ABSTRACT
From seventeenth century onwards there existed at Geneva an administrative commission, the Chambre des Etrangers, whose duties were to receive all foreign visitors, and subsequently to watch over them, count their numbers, and see that they paid their taxes. On August 27, 1832, 'Francois Danby, Member of the Royal Academy', evidently he was ready to assume the title which his colleagues had refused him, arrived at Geneva 'with his wife and two children', and at first put up at the Hotel du Cheval Blanc. Danby is last mentioned on April 18, 1836, when it is stated that he had reclaimed his passport in order to go to Paris. It follows that he did not remain in Geneva for eleven or twelve years, as the Dictionary of National Biography suggests, but for hardly more than three years and a half. It seems more than likely that Danby's liaison with Helen Evans dates back to 1829, when Danby was still in London.
