Benjamin family and business
Morris and Mary Ann Benjamin lived and worked in Maitland in the second half of the nineteenth century. In 2010, their great-granddaughter, Vicki Brown, shared her research into her family history. She provided copies of a family chart, press clippings, family stories and these two photographs. Delightedly, she wrote:
These two photos were recovered from a scrap heap after my grandmother* passed away. I recall them hanging side by side on the wall of her bedroom on the farm. One of the photographs had ‘Lasker and Lasker, George St, Sydney’ stamped on the back. There was no named photographer by the time they came into my hands.
*Vicki Brown’s grandmother, Florence Barber, was the youngest of Morris and Mary Ann Benjamin’s eight children.
The photographs provide an anchor for sharing information and stories about Morris and Mary Ann Benjamin, their backgrounds, lives and families. The details highlight aspects of the complex and rich history of Maitland’s nineteenth-century Jewish community.
Born elsewhere
Morris Benjamin was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1837.
Mary Ann Benjamin was born in London, England, in 1838.
Convicts and free settlers
Morris Benjamin’s parents, Henry Samuel and Lydia (née Solomon) Benjamin, came as free settlers from England in 1832. They settled in Tasmania, where Henry Benjamin became a successful hotel owner.
Morris Benjamin’s maternal grandfather, Judah Solomon, rose from convict origins to become a wealthy import merchant and an active member of Hobart’s Jewish community. He is acknowledged and commemorated as a significant donor and founder of the Hobart Synagogue.
click on above images for larger views
Mary Ann Benjamin’s parents, Isaac and Elizabeth (née Jones) Israel, emigrated from England to Australia with some of their children in the 1850s. They settled initially in Maitland. Two of Mary Ann’s maternal uncles, John and Joseph Jones, had arrived as convicts in the 1830s.
Marriage
Morris Benjamin married Mary Ann Israel at the York Street Synagogue in Sydney on 7 March 1866. The couple settled in Maitland.
Sydney Morning Herald, 10 March 1866, p 1.
The connections between the Jewish communities in Sydney and in Maitland are hinted at by those officiating at the marriage. Rev Alexander Barnard Davis’s son, Harry Septimus, is buried in the Maitland Jewish Cemetery. Rev Aaron Alexander Levi’s son, Solomon, officiated as the rabbi for the Maitland Synagogue from 1880 until the synagogue closed in 1898.
M Benjamin and Sons
The year after their marriage, Morris Benjamin advertised the opening of his boot and shoe, clothing, drapery and general merchandise store in ‘Trade Hall’, High St, West Maitland (Maitland Mercury, 5 Mar 1867). The store was on the corner of High and Hunter Streets, next door to the Mercury building (which, at the time, only had buildings on Hunter Street) and opposite Mitchell’s buildings (Rudkin 2015: 81). M. Benjamin and Sons leased the premises until 1899, two years after Morris Benjamin’s death (Rudkin 2015: 81).
The 1886 Mahlstedt and Gee survey plan of High Street identifies the Benjamin premises on the corner of Hunter and High Streets.
Val Rudkin (2015: 82) identified the building in a photograph of the 1893 flood.
High St, West Maitland, 1893 flood
(Val Rudkin 2015: 82 from Maitland City Library Collection)
The sign on the awning of the building on the left reads ‘..Benjamin & Sons, Importers, Grocers & