------------------------------------
Baptised Robert d'Ailleboust d'Estimauville de Beaumouchel on March 20, 1827 at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
He passed away from Bright's Disease and Ulcerative Cystitis at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, NY in 1895. He had been working and living in Trenton, NJ. His wife and adopted son were at the time living in Stockton, California.
Robert was a lawyer and an editor. In 1879-1880 he had a dispute with the California Senate after he won a seat in the Senate election. He was not allowed to serve as his claim of becoming a naturalized United States citizen in 1849 (around the time he came to California as a 49er) could not be verified. His friends at the time were Selby, Rolland, and Rochon. One of the Rochon brothers later gave some testimony that he was with Robert in New York when he applied for naturalization. Selby also sent an affidavit. Rolland died young.
His story was that he came to the United States with his widowed mother as a child around 1839. This would have been after the 1837 Rebellion in Canada. One of his uncles seemed to have joined the US military at around that time. His other uncle Charles Hunter co-founded a "Patriote" newspaper in Quebec in 1837 that led to him being arrested as a political prisoner for treason. However, he was never formally charged and was ultimately released. Another report said Robert's mother moved to the US in 1830 after her husband died and Robert was 3 years old.
"Judge Desty spent his boyhood in Quebec, where he got the foundation for his education, afterward living in Brooklyn and Philadelphia." (Source: The Albany Law Journal - 1896). Robert's uncle F.H. D'Estimauville lived in Brooklyn with his family.
Robert's sister (living in Philadelphia) married her first husband Thomas Roberts Tanner, a son of Henry Schenck Tanner, in New York City in 1842.
In 1847 Robert Desty served in the Mexican-American War. According to his land grant document he was a Sergeant in Captain Tompkin's Company J 10th Regiment of the US Infantry.
Robert claimed that his own mother remarried when he was around 12 or 14. Other accounts say later around 1845. He said that his mother was married in total to two American husbands after she moved to the United States. The second marriage was in 1854. She died around 1876 in San Francisco (her husbands names were not mentioned and her exact date of death are not known. She was born Sophia Hunter). Robert also said he filed for his naturalization papers in 1849 before he went west to California. He sailed to San Francisco with a few others (including his cousin) on the "Empire City" steamship on December 1, 1849 via Chagres (the "Empire City" and "Crescent City" were two ships that did the Atlantic Route). They would have traveled via land to Panama and then left by a steamship from that Pacific port to San Francisco.
In a reply to a prior article in the newspapers of Quebec, a letter published in the June 25, 1853 issue of the Journal de Quebec stated that he wasn't in Sacramento, he was working for a newspaper called The Standard, and he had a ranch in Napa Valley.
Robert married his wife Mary Davison (from Ireland) in Weaverville, California in 1860. Since he was living at the home of the town's pharmacist Dr. H.B Davison in 1859 (from County Derry Ireland) it seems that this is the connection of how they knew each other. Their marriage announcement in the newspaper also mentions her maiden name. In a Chico, California paper Mary is noted to be visiting a brother Lieutenant James Davison (also of Ireland). Those two men both came from Ireland to New Jersey as children with their parents, went back to Ireland for schooling, and then came back to the USA when they were older. Mary either came with them or her parents returned as well. John Davison was James Davison's brother. Dr. H.B. Davison was also a brother.
"Many of your readers will remember Dr. H.B. Davison and the old Davison home which stood on the Oregon street hill, overlooking the town. Lately I was permitted to read a letter from John Davison, a brother of the pioneer druggist of Weaverville. It told that he (John) is a resident of Vina, Tehama county; that his brother James' address is 900 Powell street, San Francisco; that Dr. (H.B.) is and has been for many years a resident of Los Gatos, and though 74 years old might easily pass for 50. His wife was gathered home years ago. Mrs. Robert Desty (a sister) lives in Stockton. Her husband will be remembered by old Settlers as one of the brightest school teachers Weaverville had in the early days. I well remember the day that Desty walked in the JOURNAL office, unkempt and dust covered, and announced that he had just arrived from Humboldt Bay; that he had walked all the way and frightened hostile Indians from the trail as a result of his personal appearance; that he could "stick type," and adding "For God's sake give me something to do." I did, and never regretted it, for he afterwards proved himself worthy of assistance. Two excellent teachers - Mrs. James Hyslop and Mrs. Henry J. Howe - had carried rudimentary instruction far enough to afford Desty an opportunity of displaying his usefulness and worth as an instructor. And he afterwards clinched it as one of the Code Commissioners of the State. Were I in Weaverville I could point out girls and boys (?) who received their first instruction under Robert Desty."
(By David E. Gordon. Trinity Journal - April 25, 1896)
---
He said that he lost his naturalization papers in 3 fires in the 1850s in California (San Francisco burned several time). He accidentally started a fire with a candle in 1859 in the house he was staying at in Weaverville and lost some books and papers. He was said to still have the family papers* that were signed by the French King. His ancestors had to have one of the documents replicated by a later king because the original burned in a fire! His family was noble, and in the days of Henry of Navarre their Chateau of Beau Mouchel was destroyed by fire, with all their family papers. The king signed documents attesting this fact, and Robert Desty had in his possession papers bearing the signature Henry "IIII." The king spelled his name with a "y." (As reported by the San Francisco Argonaut newspaper).
