Benedictum Venzeur / Vangeur

Also known as 'Van Zo' or 'Van Joe', Benedictum was born in Madagascar but moved to Mauritius where he worked as a house servant (it has been suggested that Benedictum might have been sent to Mauritius as a slave). According to official records Benedictum's surname was Vangeur.

Sentenced to ten years imprisonment after receiving a stolen waistcoat, he was transported to Australia along with fourteen other people on 3 July 1839.  As he himself very bitterly said, when speaking of his sentence:

I was 'lagged' out here to be branded as a convict because I accepted, from one whom I thought a friend, a gift of a waistcoat!

Benedictum was 35 years old at the time.

Benedictum was sent to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) but was only there a couple of months before being taken to Sydney aboard the "Layton". After 35 days he was one of fourteen prisoners, all 'coloured men' (as they were then called) who were sent to Moreton Bay on board The John, between February and April 1840.

After landing in Brisbane, Van Zo and nine of the other prisoners were sent to Limestone (now Ipswich) where they were placed in the charge of George Thorn, the overseer of convicts. Benedictum was employed curing tobacco on the Plough Station.

In 1855, Benedictum married Marian Cowlay who was from Calcutta in India. She was one of a group of people brought from India to Australia by Gordon Sandeman in 1848 to work as labourers on his station on the Burnett. Before marrying Benedict she used to go around the streets selling Calcutta lollies which she carried on a tray on her head.

When Ipswich was opened to what is commonly known as "free settlement" and the convict period ended, Van Zo went on to be a shepherd and fencer for Messrs. Ferreter and W. Uhr at Belle Vue Station. Before a bridge was built joining Ipswich Central to North Ipswich, the Vanzeur's ran a ferry across the Bremer River. After a bridge was built they started farming on the banks of the Bremer River.  His market garden, said to be in the vicinity of Waghorn Street, provided vegetables to the town, and was later sold to Arthur McGrory Snr, during the late 1950s.  When the Venzeur's were older they lived in a cottage at Brassall.

Vanzeur was a member of the Ipswich Catholic community and donated £1/10/0 to the construction of the Ipswich Catholic Church in 1858.

DEATH OF BENEDICT VAN JEURE

Many of our readers will regret to learn of the demise of Mr. Van Jeure, a coloured resident of Ipswich for the last fifty-seven years, at the ripe age of eight-four years.  His death took place in the Ipswich Hospital on the 2nd instant, paralysis being the cause.  Mr. Van Jeure was born in 1813 on the Isle of France, and left there for Tasmania in 1839, but was afterwards transferred to Moreton Bay, arriving at the Limestone Settlement in May, 1840.  He has lived in the West Moreton district ever since, following the occupations of shepherd, ferryman, fisherman, and gardener.  Van Jeure was a genial old fellow, and spoke the French language very well.  He is the last of a number of coloured people who came to Australia from the Isle of France.

Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, Saturday 9th October 1897, p.4

Queensland Births, Deaths, and Marriages has a death registration for Benedict Vanzeur dated to 2nd October 1897 (registration details: 1897/C/2115).  His father's name is listed as Basil Vanzeur. 

Marian/Marion/Mary/Maron

Newspaper articles refer to her as Marion Cowley or Marian Cawley and note that her fellow countrymen from India knew her as Bibi Fattie.  George Sanderson, proprietor of Barondowie on the Burnett, had sent to the East Indies for 50 male and female "coolies" (a pejorative term for low-wage and indentured labourers, usually from India or China) to work on his station as shepherds and domestics.  Marion, who had been born in Calcutta, was one of these labourers.  After leaving Barondowie, Marion worked as a ayah (nursemaid or nanny) before arriving in Ipswich.

Queensland Births, Deaths, and Marriages record a marriage registration between a Benedict Vauzur and Mary Cowley taking place on 29th January 1855 (registration details: 1854/BMA/568).  

She died at the age of 76 at Hungry Flat, Brassall on 3rd January 1896.  Her name on the online Death registration (Queensland Births, Deaths and Marriages) is Maron Vanzeur. The Ipswich Cemetery Burial records also state her name as Maron Vanzeur, and records that she died at the age of 80 on 3rd January 1896 and was buried on 4th January 1896 in the Roman Catholic B Section.

