Pierre Paul Ferdinand Mourier

Pierre Paul Mourier (5 August 1746– 30 December 1836) was a Danish Asiatic Company trader who spent 15 years in Canton. He created a Danish-Chinese dictionary of more than 10,000 words. He owned Aagaard from 1787 to 1896.

Pierre Paul Mourier.

Early life and education

Mourier was born in Copenhagen as the youngest of 11 children of Jean Ferdinand Mourier (1792-) and Anna Henriette Mazar. His fatherserved as minister of the French Reformed Church in Copenhagen. Mourrier spent the next five years at the Royal Danish Army Academy. He then joined an infantry regiment. He was the following year promoted to junior lieutenant. He was later sent abroad for a scientific education. In 1766, he enrolled at the University of Göttingen. In 1768–70, he was part of the large group of people that accompanied the young King Christian VII on his journey to England and France. He then returned to Göttingen to complete his studies. He also spent a year in Geneva.

DAC service

In 1770, Mourier married Elisabeth Cornelia (1744-1783). She was the eldest daughter of Jaques Salomon Courtonne, a Dutch merchant in the service of the Danish Asiatic Company. In November 1770, he left the army with the rank of captain to join his father-in-law on an expedition to Canton with the DAC ship Dronning Sophia Magdalena. The ship departed Copenhagen in December 1770. Morten Engelbrecht Mauritzen served as 1st supercargo on the expedition. The ship reached Canton approximately seven months later. Some time after their arrival, Mourier obtained employment as a junior company trader.

Mourier was later joined by his wife. During their years together in Macao (where the families of European traders were installed), she gave birth to six children. After three of their children had died from smallpox, Elisabeth returned to Copenhagen with the remaining children to be inoculated. Another child died on the way back to Denmark on board the DAC ship Juliane Marie. Not long after their arrival in Copenhagen, Elisabeth Mourier fell ill and died from oedema.

During his years in China, Mourier visited Batavia, Manilla and India (including Tranquebar). As one of relatively few European company traders, he learned the Cantonese language. He created a Danish-Chinese dictionary with more than 10,000 words. He formed a close friendship with the Hong merchant Geowqua (Qiaoguan, 伍乔官: 1734–1802), (the first member of the Qu family to participate in the Canton system), whose warehouse was located next to the DAC factory. Allegedly, Prince Lee Boo visited Mourier's home more than once when the Morse called at Macao on the way back to London.

In 1784, Mourier struggled with increasingly poor health and decided to return to Denmark. In December 1784, he departed from Canton on board the DAC ship Disko. He visited London, Paris and the Netherlands on the way back to Denmark.

Late life

Frederikke Christiane Mourier, née Herbst.

Before leaving Canton, Mourier had purchased 13 crates of silk cloth and nankings on commission from Niels Lunde Reiersen. This resulted in a trial against Reiersen and Mourier since Reiersen had only obtained a license to import raw silk from China, but not finished textiles. The cloth textiles were ultimately confiscated and Mourier was fined 1,000 Danish rigsdaler and fired from the DAC.

In 1897, he married Frederikke Christiane Herbst. She was the daughter of a naval officer, vice admiral Adolph Tobias Herbst and Anne Magdalene Rasch. Together, they had seven children. They initially shared their time between an apartment in Norgesgade and a house in Gentofte.

In 1797, Mourier bought Aagaard for 70,000 rigsdaler. On 18 December 1796, he sold Aagaard for 112,500 rigsdaler to Iver Qvistgaard and moved back to Copenhagen. The family settled in an apartment at Købmagergade No. 11. In 1801, Mourier purchased the farm Bjerregaarden in Valby and some adjoining land for 12,800 rigsdaler Bjerregaard covered 16 hectares od land. The buildings included a small mill. A neighboring farm belonged to the former DAC captain Tønnes Langøe. Om 19+0. Mourier hired a young B. S. Ingemann as tutor for two of his youngest children.

Mourier was a member of Dreyer's Club. He had republican sympathies. He actively assisted Malte Conrad Bruun during the trials against him, before he fled to Paris. During the British Siege of Copenhagen in 1807, Scottish soldiers suspected Mourier of being a spy due to his excellent command of the English language. He was therefore placed in house arrest at Bjerregård.

Mourier died in 1836. He left a large book collection. An auction catalogue from 1837 lists 3,558 volumes. Nourier published three articles in Klaproth's journal Asiatisches Magazin in 1802, one of them was concerned with music and opera in Canton. Another one was concerned with a Dutch book attacking Chinese culture. The third one provided information about Buddhist monks and ceremonies.

Mourier's eldest son Charles Adolph Denys Mourier (1776-1758) married Johanne Susanne Skibsted (1780-1864), daughter of Supreme Court attorney and DAC director Poul Skibsted. They owned Hindemae Manor on Funen. His eldest daughter Elisabeth Jacobine Vilhelmine Mourier (1778-1813) married the landowner Peter Johansen de Neergaard. The daughter Anne Marie Mourier(1676-1879) married landowner Christian Petersen (1783-1841). Their children assumed the name Mourier-Petersen. The daughter Henriette Marie Mourier (1788-1882= married the nobleman Balthasar Johannes Kaas af Mur (7180-1785) and secondly captain in the Royal Danish Nacy Georg Frederich Ulrich /1762-1830). The daughter Therese Adele Mourier (1688-1882) married the military prosecutor Ludvig Ferdinand Rømer (1794-1730). The son Charles Frederik Mourier (1703-1823) was a Chancellery secretary.

External links

• Peter Poul Ferdinand Mourier at geni.com
• Mourier, Peter Poul Ferdinand at the Business Wiki of the Oldenburg Monarchy