Surenne, Gabriel Jacques, 1777-1858 (Premier French teacher, Edinburgh)
Person
Dates
- Existence: 1777 - 1858
Biography
Gabriel Jacques Surenne was born in France in 1777. He possibly served as a soldier during the Napoleonic wars, then married in London in 1802, and declared himself a "Goldsmith and Jeweller" before facing bankruptcy in 1813. By 1818, he established himself as a French teacher in Edinburgh, teaching at the Scottish Military and Naval Academy and the Merchant Maiden Hospital. He also wrote and published French instructional books, becoming one of the premier French teachers in Edinburgh. Surenne continued teaching until the early 1850s, and died in 1858. Two of his sons also became teachers in Edinburgh.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Manuscript French exercise books of Jane Hay Goodlet, taught by Gabriel Jacques Surenne, 1841; 1843
Item — Box CLX-A-479
Identifier: Coll-1848/23-0132
Scope and Contents
These are two well-presented French exercise books created by a twelve-year-old girl named Jane Hay Goodlet, who was under the guidance of Edinburgh's leading French teacher, Gabriel Jacques Surenne. The first exercise book contains twelve single-page essays on various subjects, including French historians, poets, geography, eloquence, and "Les beaux-arts", followed by similar essays in French on British historians, poets, authors, and the sciences. The second exercise book, dated 1843, is...
Dates:
1841; 1843