Her death certificate records that Benedict was the informant, that she had been married twice before and that there were no children from her marriage to Benedict (it is not known if she had children from her previous marriages). 

Veterans of Limestone.

A WELL KNOWN COUPLE.

A GLIMPSE OF THE EARLY DAYS

[By Red Gum]

The above engraving depicts a very old pair of residents of this district.  Mr. and Mrs. Benedictum Vanzeur are their names, and they will be readily recognised as a couple known as Mr. and Mrs. "Van Zo," who are at present living at Brassall.  The old fellow still plods backwards and forwards into town, and, no doubt puts many persons in mind of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's poor Uncle Tom: indeed, there is a good deal of American humour about Vanzeur, as, after the above picture was taken, he said, "It is all right now, old woman.  Suppose you die at once you'll be still alive there!" pointing to the photographic apparatus; and when I showed him the first copy of himself and wife he laughed and kicked up his old heels like a negro in a pantomime, and afterwards, with a regular "nigger" chuckle, discovered that he had been photographed without his coat on.

Benedictum Vanzeur was born in the Isle of France (Mauritus), at Port Louis, eighty-two years ago--1813--and, on the 3rd July, 1839, was transported (along with fourteen others) to Australia, for ten years' imprisonment, for having received, as a present, a stolen waistcoat!  As he himself very bitterly says, when speaking of his sentence, "I was 'lagged' out here to be branded a convict because I accepted, from one whom I thought a friend, a gift of a waistcoat!"  Yet this was justice!  After leaving the land of his birth, Vanzeur was taken to Van Diemen's Land, where he stayed a couple of months, when he was taken on to Sydney (because it was too cold for them in the "tight little island").  They remained thirty-five days in Sydney, when he and thirteen of his mates were dispatched to Moreton Bay, tow of the life-sentenced convicts being left in New South Wales.  Of course, Van Zo and his fellow prisoners were all coloured men.  After landing in what is now Brisbane (Chambers was the name of the captain of the vessel that brought them over), Van Zo was at once started off to Limestone settlement, via Cooper's Plains, and placed under the charge of Mr. George Thorn, the member for Fassifern's father, who was superintendent of the Ploughed Station, arriving there in May, 1840; so that he has been living in and around Ipswich for over fifty-five uears.  Of the "founder and father of Ipswich," he says that the late Mr. George Thorn was a fine fellow, and that there were two little boys--George and Henry--when he and his ten black "chums" arrived here, but he laughingly remarked, "Young Mr. George Thorn looks as old as me, now."  Van Zo worked for a time on the Ploughed Station, which, he says, when he went there, was a large area of corn and wheat, the quarters of the prisoners being a big slab shed, in which a very rough lot of customers were domiciled under the surveillance of soldiers.  The "station" occupied the site of the old Ipswich race-course, now known as The Grange paddocks.  Varily, this particular portion of the surroundings of Ipswich has been the scene of many wonderful doings--first, it was the centre of what really was "the settlement" this side of Brisbane; then, during the latter part of the fifties until about the middle of the seventies, it was the head-quarters of horse-racing in this colony--those brilliant sporting times!  Ah! alas, those racing days!  Where are they?  Let one climb that high chimney-stack that marks the beginning of a gigantic effort to unearth coal at a depth of 1400ft. and seek the spirits of that gay old jovial period!

Besides the corn and wheat fields at the Ploughed Station, there was a tobacco-plantation, which occupied the slope of the hill from what is now known as Thorn-street--Mr. Superintendent Thorn living on the block of land where Mr. George Thorn now lives--right to the edge of Devil's Gully, and the "curing"-shed was built on a site in East-street, on the land known as Gorry's properties.  Besides getting lime--the kiln in those far-off days being situated not a great distance from the residence of the superintendent, just above where the railway-line crosses a gully--attending to the growth of corn, wheat, and tobacco, there was also a flock of sheep to be attended to, and "shearing times" at the Ploughed Station are described by old Van Zo as having been very lively occasions.  The sheep were generally kept on the north side, and "camped" on the bank of the river where the Woollen Factory is now erected.  The sheep were washed in the Brisbane River (Kholo), and, after camping a night on Hungry Flat (Brassall), crossed the Bremer River at the Coal Falls (Lynch's Crossing), the only crossing to Limestone in the early days.

