The Desmier family members in this website are the descendants of Charles Julien Desmier (b 1757, Niort France) who emigrated to Pondicherry to work as an Assistant Surgeon. His family later became part of the Anglo Indian community in India and subsequently members of that family emigrated to many other parts of the world but most notably UK, Australia, Canada and USA.
In addition to his descendants the ancestry of this line of
the Desmier family has been traced back to the early 17th century in
Niort. This and other connected pages contain more details about some
of the people than can be easily presented in my other website referred
to on the home page. On
each major family group page i have put a small descendant chart to
give you some idea as to where each person is related to other family
members. On a couple of pages I have provided links to more expansive
descendant charts that I recommend are downloaded so that you can view
them in another window at the same time as looking at these text pages.
I have limited the content of most of these web pages so
that they do not contain personal details of persons still alive. If I
have included information that you would prefer is not to be
online please contact me. Similarly if you would like me to add
information about Desmier descendants that I don't know about send me
details, photos etc.
This work has only been possible due to the contribution of facts and information from many people please visit my Acknowledgements page for a full list of contributors
charles julien desmierWe don’t know when Charles Julien Desmier left Niort for Pondicherry, or even if he went directly to Pondicherry. What we are sure of is that on 21st February 1786 at the age of 28 he married Marie Dominique DaCosta aged 15 at the Church of Our Lady of the Angels in Pondicherry. At the time of his marriage Charles was Assistant Surgeon at the King’s Hospital in Pondicherry. The marriage record also informs us that he was born in Niort, then in the Province of Poitou and was the son of Jean Philippe Desmier and Henriette Guillon. Pondicherry was originally established as a trading
colony by the French in 1683. The original village was tended so well
by the French that the Indians called it Phulcherry meaning flower
town. The word was corrupted by the French to Pondichéry and by the
English to Pondicherry. Over the next hundred years it was to go through a very unsettled time being captured by the Dutch in 1693, returned to French rule in 1697, captured again, this time by the British, in 1761, returned back to French rule in 1765 and then recaptured once more by the British in 1778. In 1785 Pondicherry was again restored to the French. It may well be that Charles was sent out as part of a recolonising force soon after the French regained possession of the colony and that he got married to Marie quite soon after his arrival. From 1785 to 1790 there were no less than 6 Governors appointed to Pondicherry, hardly conducive to administrative efficiency. Back in France about 1790 the French revolution was beginning. News of the revolution received a mixed reception in Pondicherry. Residents blamed their hardships on the administration in France but at the same time they were concerned for their future. A revolution of sorts occurred in Pondicherry that resulted in the forming of a General Assembly under the leadership of the Administrator of the new Compagnie des Indes to present their grievances to the National Assembly in Paris. Their main grievances were freedom of commerce and a desire for increased military and political power at the regional level. The revolution in Pondicherry did not share the same level of lawlessness and anarchy as back in France. Also they did not carry the revolutionary principles of equality and fraternity to the extent of admitting Indian inhabitants in to the General Assembly. The revolution was confined to French citizens. In 1793 war broke out yet again between France and England . In August the British attacked Pondicherry and it wasn't long before the town was surrendered over to the British to prevent inevitable further destruction as the French were hopelessly outnumbered. The personal liberty of the citizens and property rights was assured as part of the terms of surrender. In an English census in 1793 there were 823 Europeans in the town including women and children. (it would be good if we could see if Charles and any of his children were listed on this). The French possessions in India were restored to them in 1816 as a result of a Paris peace treaty.and Pondicherry was to remain in French possession until 1954 when, along with the other French possessions of Karikal Mahé and Yanam (Yanaon), it came under the administration of the Indian Government. It is possible that Charles and his family moved into British India to live and work soon after 1793, however, as I cannot find any record of the whereabouts of his burial it is difficult to say exactly when and in which generation the family became anglicised. Many of the Pondicherry records have been microfilmed by the Mormon church but I have been unable to find out much more than the information I have related here in respect of baptism of his children. I don't know when Charles travelled to India but in 1786 (29 years old) he was Assistant Surgeon at the King's Hospital in the French colony of Pondicherry. I know this because it was then that he married 15 year old Marie DaCosta whose father was a local clerk. The couple had at least two children, a daughter Marie (born 1787) and a son Jean Marie Charles who was born in 1789 but there may have been more children. His wife Marie is mentioned in a list of inhabitants of Pondicherry in 1796 as a widow living alone with no servants in the Rue de Capuchins.
A translation
of the marriage record of Charles Julien Desmier to Marie DaCosta in
Pondicherry.alongside acopy of the original document. At the bottom is
Charles Julien's signature. marie rose DesmierMarie Rose's baptism record shows that her father was still an Assistant Surgeon in Pondicherry at the time of her birth. jean marie charles desmierAt the time of Jean Marie's birth his father referred to as a full Surgeon. it seems as though Jean Marie Charles anglicised his name to John Charles. There is a note concerning him in the "Records of the Madura District 1790-1835, vol 8" as follows: John
Desmier was a Native of Pondicherry. But he quitted his country in his
infancy
and received his education in the seafaring line at the academy at
Vepery in
Madras. He considers himself to be a British subject and requests the
Magistrate to get the permission of the Government for navigation of
vessels under British colours. Thanks to Lianne Churack for this snippet. It ties him into the family nicely. There are other references to him as a seafaring man. In the marriage of his eldest daughter Caroline he is referred to as "of the Country Service". The Country Service refers to the fleet of privately owned ships that worked between the various ports of the Subcontinent and also other Asian countries. This ties in with my dad telling me that his dad told him about somebody being a ship Captain, but this could also refer to a relative on his wife's side (John Poulson). Family information that was passed to Douglas Kenneth Desmier from his uncle, Francis Charles Desmier, before his emigration to Australia in 1950 was that they were descended from Frederick Desmier a son of Jean Marie Charles born in 1830. I have a copy of another letter to an aunt of mine from frank Desmier's wife that Fredrick Desmier was known to have brothers that went to north india. I have assumed that Henry, John and Eugenia are the children of John Charles based on the fact that the dates are compatible and each of them have a John Desmier named as their father on their marriage record. Additionally I have added my ancestor George Desmier as being part of this family as the dates work OK and I have the family story about a mariner as an ancestor. Use the links in the side bar to follow the families each of John Charles' children. |