Jean Charles Prosper de Mestre (15 August 1789– 14 September 1844), known as Prosper de Mestre, was a French-born prominent businessman in Sydney, Australia from 1818 until near his death in 1844. He was a "citizen of the world", (His citizenship was listed as French, American and Australian) who played an important role in the development of commerce and banking in the British Colony of New South Wales. He became a successful merchant and business leader in Sydney. In 1825 he became the second person to be naturalised in the colony. In addition to being one of the early directors of the Bank of New South Wales between 1826 and 1842, he was also a founder of the local insurance industry, a member of the committee of the Agricultural Society of New South Wales, and became involved in importing, shipping and whaling. There are numerous references to his business activities in the Colonial Secretary's papers of the day.
Background De Mestre was also the father of Etienne Livingstone de Mestre (1832–1916), the trainer of Archer the horse who won the first and second Melbourne Cups in 1861 and 1862, and the foremost Australian horse trainer of his era. His other descendants include: Sarah Melanie de Mestre (1877–1961) who distinguished herself as a nurse in France and Flanders in World War I, and whose decorations included the Royal Red Cross which was presented to her at Buckingham Palace by King George V on 3 June 1918 (the King's birthday);War Records of Sarah Melanie de Mestre Roy de Maistre (1894–1968), a successful Australian artist; Guboo Ted ThomasGuboo, man with a dream (1909–2002) a prominent Aboriginal leader, and the last initiated tribal elder on the South Coast of New South Wales; Margaret Augusta de Mestre (1915–1942), a nurse who was killed in action on a hospital ship on 26 February 1942 in the bombing of Darwin during World War II;War Records of Margaret Augusta de Mestre Neville de Mestre (c.1938- ), an eminent Australian mathematician and author, Emeritus Professor of Maths at Bond University, and who has held the titles of World Iron Man champion in the 60-64 age group, and Australian and World Masters surfing champion in the over-65 group for body surfing;Interview with Neville de Mestre and Lloyd Nolan HornsbyYuinart: Web-page of Lloyd Nolan Hornsby (1947- ), a prominent Aboriginal artist.
It is not true that Prosper, or his younger sister Melanie, are the children of Julie de St Laurent. It is therefore also not true that Prosper is the son of a liaison between Julie de St Laurent and Edward Duke of Kent, the father of Queen Victoria. This mistaken belief has become legend due to the incorrect assertion that Julie de St Laurent was the wife of Prosper's father André Charles de Mestre. It is true that André Charles lost his head and his life on the battle field at Martinique, and that Prince Edward was at Martinique at the time, but this death was of no significance to either Prince Edward or Julie de St Laurent.
The other incorrect assertion about Prosper's birth was made by Prosper himself in a letter dated 25 March 1830 and written to both the Collector and the Comptroller of Customs of the Colonial Government of New South Wales stating his claim to be a British subject. In this letter he made a statement that claimed he had been born in 1793 while his parents had been fleeing the French Revolution on a British ship bound for Martinique.Prosper de Mestre's statement of 25 March 1830 This statement was made to protect Prosper's commercial interests when he had applied to register a British ship, and the legality of his claim to hold a British-flagged ship was questioned. Chief Justice (Sir) Francis Forbes of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, after various letters and evidence (including Prosper's letter to the Collector and Comptroller of Customs), ruled that because Prosper had been born on the high seas in a British ship he was a British subject, and therefore his application must succeed. However Prosper was not born on the high seas in a British ship, but was born on dry land in France. Prosper's lie was not exposed in his lifetime. Neither was it exposed by his many children & descendants in the intervening years, who had always believed that he had told the truth. It was exposed in 2008, nearly 180 years after the statement was made, by his great, great, great granddaughter Maree Amor (née Wade) when she was finally able to track down the record of his baptism.From France to Martinique, Maree Amor, 12 September 2008. The correct details of Prosper's birth follow.