Van Zo remembers Governor Gipps visiting the Ploughed Station in 1842, and the consternation there was, afterwards, when Limestone was proclaimed open to free settlement, at which time the name Limestone was changed to Ipswich.  It may not be out of place here to quote from a letter written by the late Mr. Andrew Petrie in reference to the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers, in which he (Mr. Petrie) says:__ "Previous to Sir George Gipp's arrival here [Moreton Bay, from Sydney], I placed about fourteen beacons on the various rocks and shoals between Ipswich and Brisbane, and, after his arrival, I accompanied him from Ipswich to Brisbane, down the river, in a boat, and pointed out to his Excellency all the various obstructions to navigation.  The worst was at the junction of the two rivers."  Just so.  Of course, Sir George came to Ipswich via Cooper's Plains.  All the river traffic from Ipswich to Brisbane was done by punts, the journey from the "head of navigation" to Brisbane occupying generally three and four days, and there are representatives of families in Ipswich at present who came up the river in punts.  These were the only means of conveyance until the steamer Experiment ran from Brisbane to the "port of Ipswich" in June, 1846.

Van Zo distinctly remembers Mr. Hugh Campbell's father and family coming to Ipswich, and living first on a site on the other side of the One-mile Bridge, near the water-hole known in those days as Black Neale's hole.  The Campbell family--all from Argylshire, Scotland, from thence to Scone, in New South Wales, where they resided nearly three years--arrived in Ipswich in June, 1842, and were among the very first free settlers in this town.  The Moore family came shortly after, and from thence, following in the wake of the opening up of the Darling Downs by the Leslies and other squatters above and below the Range, commenced the "building up" of Ipswich.

But, regarding Van Zo: Shortly after the settlement in Ipswich by the free people, a terrible murder was committed on the site of the Ploughed Station, a Miss Moore being the victim, who was a sister of Mr. Thomas Moore, now of South-street.  It was supposed that the blacks committed the deed, and Van Zo succeeded in capturing and bringing to town the two black-fellows, Peter and Jacky-Jacky--notorious scoundrels, both of them--who were credited with having murdered the young girl, for which (principally the efforts of the late Archbishop Polding) Van Zo received his pardon, and he became a free man.  He describes the blacks as being terribly treacherous in those days, and he himself had, on three different occasions, very narrow escapes, as the aboriginals did not "take" to his colour at all, and, strange to say, the three natives (of different tribes) who tired to dispose of him was each a "king."  Van Zo was too wide awake for them.  At this period he was following the occupations of shepherd and fencer.  He was on Messrs. Ferreter and Uhr's Bellevue Station, on the Brisbane River, at the time Mr. W. Uhr was killed by the blacks; and he also remembers Baker being brough in after living so many years with the blacks.  Mrs. Van Zo, his wife, is one of the batch of coolies  brought over from Calcutta (India) by Mr. Gordon Sandeman, in 1848, for the purpose of opening a station on the Burnett, this, too being about the period a batch of orphan bows was sent over from Sydney to Moreton Bay, to be distributed anywhere employment could be found for them.  In January, 1855, Marioun Cowley was united in "holy wedlock" to Benedictum Vanzeur by the Rev. Father McGinty.  Early in the sixties Van Zo ran a ferry across the Bremer, about opposite the Gilde's wharf, and, for years, afterwards, lived on the Brisbane River.  They are a thoroughly honest old couple.  She is above seventy-six years of age.  Advancing years have, however, left them in anything but food circumstances, but, owing to the kindness of residents and Ipswich people, the wolf is kept from their door.  As an instance of genuine sympathy with the aged pair, an extract from a letter forwarded to Mr. Vanzeur will show that there are some really good-hearted people in our midst.  The property was originally purchased by Van Zo, who, however, felt the pinch of hard times, and their "old home" had to go; but the letter referred to teh states that "with the view of saving you a home for life, I now inform you that you and your wife are at liberty to occupy the same during your life."  Thus the new owner of the property.

The above photograph was kindly taken by Mr. J.T. Barrett, son of Mr. P. Barrett, the well-known tanner, of Churchill.

Veterans of Limestone, Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, Thursday 15 August 1895, p.2