Jean Pierre born on 28 September in Saint-Arey in South West France 1808 arrived in Cape Town South Africa in middle September 1831. He was the first born child of Jean PELLISSER and Madelene SILVESTRES. The surname is more common in France spelt as PELICIER. The surname means “maker of fleece raiment” He married Martha Thorpe MURRAY, an Irish woman from Dublin. She was born on 23 February 1814 as the third eldest daughter of James MURRAY and Sarah Maria Wilhelmina ARMSTRONG. Jean Pierre and Martha Thorpe got married in Graaff Reinet in the Karoo in South Africa. Jean Pierre was a missionary from the “Paris mission société“ He worked in various towns in South Africa. Mostly in Kuruman in the Northern Cape, Coetzee's Rust (Zeerust) in the Western Transvaal and Groot Moordenaarspoort (Bethulie) in the Southern part of the Orange Free State. He also had an extra ordinary knowledge of medicine and the French man was fluent in Dutch, Tswana and English. He died in Bethulie on 11 June 1867
Martha Thorpe died in Bethulie on 17 October 1887, more than 20 years after Jean Pierre.

CHILDREN:

b1 Henriette *1 January 1835, +1 February 1835

b2 Henri *26 May 1836, +22 Aug 1843

b3 Amelie *3 August 1838, +4 December 1838

b4 Louise Hortense *10 June 1841, +1 December 1921 lived up to 80 years old. She married Robert SCOTT

b5 Marie Clementine *10 March 1843 died as a 14 year old on 3 September 1857

b6 Charlotte Caroline *11 June 1846, +26 October 1927. She married Herman KLYNVELD   *8 July 1832, +21 July 1907

b7 Emilie Marguerite *16 August 1848, + 14 July 1883 married on 24 June 1873 to George NORVAL*30 September 1842, +3 April 1918. He was the son of John Edward NORVAL and Mary Jane MURRAY, a couple that came from Scotland to South Africa.

b8 Samuel Henri *19 January 1850, +29 July 1921, x Josephine Elise Johanna ROUX *2 December 1857, +28 June 1907 on 12 March 1878 in Cape Town, daughter of Pieter ROUX and Josephine Antonia Elise d’HEIL

Sources:

1. National Archives of South Africa
2. Paris mission société documents