Vrouw Anna estate in British Guiana: the firm then appears to have reached a settlement with another claimant, John Campbell senior & Co., to whom it transferred its claims.

Born 29 October 1777 in Stade, Hanover, Germany, son of Johann Friedrich Huth, a soldier, and Marie Amelia, daughter of a farmer. In 1791 apprenticed to Brentano Urbieta & Co., a Spanish merchant house at Hamburg and then, from 1797, lived in Spain (where he married in 1805 a Catholic, Manuela Mayfren, with whom he had 5 sons and 6 daughters. He was a strong Lutheran. Manuela and the children later converted to the Church of England in London in 1815.) He also lived in South America before settling in London around 1809, escaping there because of the French invasion of Spain. 'Chiefly a foreign merchant engaged in trade with Spain, Latin America and Norway, especially timber, and then became a merchant banker, chiefly investing in North American shares for wealthy British people.' (Rubinstein) In partnership from 1815 with John Frederick Gruning, a Bremen merchant. Naturalised 1819, retired 1850.

As Frederick Huth & Co., based in South Place, off Finsbury Square, London. Subsequently, Huth moved his family home to Clapton and then, in the late 1830s, to Upper Harley Street.

By the mid-1820s the business much connected with Spain and Norway but also developing Latin American trade, including dealing in coffee cargoes for a firm in St. Domingo. Huth appointed as London financial advisor and banker to the Spanish queen in 1829 and financial agent for the Spanish government. By the later 1830s extending business to North America: in 1839 a Liverpool house opened to facilitate north Atlantic merchanting and trade finance, especially in cotton. By the end of 1839 one third of the Huth business was with America and the firm became of major importance in the investment of American securities in Europe, mainly in Spain and Germany. By the late 1840s the Huths were one of London's leading houses,

In 1850 Huth retired (leaving the business in the hands of Daniel Meinertzhagen, his son-in-law, and his sons, Charles Frederick, Henry, and Louis). He died at 33 Upper Harley Street, London, on 14 January 1864, and was buried in the family mausoleum at Kensal Green cemetery. His firm continued as a prestigious house, but after Meinertzhagen's death in 1869 it went into relative decline, eventually being wound up in 1936.

T71/887 British Guiana claim nos. 2398A&B (Vrouw (?) Anna).

William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? 1860- (Volumes 3 and 4, manuscripts in preparation), reference 1864/36 Huth (John) (ne Johann) Frederick Andrew; Charles Jones, 'Huth, (John) Frederick Andrew [formerly (Johann) Friedrich Andreas] (1777–1864)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.