On the 1860 census there is a Samuel H. Desty, 15, of Texas living in the household of the newlyweds. The relationship is not mentioned. Samuel H. Desty is seen again as a young adult in California military records (birthplace being Galveston) as part of the Calvary for the Union Forces. He then disappears from records. He reappears as Samuel Houston Borland in San Francisco. Based on circumstantial evidence it seems that Desty's mother began schools for educating young ladies in the eastern United States and while in Arkansas (1844-1845) had a relationship with newspaper man and doctor Solon Borland. He had been widowed twice and she was still going by the name of her deceased husband D'Estimauville. After she got pregnant and he married another woman she left town and the trail goes cold. There are no surviving records in Galveston. However, an informant of Sam's death thought he was born in Delaware. In 1850 Sophia and Sam are in Delaware. Next she seems to have married Mr. Hamlin in California.
Robert Jr. (born 1882 in New York) is referred to multiple times as Robert's adopted son. He and his wife were in Minnesota around the time of his birth in NY so he was likely adopted as a child when they were in Rochester. There was also a birth announcement and an obituary for a child Louis who died young in San Francisco.
In the Humboldt County elections for judges and members of the Assembly in September 1858, R. Desty lost as an Independent.
In early 1860s Desty was running a school in Shasta. Miss Jean Parker was his assistant.
Desty next taught in Santa Cruz. In 1863 his fellow teacher was Miss M. Hill. In 1864 his fellow teacher was Miss Webber.
In 1867 Robert was in San Francisco helping Mrs. Washington Wright start a new magazine.
In 1868 was President of the Addisonian Literary Society (organized December 23, 1864). Met in the Mercantile Library Building on Bush Street (per the 1868 San Francisco Directory).
Robert's only other close relatives (other than his likely half-brother) were the children of his sister. His two nieces from her first marriage even came out to live in California after their own mother remarried in Quebec and later passed away. He may have also had some adult step-siblings through his Hamlin step-father that lived in California and Hawaii!
Robert was buried September 27, 1895 in Mount Hope Cemetery. However the cemetery logs say he was buried on Oct 17, 1895. His wife tried to gain control of his estate for California and possibly have his body sent for which might explain maybe a delay of burial or a temporary burial site.
------------------------------------
*More about his Family Papers (According to a public interview with the Honorable O.F. Williams of Rochester, New York published in 1895 in American Law Review):
Hundreds of years ago when the French nobles maintained themselves by the sword, one of Desty's ancestors, and of whom he is a direct descendant, was asked by Francis I., King of France, for the deed of the territory where the city of Havre now stands. Justice Desty's ancestor yielded to the request but stipulated that there should be a street or rue constructed parallel to the Rue Notre Dame, now known as the Rue De Paris, which should bear forever the name Rue D'Estimauville; also that on the right hand door post of the Hotel De Ville, the City Hall of Havre, should be placed the armorial bearings of the noble house of D'Estimauville. These conditions were carried out so far at least as the street was concerned and while at Havre I had the pleasure of making an investigation of the matter as stated.
French historians believe that during the revolution of a hundred years ago in the destruction of the Hotel De Ville ended a part of the observance of the contract on the part of the King of France. Judge Desty placed in my hands a large packet of legal documents signed by Henry IV., Francis I., and other sovereigns of France, proving beyond question the distinguished character of his ancestral name and family. I took these documents to France with me and they were examined by the historians and attorneys of France with great interest.
------------------------------------
Robert Desty, law writer, was born in Canada, Feb. 17, 1827. His real name was Robert Daillebout d'Estimauville de Beaumauchal. He studied law in New York city and was admitted to the bar, afterwards teaching school in Pennsylvania. He served in the Mexican war and in 1849 went to California with the gold seekers. He settled in one of the northern counties of the state and acted as district attorney until 1868, when he removed to San Francisco, when he did some editorial work on "Parker's California Digest" (1869). From that time on he devoted his whole time to legal writing and in 1882 removed to St. Paul, Minn., where he edited the Federal Reporter. In 1887 he removed to Rochester, N.Y., and identified himself with the Lawyer's co-operative publishing company. He was also for a time the editor of the Western Reporter, and later took up the work of annotation on the "Lawyer's Reports Annotated," having sole charge of volumes 1-13 (1888-91). In 1891 he turned his attention to the preparation of a work on contract law, which was nearly completeted at the time of his death. Among his other publications are: California Citations (1874); a supplement to Parker's California Digest (1875); Federal Procedure (1875); Shipping and Admiralty (1879); The Federal Constitution (1879); California Constitution (1879); Commerce and Navigation (1880); Penal Code, California (1881); Treatise on Criminal Law (1882); Treatise on Taxation (2 vols., 1884); and Parker's supplement to Hittell's General Laws (edited 1871). He died in Rochester, N.Y., Sept. 27, 1895.
