de Mouilpieds in Australia by Elizabeth Crawford

The Australian Connection.

Hello, my name is Elizabeth. I am a descendant of John de Mouilpied, son of Nicolas de Mouilpied and Rachel Martin who emigrated from Guernsey to Australia in 1853.

My husband and I recently visited Guernsey (we emigrated from Australia to the UK nearly 25 years ago) with a view to searching my family history. We also had a very enjoyable holiday. We established that Nicolas de Mouilpied, Rachel Martin and family were at ‘Les Pelleys, Catel’ on the 1841,1851 and 1861 census. Nicolas (son) left for America between 1841 and 1851. Jean (my GG grandfather) left for Australia in 1853. We had the Greff do a land search on ‘Les Pelleys’ and ‘de Mouilpied’. There are two properties in the Catel Parish. The property Nicolas and Rachel de Mouilpied were on was originally ‘Les Pelleys, Rue du Torval’ but from 1948 known as ‘Les Pelleys de Bas’

A very helpful lady at the Priaulx Library directed me to a book titled ‘Guernsey Emigrants to Australia 1828 – 1899’ by David W. Kreckeler. I found the two entries for de Mouilpied detailed below: -

De Mouilpied – Tullock Castle – Melbourne – 1852

Nicholas, 22, carpenter.

Birth. Guernsey. St Peter Port church register. Nicholas de Mouilpied and of Susanne Vidamour his wife, born on the 27^th Dec, 1830.Census. Guernsey, 1851. de Mouilpied. 381. St Peter Port.

Drowned at sea. Guernsey Star, 7^th April, 1853. Drowned,- on the 13^th Oct last, Mr Godfrey, second mate on board the Tullock Castle, on passage from London to Australia, near the Cape of Good Hope. Also, a week after, Nicholas, son of Mr Nicholas de Mouilpied, of this island, aged 22 years.

De Mouilpied – Koning Wilem II – Melbourne – 1853. John, 20

Birth. John de Mouilpied, son of Nicholas de Mouilpied and of Rachel Martin his wife, born on the 26^th March, 1822.(Note. John de Mouilpied is twin brother of Thomas)

Census. Guernsey. 1851. de Mouilpied. 255. Catel.

Death. Australia. Guernsey News, 14^th May, 1886. Died. – on the 15^th Jan, at Minyip, Victoria, Australia. John, son of Nicholas de Mouilpied, formerly of Les Pelleys, Guernsey, aged 63 years and 9 months.


I am not sure where the first one fits in. Maybe someone else will recognize the line. The second is my Great Great Grandfather.

The following entry is from the following website: -http://www.geocities.com/mepnab/d/d8.html?200917?200928 which lists Australian Pioneer Families

De Mouilpied

John De Mouilpied came c 1860 with Emma Stirling, and lived at Geelong.

2 children

1. Henry William De Mouilpied c 1858
2. John De Mouilpied 1861 #2859 lived 17 days

Henry William De Mouilpied c1858 wed #3571 to Mary Jane Bennett from South Australia, and lived at Nhill, then Yanac
3 children

1. Henry John De Mouilpied 1887 #30676
2. Mary Elizth De Mouilpied 1896 #24581
3. Gina May De Mouilpied 1899 #14840

I am concluding at this stage that John arrived in Australia as a single man as there is no entry for Emma Stirling in ‘Guernsey Emigrants to Australia 1828 – 1899’. It looks like John met and married Emma Stirling within a few years of arriving in Australia in 1853.

In the entry on Debby’s blog for May 4, 2009 Dianne Lockett mentions 6 children for Henry William de Mouilpied. I have been ‘trawling’ the Victorian Births, deaths and marriages online (website:- https://online.justice.vic.gov.au/bdm/home) and found that Henry William had at least 9 children. I also found 2 more children for John and Emma.

My trawling revealed the following: -

Jean (John) de Mouilpied b.1822 (Guernsey) d.1886 (Minyip)

m. Emma Stirling b. 1835? d.1920 (Warracknabeal)

Lived in Geelong, 1860. 4 children

1. Henry William de Mouilpied b.1859 (Geelong)

m. 1886 Mary Jane Bennett b. 1869 Lived at Nhill

2. John de Mouilpied b. 1861 (Geelong) lived 17 days
3. John Thomas de Mouilpied b. 1875 d. 1959

m. Daisy Hill b. 1885 d. 1959

4. Mary Emma de Mouilpied b. 1877

m. 1905 George Alex Newell.

