Obituaries Australia

John Mitchell, n.d.

from Pastoral Review, 16 May 1923

We announce with regret the death on 1st March of a very old colonist, Mr. John Francis Huon Mitchell, of Ravenshoe, Ravenswood, Victoria, late of Hawksview, Albury, N.S.W., and born in 1831 at Brisbane Meadows, near Goulburn, N.S.W. His grandfather, Gabriel Marie Louie Huon de Kerilleau, fled with others of the Bourbon family to England when Napoleon dispersed and deported all relatives of the reigning dynasty in France. Gabriel Huon de Kerilleau was given a captaincy by the British Government, and sent to Sydney in the New South Wales Corps, or 102nd Regiment, in 1788. His only daughter was born at Parramatta in 1797, and was the first free white woman born in New South Wales. She married Captain William Mitchell, a retired officer of the British Army. After his death in 1838, Mrs. Mitchell took her family of four sons and five daughters to the Hume River, discovered and named after her relative, Hamilton Hume, the explorer, and now known as the Murray River.

The four sons of Mrs. Mitchell were all residents of the Albury district- Thomas Mitchell, Bringenbrong; Edward Mitchell, Fairlight; John Mitchell, Hawksview; and James Mitchell, Table Top. Mr. John Mitchell lived as a lad among the Waradgery tribe of Murray River blacks, and was thoroughly conversant with all their habits, and could speak their language fluently.

For thirty years Mr. Mitchell has resided at Ravenswood. He was married twice, his first wife being Miss Louie Fenner, daughter of the late Rev. T. P. Fenner. Four children of this marriage survive—Mrs. Chas. F. Hooke, Mrs. E. F. 0'Sullivan, Mr. Ernest Mitchell, and Mrs. Peter Blom.

Though reaching the great age of ninety-two, Mr. Mitchell was in full possession of all his faculties.