(The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans - Volume 3 - Johnson, Rossiter - 1904)
------------------------------------
Baptised Robert d'Ailleboust d'Estimauville de Beaumouchel on March 20, 1827 at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
He passed away from Bright's Disease and Ulcerative Cystitis at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, NY in 1895. He had been working and living in Trenton, NJ. His wife and adopted son were at the time living in Stockton, California.
Robert was a lawyer and an editor. In 1879-1880 he had a dispute with the California Senate after he won a seat in the Senate election. He was not allowed to serve as his claim of becoming a naturalized United States citizen in 1849 (around the time he came to California as a 49er) could not be verified. His friends at the time were Selby, Rolland, and Rochon. One of the Rochon brothers later gave some testimony that he was with Robert in New York when he applied for naturalization. Selby also sent an affidavit. Rolland died young.
His story was that he came to the United States with his widowed mother as a child around 1839. This would have been after the 1837 Rebellion in Canada. One of his uncles seemed to have joined the US military at around that time. His other uncle Charles Hunter co-founded a "Patriote" newspaper in Quebec in 1837 that led to him being arrested as a political prisoner for treason. However, he was never formally charged and was ultimately released. Another report said Robert's mother moved to the US in 1830 after her husband died and Robert was 3 years old.
"Judge Desty spent his boyhood in Quebec, where he got the foundation for his education, afterward living in Brooklyn and Philadelphia." (Source: The Albany Law Journal - 1896). Robert's uncle F.H. D'Estimauville lived in Brooklyn with his family.
Robert's sister (living in Philadelphia) married her first husband Thomas Roberts Tanner, a son of Henry Schenck Tanner, in New York City in 1842.
In 1847 Robert Desty served in the Mexican-American War. According to his land grant document he was a Sergeant in Captain Tompkin's Company J 10th Regiment of the US Infantry.
Robert claimed that his own mother remarried when he was around 12 or 14. Other accounts say later around 1845. He said that his mother was married in total to two American husbands after she moved to the United States. The second marriage was in 1854. She died around 1876 in San Francisco (her husbands names were not mentioned and her exact date of death are not known. She was born Sophia Hunter). Robert also said he filed for his naturalization papers in 1849 before he went west to California. He sailed to San Francisco with a few others (including his cousin) on the "Empire City" steamship on December 1, 1849 via Chagres (the "Empire City" and "Crescent City" were two ships that did the Atlantic Route). They would have traveled via land to Panama and then left by a steamship from that Pacific port to San Francisco.
In a reply to a prior article in the newspapers of Quebec, a letter published in the June 25, 1853 issue of the Journal de Quebec stated that he wasn't in Sacramento, he was working for a newspaper called The Standard, and he had a ranch in Napa Valley.
Robert married his wife Mary Davison (from Ireland) in Weaverville, California in 1860. Since he was living at the home of the town's pharmacist Dr. H.B Davison in 1859 (from County Derry Ireland) it seems that this is the connection of how they knew each other. Their marriage announcement in the newspaper also mentions her maiden name. In a Chico, California paper Mary is noted to be visiting a brother Lieutenant James Davison (also of Ireland). Those two men both came from Ireland to New Jersey as children with their parents, went back to Ireland for schooling, and then came back to the USA when they were older. Mary either came with them or her parents returned as well. John Davison was James Davison's brother. Dr. H.B. Davison was also a brother.
"Many of your readers will remember Dr. H.B. Davison and the old Davison home which stood on the Oregon street hill, overlooking the town. Lately I was permitted to read a letter from John Davison, a brother of the pioneer druggist of Weaverville. It told that he (John) is a resident of Vina, Tehama county; that his brother James' address is 900 Powell street, San Francisco; that Dr. (H.B.) is and has been for many years a resident of Los Gatos, and though 74 years old might easily pass for 50. His wife was gathered home years ago. Mrs. Robert Desty (a sister) lives in Stockton. Her husband will be remembered by old Settlers as one of the brightest school teachers Weaverville had in the early days. I well remember the day that Desty walked in the JOURNAL office, unkempt and dust covered, and announced that he had just arrived from Humboldt Bay; that he had walked all the way and frightened hostile Indians from the trail as a result of his personal appearance; that he could "stick type," and adding "For God's sake give me something to do." I did, and never regretted it, for he afterwards proved himself worthy of assistance. Two excellent teachers - Mrs. James Hyslop and Mrs. Henry J. Howe - had carried rudimentary instruction far enough to afford Desty an opportunity of displaying his usefulness and worth as an instructor. And he afterwards clinched it as one of the Code Commissioners of the State. Were I in Weaverville I could point out girls and boys (?) who received their first instruction under Robert Desty."
(By David E. Gordon. Trinity Journal - April 25, 1896)
---
He said that he lost his naturalization papers in 3 fires in the 1850s in California (San Francisco burned several time). He accidentally started a fire with a candle in 1859 in the house he was staying at in Weaverville and lost some books and papers. He was said to still have the family papers* that were signed by the French King. His ancestors had to have one of the documents replicated by a later king because the original burned in a fire! His family was noble, and in the days of Henry of Navarre their Chateau of Beau Mouchel was destroyed by fire, with all their family papers. The king signed documents attesting this fact, and Robert Desty had in his possession papers bearing the signature Henry "IIII." The king spelled his name with a "y." (As reported by the San Francisco Argonaut newspaper).
