Various records show he was born David Louis Comtesse in Switzerland in about 1778, the son of Henry, a watchmaker.
He married Mary Rogers in 1802 at St George, Hanover Square.
He entered maker’s marks at Goldsmiths Hall in 1804 and 1824 as a gold worker from 13 Bateman’s Buildings, Soho.
He was assessed to Land Tax in 1817 on property in Haymans Row, St Pancras, in 1819 at Dean Street, Soho and in 1820 at Bateman’s Buildings.
He entered further maker’s marks from 1827-40 as a watch case maker from 10 East Street, Red Lion Square.
The burial of Mary Comtesse aged 53 years, late of East Street, was recorded at St George the Martyr, Queen Square in 1832.
The 1841 UK Census recorded him aged 60 years and a case maker at that address living with his sons Louis and Edward who had also been born overseas and both also case makers.
The record of his marriage to the 19 years old spinster Rebecca Sutton at St George, Bloomsbury in 1847 shows he was a widower aged 65 years and still a watch case maker at the previous address.
The 1851 UK Census shows him in the same trade at the same address as previously but he had aged rapidly. His age was given as 73 years. He lived with his wife and a son aged 2 years also named David Louis.
His son was christened at Friern Barnet in 1854. Their address was Black Horse Lane and his father was still a watch case maker.
Rebecca and their son were in St Peter Port, Guernsey in 1861 where she appears on the Census as a widow living on the proceeds of Railway Stocks. As no record of her husband’s death has been found in England he presumably retired to the Channel Islands and died there between 1854 and 1861.