Family background
Jules Felix Charet was born on 1 January 1818 in Calais, France, son of Andre Charet and Marie Francoise Joseph Parriere. He married (1) Virginia Emily Fockenberghe (1816-1905) on 22 January 1840 in Dunkirk, France. There were two children, Eugene (1839) and Julia (1841). He arrived alone in Hobart in 1842 by the vessel ’Harvest’ from Fairhaven in America. In 1846, he was living in Melbourne where he promoted himself as late in the employ of M Leroy, watchmaker to the King of France. Charet was married (2) to English-born Ann Ward (1824-1875) in the Bathurst Presbyterian Church on 31 March 1846 and they at least seven children including Henry F (1847), Jules T (1847), Florence J (1850), Felix F (1851) Julius T (1854), Eugenie A (1855) and Sydney A (1859). In 1849 he was living in Woolloomooloo where he was working as a jeweller. After his naturalisation in 1859 Charet moved his family to Mount Lachlan on the Waterloo Estate, however, the family’s seven roomed cottage was burned to the ground in November 1860 while he was in attendance at a council meeting. Charet and his family moved to Rockhampton, Queensland, in 1862 and he was admitted as a partner to the firm Slater and Co, Watchmakers, Opticians and Jewellers. Jules Felix Charet died in the Brisbane Hospital on 21 July 1872 from ‘congestion of the brain’.
Occupation & interests
Jules Charles Charet was watchmaker and jeweller. He was declared Insolvent in 1849 in Sydney and 1864 in Rockhampton. He was appointed the 1st Lieutenant of the Waterloo Volunteer Rifles on 16 January 1861.
Community activity
Charet presented a petition in 1860 signed by 100 ratepayers to Council requesting it to improve the condition of Pitt Street and Mount Lachlan.
Local government service
Jules Felix Charet was an alderman on Waterloo Council in 1860-61. He was elected as one of the nine inaugural alderman on the council. His seat was declared vacant by the council in February 1862 by reason of his non-attendance at the council meetings for a period longer than three months.
References
‘Council Elections’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 June 1860, p. 2, http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13042511
‘Municipal Meetings’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 August 1860, p.5: http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13044868