On the 1860 census there is a Samuel H. Desty, 15, of Texas living in the household of the newlyweds. The relationship is not mentioned. Samuel H. Desty is seen again as a young adult in California military records (birthplace being Galveston) as part of the Calvary for the Union Forces. He then disappears from records. He reappears as Samuel Houston Borland in San Francisco. Based on circumstantial evidence it seems that Desty's mother began schools for educating young ladies in the eastern United States and while in Arkansas (1844-1845) had a relationship with newspaper man and doctor Solon Borland. He had been widowed twice and she was still going by the name of her deceased husband D'Estimauville. After she got pregnant and he married another woman she left town and the trail goes cold. There are no surviving records in Galveston. However, an informant of Sam's death thought he was born in Delaware. In 1850 Sophia and Sam are in Delaware. Next she seems to have married Mr. Hamlin in California.
Robert Jr. (born 1882 in New York) is referred to multiple times as Robert's adopted son. He and his wife were in Minnesota around the time of his birth in NY so he was likely adopted as a child when they were in Rochester. There was also a birth announcement and an obituary for a child Louis who died young in San Francisco.
In the Humboldt County elections for judges and members of the Assembly in September 1858, R. Desty lost as an Independent.
In early 1860s Desty was running a school in Shasta. Miss Jean Parker was his assistant.
Desty next taught in Santa Cruz. In 1863 his fellow teacher was Miss M. Hill. In 1864 his fellow teacher was Miss Webber.
In 1867 Robert was in San Francisco helping Mrs. Washington Wright start a new magazine.
In 1868 was President of the Addisonian Literary Society (organized December 23, 1864). Met in the Mercantile Library Building on Bush Street (per the 1868 San Francisco Directory).
Robert's only other close relatives (other than his likely half-brother) were the children of his sister. His two nieces from her first marriage even came out to live in California after their own mother remarried in Quebec and later passed away. He may have also had some adult step-siblings through his Hamlin step-father that lived in California and Hawaii!
Robert was buried September 27, 1895 in Mount Hope Cemetery. However the cemetery logs say he was buried on Oct 17, 1895. His wife tried to gain control of his estate for California and possibly have his body sent for which might explain maybe a delay of burial or a temporary burial site.
------------------------------------
*More about his Family Papers (According to a public interview with the Honorable O.F. Williams of Rochester, New York published in 1895 in American Law Review):
Hundreds of years ago when the French nobles maintained themselves by the sword, one of Desty's ancestors, and of whom he is a direct descendant, was asked by Francis I., King of France, for the deed of the territory where the city of Havre now stands. Justice Desty's ancestor yielded to the request but stipulated that there should be a street or rue constructed parallel to the Rue Notre Dame, now known as the Rue De Paris, which should bear forever the name Rue D'Estimauville; also that on the right hand door post of the Hotel De Ville, the City Hall of Havre, should be placed the armorial bearings of the noble house of D'Estimauville. These conditions were carried out so far at least as the street was concerned and while at Havre I had the pleasure of making an investigation of the matter as stated.
French historians believe that during the revolution of a hundred years ago in the destruction of the Hotel De Ville ended a part of the observance of the contract on the part of the King of France. Judge Desty placed in my hands a large packet of legal documents signed by Henry IV., Francis I., and other sovereigns of France, proving beyond question the distinguished character of his ancestral name and family. I took these documents to France with me and they were examined by the historians and attorneys of France with great interest.
------------------------------------
Robert Desty, law writer, was born in Canada, Feb. 17, 1827. His real name was Robert Daillebout d'Estimauville de Beaumauchal. He studied law in New York city and was admitted to the bar, afterwards teaching school in Pennsylvania. He served in the Mexican war and in 1849 went to California with the gold seekers. He settled in one of the northern counties of the state and acted as district attorney until 1868, when he removed to San Francisco, when he did some editorial work on "Parker's California Digest" (1869). From that time on he devoted his whole time to legal writing and in 1882 removed to St. Paul, Minn., where he edited the Federal Reporter. In 1887 he removed to Rochester, N.Y., and identified himself with the Lawyer's co-operative publishing company. He was also for a time the editor of the Western Reporter, and later took up the work of annotation on the "Lawyer's Reports Annotated," having sole charge of volumes 1-13 (1888-91). In 1891 he turned his attention to the preparation of a work on contract law, which was nearly completeted at the time of his death. Among his other publications are: California Citations (1874); a supplement to Parker's California Digest (1875); Federal Procedure (1875); Shipping and Admiralty (1879); The Federal Constitution (1879); California Constitution (1879); Commerce and Navigation (1880); Penal Code, California (1881); Treatise on Criminal Law (1882); Treatise on Taxation (2 vols., 1884); and Parker's supplement to Hittell's General Laws (edited 1871). He died in Rochester, N.Y., Sept. 27, 1895.
