John Christmas

John Christmas (13 October 1753—6 January 1822) was an English-born Danish sea captain and merchant. Christmas was born in Bideford, and emigrated to Denmark in 1790. He became a merchant and business owner in Copenhagen. He was the father of naval officer and plantation owner on Saint Croix in the Danish West Indies, John Christmas.

Personal life and family John was born on 13 October 1753 in Bideford, Devonshire and was the son of merchant John Smith and his wife Judith Rebecca Hopkins. He was originally given both his father's and his paternal grandmother's surnames, and was baptized as John Christmas Smith. Through his father's side of the family (his paternal grandmother, Jane Christmas), he was a descendant of the Christmas family of Waterford, Ireland. The family had originally come from England, but rose to prominence in Ireland as High Sheriffs of Waterford and MPs. The politician Thomas Christmas was John's grandmother's first cousin. Thomas' son married into the noble Irish Beresford family. In Denmark, John would claim to have a closer connection to the noble Beresford family, than he actually did, and even gave a son the middle name of Beresford.

In 1790, he was permitted by the British crown to adopt the surname Christmas and to bear the family's coat of arms registered by the College of Arms in London. Thus he and his descendants bear the name Christmas. The coat of arms consists of a barrel above a helmet and a shield. The shield contains a field of red and a gold serrated fess over which there are three black ravens. The couple had three children. Their daughter Birthe (1797–1872) married William Frederik Duntzfelt. Their eldest son Admiral John Christmas (1799–1873) was acting governor of the Danish West Indies, and died on his plantation Peters Rest on St. Croix. Their youngest child George Beresford Christmas (1800–1867) also spent time in the Danish West Indies as a naval officer. Christmas obtained Danish citizenship 23 March 1801. He sold it in 1804. Between 1804 and 1810, Christmas is not registered at an address in Copenhagen, but is recorded as having been at his country house Høveltegaard during this time. He owned Høveltegaard from 1799–1814 and again from 1820 until his death. In 1810 he purchased the property at Store Kongensgade 62 and resided there until his death. He also purchased the country house Rolighed in 1813, which passed on to his daughter and son-in-law Duntzfelt after his death.

Gyldensteen’s Gaard, a beautiful house at the corner of Bredgade and Dronningens Tværgade, which has since been completely rebuilt into the Phoenix Hotel, was incorrectly identified as John’s house in the early 1790’s in a publisher’s footnote in Sophie Dorothea Zinn’s memoirs. In fact, John owned the house for less than a year from 1809-1810 and was never registered as living there.