DUCHENE Alexandre Julien

Name	Alexandre Julien DUCHENE
Country Of Origin	France
Born	1803
Died	1850
Birth/Baptism	Born approx. 1803, Paris, France
Parents	unknown
Apprenticeship	unknown
Skills	Watchmaker, Jeweller
Work Locations	Launceston
Street Address	Brisbane Street, Launceston 106 Charles Street, Launceston
Marriage/Spouse	Eugenie Caroline Lemaire
Trial	9 May 1836, Central Criminal Court, London
Sentence	14 years transportation for receiving 59 yards of lavender silk, knowing it to have been stolen in Westminster, London.
Arrival	15 November 1836 on the convict ship, Henry Porcher
Police Number	1154
Convict Assignment	Initial assignment on arrival: James Barclay, Brisbane Street, Launceston.
Ticket of Leave	12 August 1841
Conditional Pardon	15 March 1845
Other	Also known as Alexandre Duchesne and Julien Duchesne Alexandre. Alexandre’s wife Eugenie Lemaire, found guilty of stealing the silk was sentenced to transportation for life. She arrived in New South Wales in April 1837 on the convict ship Sarah and Elizabeth. Alexandre petitioned for Eugenie to join him in Van Diemen’s Land, and James Barclay offered to pay her passage. She arrived in Launceston on the William in 1840. Late 1841: Alexandre operated his own business, Duchene & Co. with watchmaker Jules Charet as foreman. Approx. 1843: Obtained a pawnbroker licence. June 1844: Business partnership with Henry D Ley was dissolved. 1845: Convict watchmaker and engraver William Lloyd Jones was assigned to Alexandre Duchene for 12 months. December 1846: Alexandre’s conditional pardon was extended to all areas except the United Kingdom and Ireland. 1847: Advertised under the name Duchene & Co. 22 December 1847: The Courier (Hobart) published a story from the Gloucester Journal in England regarding the Chartists, Jones, Frost, and Williams. ‘ … Jones is in partnership with a watchmaker Duchene, a Frenchman, at Launceston, far better off than he ever was in England. I saw him a few weeks since extravagantly dressed.’ September 1848: A. Duchene advertised receiving 30-hour and 8-day clocks from America. He claimed the 8-day clocks were the first of this type to be imported into the colony. April 1849: Reported as ‘A Gold Hunter,’ Alexandre departed Sydney, Australia, on the Sabine, bound for California.
Death	17 December 1850, San Francisco, California, USA Cause of death: cholera. Records relating to his death state he was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
References
Douglas Wilkie, Duchene/ Hargraves, 2016. Douglas Wilkie, From the Edges of Empire: Convicts Women from beyond the British Isles, Convict Women’s Press, 2015, pp172-185. TAHO: CON31/1/11, CON27/1/2, CON18/1/9, CEN1/1/28 Census 1842, CEN1/1/99 Census 1848, CON40/1/6, CON16/1/1 [Eugenie Lemaire], CON31/1/25 [William Lloyd Jones]. Web: The News (London) 23 May 1836; Old Bailey, Reference No. t18360509-1251, 9 May 1836; Ancestry: San Francisco Area, California, USA, Funeral Home Records 1850. Launceston Advertiser 7 October 1841, 18 November 1841, 31 August 1843; The Examiner (Launceston) 23 July 1842, 14 February 1849; Hobart Town Advertiser 17 October 1843; Cornwall Chronicle 29 June 1844, 27 November 1847, 16 September 1848, 28 April 1849.