(The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans - Volume 3 - Johnson, Rossiter - 1904)
------------------------------------
------------------------------------
Baptised Robert d'Ailleboust d'Estimauville de Beaumouchel on March 20, 1827 at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
He passed away from Bright's Disease and Ulcerative Cystitis at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, NY in 1895. He had been working and living in Trenton, NJ. His wife and adopted son were at the time living in Stockton, California.
Robert was a lawyer and an editor. In 1879-1880 he had a dispute with the California Senate after he won a seat in the Senate election. He was not allowed to serve as his claim of becoming a naturalized United States citizen in 1849 (around the time he came to California as a 49er) could not be verified. His friends at the time were Selby, Rolland, and Rochon. One of the Rochon brothers later gave some testimony that he was with Robert in New York when he applied for naturalization. Selby also sent an affidavit. Rolland died young.
His story was that he came to the United States with his widowed mother as a child around 1839. This would have been after the 1837 Rebellion in Canada. One of his uncles seemed to have joined the US military at around that time. His other uncle Charles Hunter co-founded a "Patriote" newspaper in Quebec in 1837 that led to him being arrested as a political prisoner for treason. However, he was never formally charged and was ultimately released. Another report said Robert's mother moved to the US in 1830 after her husband died and Robert was 3 years old.
"Judge Desty spent his boyhood in Quebec, where he got the foundation for his education, afterward living in Brooklyn and Philadelphia." (Source: The Albany Law Journal - 1896). Robert's uncle F.H. D'Estimauville lived in Brooklyn with his family.
Robert's sister (living in Philadelphia) married her first husband Thomas Roberts Tanner, a son of Henry Schenck Tanner, in New York City in 1842.
In 1847 Robert Desty served in the Mexican-American War. According to his land grant document he was a Sergeant in Captain Tompkin's Company J 10th Regiment of the US Infantry.
Robert claimed that his own mother remarried when he was around 12 or 14. Other accounts say later around 1845. He said that his mother was married in total to two American husbands after she moved to the United States. The second marriage was in 1854. She died around 1876 in San Francisco (her husbands names were not mentioned and her exact date of death are not known. She was born Sophia Hunter). Robert also said he filed for his naturalization papers in 1849 before he went west to California. He sailed to San Francisco with a few others (including his cousin) on the "Empire City" steamship on December 1, 1849 via Chagres (the "Empire City" and "Crescent City" were two ships that did the Atlantic Route). They would have traveled via land to Panama and then left by a steamship from that Pacific port to San Francisco.
In a reply to a prior article in the newspapers of Quebec, a letter published in the June 25, 1853 issue of the Journal de Quebec stated that he wasn't in Sacramento, he was working for a newspaper called The Standard, and he had a ranch in Napa Valley.
Robert married his wife Mary Davison (from Ireland) in Weaverville, California in 1860. Since he was living at the home of the town's pharmacist Dr. H.B Davison in 1859 (from County Derry Ireland) it seems that this is the connection of how they knew each other. Their marriage announcement in the newspaper also mentions her maiden name. In a Chico, California paper Mary is noted to be visiting a brother Lieutenant James Davison (also of Ireland). Those two men both came from Ireland to New Jersey as children with their parents, went back to Ireland for schooling, and then came back to the USA when they were older. Mary either came with them or her parents returned as well. John Davison was James Davison's brother. Dr. H.B. Davison was also a brother.
"Many of your readers will remember Dr. H.B. Davison and the old Davison home which stood on the Oregon street hill, overlooking the town. Lately I was permitted to read a letter from John Davison, a brother of the pioneer druggist of Weaverville. It told that he (John) is a resident of Vina, Tehama county; that his brother James' address is 900 Powell street, San Francisco; that Dr. (H.B.) is and has been for many years a resident of Los Gatos, and though 74 years old might easily pass for 50. His wife was gathered home years ago. Mrs. Robert Desty (a sister) lives in Stockton. Her husband will be remembered by old Settlers as one of the brightest school teachers Weaverville had in the early days. I well remember the day that Desty walked in the JOURNAL office, unkempt and dust covered, and announced that he had just arrived from Humboldt Bay; that he had walked all the way and frightened hostile Indians from the trail as a result of his personal appearance; that he could "stick type," and adding "For God's sake give me something to do." I did, and never regretted it, for he afterwards proved himself worthy of assistance. Two excellent teachers - Mrs. James Hyslop and Mrs. Henry J. Howe - had carried rudimentary instruction far enough to afford Desty an opportunity of displaying his usefulness and worth as an instructor. And he afterwards clinched it as one of the Code Commissioners of the State. Were I in Weaverville I could point out girls and boys (?) who received their first instruction under Robert Desty."
(By David E. Gordon. Trinity Journal - April 25, 1896)
---
He said that he lost his naturalization papers in 3 fires in the 1850s in California (San Francisco burned several time). He accidentally started a fire with a candle in 1859 in the house he was staying at in Weaverville and lost some books and papers. He was said to still have the family papers* that were signed by the French King. His ancestors had to have one of the documents replicated by a later king because the original burned in a fire! His family was noble, and in the days of Henry of Navarre their Chateau of Beau Mouchel was destroyed by fire, with all their family papers. The king signed documents attesting this fact, and Robert Desty had in his possession papers bearing the signature Henry "IIII." The king spelled his name with a "y." (As reported by the San Francisco Argonaut newspaper).