NB: - The entries for John Thomas and Mary Emma record their parents as John de Mouilpied and Emma Starling.

Henry William de Mouilpied b.1859 (Geelong)

m. 1886 Mary Jane Bennett b.1869

Lived at Nhill. 9 children

1. Henry John de Mouilpied b.1887 d. 1952

m. (1916) Eva Olive Harris

2. William George de Mouilpied b. 1890 d. 1957
3. Albert Thomas de Mouilpied b. 1892 d. 1972

m. 1919 Ruby Alma Zerbst d. 1971

4. Mary Elizabeth de Mouilpied b. 1896 Yanac

m. 1917 Reg Albert Kohn

5. Arthur de Mouilpied b. 1896 d. 1924 Nhill
6. Gina May de Mouilpied b. 1899 Yanac

m. 1918 Frederick David Olney

7. Ida de Mouilpied b. 1901 Yanac
8. Hugh de Mouilpied b. 1903 Yanac d. 1942

m. 1928 Ethel Eva Iris Hutchings b. 1912 d. 1935

m. 1938 Mary Catherine Short

9. Annie de Mouilpied b. 1906

Henry John de Mouilpied and Eva Olive Harris had twin boys who died within a couple of days and 4 girls. My mother is the youngest daughter.
I would love to hear from anyone else from this line. Please contact me on elizabethcrawford333@googlemail.com

Joseph's Wayward Tombstone Found

This is an amazing story. A friend from Manchester,NH, Dick, sent me this link to an article about a couple finding the original tombstone for Joseph de Moulpied.
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=d67ff604-65b8-463e-8dac-000b332bca20
In the event that the paper stops the link, I will copy the article below:

By MARK HAYWARD
New Hampshire Union Leader
Saturday, Jun. 13, 2009

MANCHESTER – John Crawford made a rather odd discovery when he was clearing brush beside the house he moved into this past winter.

When his rake hit something solid, he was sure it was a piece of granite. But when he cleared the brush and a discarded Christmas tree, Crawford discovered a misplaced tombstone -- complete with a name, birth date and death date.

"It kind of freaked me out a little bit," said Crawford, who moved into the house at 42 Garfield Road about four months ago. His home is two houses from the corner of Calef Road and the sprawling Pine Grove Cemetery.

"It really doesn't make sense for this to be over here at all," Crawford said. "That belongs in a graveyard, not beside my garage."

The 20-by-15-inch stone bears the name of Joseph DeMoulpied, who lived from 1824 to 1903, according to its inscription.

While the city Parks, Recreation and Cemeteries Department could give no explanation of how the stone ended up beside the garage, information is available about DeMoulpied.

He was born in Guernsey, a small archipelago in the English Channel, according to a geology blog maintained by the DeMoulpied family. He eventually left the islands for Canada and served as an Anglican minister in Quebec.

Three of his children emigrated to America, and DeMoulpied showed up in Manchester in a 1900 census, living with his son Alfred.

John Crawford made a rather odd discovery when he was clearing brush beside the house he moved into this past winter. (DAVID LANE)

Cemetery workers removed the stone from Crawford's yard Wednesday, and it is has been placed in storage, said Judith Aron, cemetery supervisor at Pine Grove. When a burial is scheduled for the family lot, the cemetery will inform the family of the stone and ask them what they would like to do, she said.

She could not explain how the stone ended up at the Garfield Street home.

Cemetery records said Joseph was buried March 22, 1903, at Lot 2520, which he had purchased himself. In May 1915, the remains were removed and re-interred in the family plot -- Lot 3703 Chapel Lawn.

A large monument on the lot has the family name with a slightly different spelling -- DeMouilpied.

The house that Crawford rents has a large, fenced-in yard filled with an old travel trailer, a scrap pile and a storage shed. After discovering the DeMoulpied stone, Crawford combed the yard and found nothing else connected with the cemetery, he said.

He said he's glad to have discovered the stone.

"It's good I found it," Crawford said. "He's a minister; I'm sure he was a good man. Put him back where his son is."

The DeMoulpied blog said Joseph is buried alongside the family of his son Charles. Alfred has a separate plot, according to the blog, which is written by Debby DeMoulpied.

"What a life he must have had," wrote Debby, DeMoulpied's great-great-grandaughter. "Early-mid 1880s in quiet Guernsey and then taking such risk to move to Canada to minister with the hardships of such a remote area.

"And then finishing his life in bustling Manchester, the heart of millyards and the Industrial Revolution."

What fun!