Family history Prosper de Mestre, whose full name was Jean Charles Prosper de Mestre, was the son of Helene Thomasse CottrelThe spelling on her baptismal record is Heleine Thomasse Cotterel. French priests, however, would spell the same name two or three ways in the same baptismal document so that there was no consistency. This was the only time her first name appeared with this spelling, and her surname was most often spelt Cottrel in the French documents for her family. The most consistent spelling of her names in documents during her lifetime was Helene Thomasse Cottrel (pronounced Cotterel). (1760–1851). He was born illegitimately on 15 August 1789 in Lorient, in Brittany in France.Baptism of Jean Charles Prosper on 17 August 1789, two days after his birth. His father, who wasn't present at his birth, is believed to be André de Mestre (c.1756-1794). André Charles and his elder brother Jean, after whom it appears Jean Charles Prosper was named, were both soldiers in the French Army, and André rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Prosper's younger sisterNot older sister as Prosper's statement of 1830 suggested. Melanie Caroline Jeanne Mestre was born 15 months later on 15 November 1790 in Lorient, and her father André Charles and her mother Helene claimed at the time that they had married in 1788 in Helene's home town of Rennes. No record of a marriage has been found in 1788 at Rennes, or at any other time, or in any other place, and it is believed that they never did legalise their union. In March 1791 André Charles' regiment was transferred under the royalist new Governor-General Behague to the island of Martinique in the French Caribbean, regarded politically as part of France. It was here three years later, in March 1794, that Prosper's father André Charles died. The republican General Rochambeau, who had taken over in Martinique in February 1793, and who had promoted Prosper's father to the rank of colonel of artillery on 10 February 1793,Did André Charles de Mestre have royalist or republican leanings during the French Revolution? André Charles was posted to serve in Martinique in March 1791, and served there until early February 1793 under a royalist governor-general who deported troops showing republican leanings, and who may even have given André Charles a promotion (unrecognised by France) to lieutenant-colonel in 1792. At General Rochambeau's take over of the island in February 1793, André then found himself serving under a republican, but was so highly regarded as to have almost immediately been given a promotion to colonel. Perhaps André did not have strong views either way; or as a career soldier chose to keep his views hidden; or even changed his views over time. Either way he loyally served his commanders, to the best of his ability. recorded details of Prosper's father's death in his journal. In the journal entry dated 14 March 1794 is the record
"The Colonel Mestre of the artillery had his head taken off by a cannon ball. I was covered in his blood and I had a slight bruise of the heel. This officer was of great merit and his loss is irreplaceable. He was day and night on the ramparts. His talents were known to me during the war in the countryside that had already happened in this country and I have myself to recognise them on this occasion. His activities were greater during the siege and his multiple assets were to be at the same time director of the artillery, captain of the gun markers and the bombardier. He leaves a wife and two children. The republic should take care of them and give them a pension because this brave man had no fortune at all except his talents, his courage and his qualities.
There is another gruesome mention of Prosper's father's death further down in the journal entry where mention is made of André Charles' skull bones wounding the General's aide, Marlet, in the kidneys. A year later in March 1795, Prosper's mother Helene married an officer of the invading British Army, Captain James "Jean" Armstrong (1769-aft.1836) of the 6th (1st Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot."Royal Mistresses and Bastards" Anthony J. Camp
Early life The next record of Prosper de Mestre is not in Martinique, but in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as his parents had moved; this is where he received his schooling. He was known at this time as Prosper Mestre. He was naturalised an American citizen by the Court of Quarter Sessions in Philadelphia on 5 June 1811; at this point he was 21 being "of full age", which confirms that he was born before June 1790. In his naturalisation papers he stated that he had arrived in Philadelphia on 14 April 1802, when he would have been 12 years old. He was to state in his statement in 1830 that he was sent to Philadelphia in 1802 following the (British) evacuation of Martinique after the Treaty of Amiens. Unlike much of the rest of his 1830 statement, the year of his arriving in Philadelphia appears to be true, as it agrees with his earlier statement in 1811. Prosper was joining his mother and sister in the United States where she had given birth to Prosper's younger brother Andrew Cottrel Armstrong.Helene's son to James Armstrong, Andrew Cottrel Armstrong, claimed in the US 1850 census to have been born in New Jersey between 1 June 1795 and 31 May 1796. There is also a baptism record for a friend's child in May 1797 showing that Prosper's mother was at that time in New York. In 1802, when Prosper joined her, Prosper's mother was living in Philadelphia as a single mother and widow,Prosper's mother is listed in the 1803 Philadelphia Directories as a widow; and in 1801 is a sponsor at a baptism in Philadelphia together with her future husband Joseph Coulon. In late 1803 she married Joseph Coulon (1763–1815), a Frenchman and naturalised American citizen (Philadelphia 1798), an import merchant, who had connections with France, with Pondicherry in India, with Mauritius, and possibly also with the Caribbean.
Sydney According to Prosper's 1830 statement he left Philadelphia in 1812 and travelled to China, and he also resided in Mauritius, India and "other British Colonies". This part of Prosper's 1830 statement was largely correct. Prosper had left Philadelphia in 1812 working in the shipping industry for his stepfather, Joseph Coulon, as supercargo.De Mestre Family Then, no longer working for his stepfather who had died at the end of 1815 as the result of a shipwreck off the coast of New Jersey, the much travelled 25-year old arrived in Sydney on 4 April 1818Journal of Lachlan Macquarie on board the Schooner the "Magnet" which had sailed from Calcutta via Mauritius to Sydney. (Coincidentally a ship that was later wrecked off the coast of a whaling station in New Zealand less than two weeks before Prosper died in September 1844.New Zealand Ship Wrecks) After living in various countries and arriving in Sydney as supercargo on the "Magnet", Prosper liked what he saw, and decided to stay.
Career