On the 1860 census there is a Samuel H. Desty, 15, of Texas living in the household of the newlyweds. The relationship is not mentioned. Samuel H. Desty is seen again as a young adult in California military records (birthplace being Galveston) as part of the Calvary for the Union Forces. He then disappears from records. He reappears as Samuel Houston Borland in San Francisco. Based on circumstantial evidence it seems that Desty's mother began schools for educating young ladies in the eastern United States and while in Arkansas (1844-1845) had a relationship with newspaper man and doctor Solon Borland. He had been widowed twice and she was still going by the name of her deceased husband D'Estimauville. After she got pregnant and he married another woman she left town and the trail goes cold. There are no surviving records in Galveston. However, an informant of Sam's death thought he was born in Delaware. In 1850 Sophia and Sam are in Delaware. Next she seems to have married Mr. Hamlin in California.
Robert Jr. (born 1882 in New York) is referred to multiple times as Robert's adopted son. He and his wife were in Minnesota around the time of his birth in NY so he was likely adopted as a child when they were in Rochester. There was also a birth announcement and an obituary for a child Louis who died young in San Francisco.
In the Humboldt County elections for judges and members of the Assembly in September 1858, R. Desty lost as an Independent.
In early 1860s Desty was running a school in Shasta. Miss Jean Parker was his assistant.
Desty next taught in Santa Cruz. In 1863 his fellow teacher was Miss M. Hill. In 1864 his fellow teacher was Miss Webber.
In 1867 Robert was in San Francisco helping Mrs. Washington Wright start a new magazine.
In 1868 was President of the Addisonian Literary Society (organized December 23, 1864). Met in the Mercantile Library Building on Bush Street (per the 1868 San Francisco Directory).
Robert's only other close relatives (other than his likely half-brother) were the children of his sister. His two nieces from her first marriage even came out to live in California after their own mother remarried in Quebec and later passed away. He may have also had some adult step-siblings through his Hamlin step-father that lived in California and Hawaii!
Robert was buried September 27, 1895 in Mount Hope Cemetery. However the cemetery logs say he was buried on Oct 17, 1895. His wife tried to gain control of his estate for California and possibly have his body sent for which might explain maybe a delay of burial or a temporary burial site.
------------------------------------
*More about his Family Papers (According to a public interview with the Honorable O.F. Williams of Rochester, New York published in 1895 in American Law Review):
Hundreds of years ago when the French nobles maintained themselves by the sword, one of Desty's ancestors, and of whom he is a direct descendant, was asked by Francis I., King of France, for the deed of the territory where the city of Havre now stands. Justice Desty's ancestor yielded to the request but stipulated that there should be a street or rue constructed parallel to the Rue Notre Dame, now known as the Rue De Paris, which should bear forever the name Rue D'Estimauville; also that on the right hand door post of the Hotel De Ville, the City Hall of Havre, should be placed the armorial bearings of the noble house of D'Estimauville. These conditions were carried out so far at least as the street was concerned and while at Havre I had the pleasure of making an investigation of the matter as stated.
French historians believe that during the revolution of a hundred years ago in the destruction of the Hotel De Ville ended a part of the observance of the contract on the part of the King of France. Judge Desty placed in my hands a large packet of legal documents signed by Henry IV., Francis I., and other sovereigns of France, proving beyond question the distinguished character of his ancestral name and family. I took these documents to France with me and they were examined by the historians and attorneys of France with great interest.
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Robert Desty, law writer, was born in Canada, Feb. 17, 1827. His real name was Robert Daillebout d'Estimauville de Beaumauchal. He studied law in New York city and was admitted to the bar, afterwards teaching school in Pennsylvania. He served in the Mexican war and in 1849 went to California with the gold seekers. He settled in one of the northern counties of the state and acted as district attorney until 1868, when he removed to San Francisco, when he did some editorial work on "Parker's California Digest" (1869). From that time on he devoted his whole time to legal writing and in 1882 removed to St. Paul, Minn., where he edited the Federal Reporter. In 1887 he removed to Rochester, N.Y., and identified himself with the Lawyer's co-operative publishing company. He was also for a time the editor of the Western Reporter, and later took up the work of annotation on the "Lawyer's Reports Annotated," having sole charge of volumes 1-13 (1888-91). In 1891 he turned his attention to the preparation of a work on contract law, which was nearly completeted at the time of his death. Among his other publications are: California Citations (1874); a supplement to Parker's California Digest (1875); Federal Procedure (1875); Shipping and Admiralty (1879); The Federal Constitution (1879); California Constitution (1879); Commerce and Navigation (1880); Penal Code, California (1881); Treatise on Criminal Law (1882); Treatise on Taxation (2 vols., 1884); and Parker's supplement to Hittell's General Laws (edited 1871). He died in Rochester, N.Y., Sept. 27, 1895.
(The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans - Volume 3 - Johnson, Rossiter - 1904)
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Baptised Robert d'Ailleboust d'Estimauville de Beaumouchel on March 20, 1827 at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
He passed away from Bright's Disease and Ulcerative Cystitis at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, NY in 1895. He had been working and living in Trenton, NJ. His wife and adopted son were at the time living in Stockton, California.
Robert was a lawyer and an editor. In 1879-1880 he had a dispute with the California Senate after he won a seat in the Senate election. He was not allowed to serve as his claim of becoming a naturalized United States citizen in 1849 (around the time he came to California as a 49er) could not be verified. His friends at the time were Selby, Rolland, and Rochon. One of the Rochon brothers later gave some testimony that he was with Robert in New York when he applied for naturalization. Selby also sent an affidavit. Rolland died young.
His story was that he came to the United States with his widowed mother as a child around 1839. This would have been after the 1837 Rebellion in Canada. One of his uncles seemed to have joined the US military at around that time. His other uncle Charles Hunter co-founded a "Patriote" newspaper in Quebec in 1837 that led to him being arrested as a political prisoner for treason. However, he was never formally charged and was ultimately released. Another report said Robert's mother moved to the US in 1830 after her husband died and Robert was 3 years old.
"Judge Desty spent his boyhood in Quebec, where he got the foundation for his education, afterward living in Brooklyn and Philadelphia." (Source: The Albany Law Journal - 1896). Robert's uncle F.H. D'Estimauville lived in Brooklyn with his family.
Robert's sister (living in Philadelphia) married her first husband Thomas Roberts Tanner, a son of Henry Schenck Tanner, in New York City in 1842.
In 1847 Robert Desty served in the Mexican-American War. According to his land grant document he was a Sergeant in Captain Tompkin's Company J 10th Regiment of the US Infantry.
Robert claimed that his own mother remarried when he was around 12 or 14. Other accounts say later around 1845. He said that his mother was married in total to two American husbands after she moved to the United States. The second marriage was in 1854. She died around 1876 in San Francisco (her husbands names were not mentioned and her exact date of death are not known. She was born Sophia Hunter). Robert also said he filed for his naturalization papers in 1849 before he went west to California. He sailed to San Francisco with a few others (including his cousin) on the "Empire City" steamship on December 1, 1849 via Chagres (the "Empire City" and "Crescent City" were two ships that did the Atlantic Route). They would have traveled via land to Panama and then left by a steamship from that Pacific port to San Francisco.
In a reply to a prior article in the newspapers of Quebec, a letter published in the June 25, 1853 issue of the Journal de Quebec stated that he wasn't in Sacramento, he was working for a newspaper called The Standard, and he had a ranch in Napa Valley.
Robert married his wife Mary Davison (from Ireland) in Weaverville, California in 1860. Since he was living at the home of the town's pharmacist Dr. H.B Davison in 1859 (from County Derry Ireland) it seems that this is the connection of how they knew each other. Their marriage announcement in the newspaper also mentions her maiden name. In a Chico, California paper Mary is noted to be visiting a brother Lieutenant James Davison (also of Ireland). Those two men both came from Ireland to New Jersey as children with their parents, went back to Ireland for schooling, and then came back to the USA when they were older. Mary either came with them or her parents returned as well. John Davison was James Davison's brother. Dr. H.B. Davison was also a brother.
"Many of your readers will remember Dr. H.B. Davison and the old Davison home which stood on the Oregon street hill, overlooking the town. Lately I was permitted to read a letter from John Davison, a brother of the pioneer druggist of Weaverville. It told that he (John) is a resident of Vina, Tehama county; that his brother James' address is 900 Powell street, San Francisco; that Dr. (H.B.) is and has been for many years a resident of Los Gatos, and though 74 years old might easily pass for 50. His wife was gathered home years ago. Mrs. Robert Desty (a sister) lives in Stockton. Her husband will be remembered by old Settlers as one of the brightest school teachers Weaverville had in the early days. I well remember the day that Desty walked in the JOURNAL office, unkempt and dust covered, and announced that he had just arrived from Humboldt Bay; that he had walked all the way and frightened hostile Indians from the trail as a result of his personal appearance; that he could "stick type," and adding "For God's sake give me something to do." I did, and never regretted it, for he afterwards proved himself worthy of assistance. Two excellent teachers - Mrs. James Hyslop and Mrs. Henry J. Howe - had carried rudimentary instruction far enough to afford Desty an opportunity of displaying his usefulness and worth as an instructor. And he afterwards clinched it as one of the Code Commissioners of the State. Were I in Weaverville I could point out girls and boys (?) who received their first instruction under Robert Desty."
(By David E. Gordon. Trinity Journal - April 25, 1896)
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He said that he lost his naturalization papers in 3 fires in the 1850s in California (San Francisco burned several time). He accidentally started a fire with a candle in 1859 in the house he was staying at in Weaverville and lost some books and papers. He was said to still have the family papers* that were signed by the French King. His ancestors had to have one of the documents replicated by a later king because the original burned in a fire! His family was noble, and in the days of Henry of Navarre their Chateau of Beau Mouchel was destroyed by fire, with all their family papers. The king signed documents attesting this fact, and Robert Desty had in his possession papers bearing the signature Henry "IIII." The king spelled his name with a "y." (As reported by the San Francisco Argonaut newspaper).
On the 1860 census there is a Samuel H. Desty, 15, of Texas living in the household of the newlyweds. The relationship is not mentioned. Samuel H. Desty is seen again as a young adult in California military records (birthplace being Galveston) as part of the Calvary for the Union Forces. He then disappears from records. He reappears as Samuel Houston Borland in San Francisco. Based on circumstantial evidence it seems that Desty's mother began schools for educating young ladies in the eastern United States and while in Arkansas (1844-1845) had a relationship with newspaper man and doctor Solon Borland. He had been widowed twice and she was still going by the name of her deceased husband D'Estimauville. After she got pregnant and he married another woman she left town and the trail goes cold. There are no surviving records in Galveston. However, an informant of Sam's death thought he was born in Delaware. In 1850 Sophia and Sam are in Delaware. Next she seems to have married Mr. Hamlin in California.
Robert Jr. (born 1882 in New York) is referred to multiple times as Robert's adopted son. He and his wife were in Minnesota around the time of his birth in NY so he was likely adopted as a child when they were in Rochester. There was also a birth announcement and an obituary for a child Louis who died young in San Francisco.
In the Humboldt County elections for judges and members of the Assembly in September 1858, R. Desty lost as an Independent.
In early 1860s Desty was running a school in Shasta. Miss Jean Parker was his assistant.
Desty next taught in Santa Cruz. In 1863 his fellow teacher was Miss M. Hill. In 1864 his fellow teacher was Miss Webber.
In 1867 Robert was in San Francisco helping Mrs. Washington Wright start a new magazine.
In 1868 was President of the Addisonian Literary Society (organized December 23, 1864). Met in the Mercantile Library Building on Bush Street (per the 1868 San Francisco Directory).
Robert's only other close relatives (other than his likely half-brother) were the children of his sister. His two nieces from her first marriage even came out to live in California after their own mother remarried in Quebec and later passed away. He may have also had some adult step-siblings through his Hamlin step-father that lived in California and Hawaii!
Robert was buried September 27, 1895 in Mount Hope Cemetery. However the cemetery logs say he was buried on Oct 17, 1895. His wife tried to gain control of his estate for California and possibly have his body sent for which might explain maybe a delay of burial or a temporary burial site.
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*More about his Family Papers (According to a public interview with the Honorable O.F. Williams of Rochester, New York published in 1895 in American Law Review):
Hundreds of years ago when the French nobles maintained themselves by the sword, one of Desty's ancestors, and of whom he is a direct descendant, was asked by Francis I., King of France, for the deed of the territory where the city of Havre now stands. Justice Desty's ancestor yielded to the request but stipulated that there should be a street or rue constructed parallel to the Rue Notre Dame, now known as the Rue De Paris, which should bear forever the name Rue D'Estimauville; also that on the right hand door post of the Hotel De Ville, the City Hall of Havre, should be placed the armorial bearings of the noble house of D'Estimauville. These conditions were carried out so far at least as the street was concerned and while at Havre I had the pleasure of making an investigation of the matter as stated.
French historians believe that during the revolution of a hundred years ago in the destruction of the Hotel De Ville ended a part of the observance of the contract on the part of the King of France. Judge Desty placed in my hands a large packet of legal documents signed by Henry IV., Francis I., and other sovereigns of France, proving beyond question the distinguished character of his ancestral name and family. I took these documents to France with me and they were examined by the historians and attorneys of France with great interest.
------------------------------------
Robert Desty, law writer, was born in Canada, Feb. 17, 1827. His real name was Robert Daillebout d'Estimauville de Beaumauchal. He studied law in New York city and was admitted to the bar, afterwards teaching school in Pennsylvania. He served in the Mexican war and in 1849 went to California with the gold seekers. He settled in one of the northern counties of the state and acted as district attorney until 1868, when he removed to San Francisco, when he did some editorial work on "Parker's California Digest" (1869). From that time on he devoted his whole time to legal writing and in 1882 removed to St. Paul, Minn., where he edited the Federal Reporter. In 1887 he removed to Rochester, N.Y., and identified himself with the Lawyer's co-operative publishing company. He was also for a time the editor of the Western Reporter, and later took up the work of annotation on the "Lawyer's Reports Annotated," having sole charge of volumes 1-13 (1888-91). In 1891 he turned his attention to the preparation of a work on contract law, which was nearly completeted at the time of his death. Among his other publications are: California Citations (1874); a supplement to Parker's California Digest (1875); Federal Procedure (1875); Shipping and Admiralty (1879); The Federal Constitution (1879); California Constitution (1879); Commerce and Navigation (1880); Penal Code, California (1881); Treatise on Criminal Law (1882); Treatise on Taxation (2 vols., 1884); and Parker's supplement to Hittell's General Laws (edited 1871). He died in Rochester, N.Y., Sept. 27, 1895.
(The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans - Volume 3 - Johnson, Rossiter - 1904)
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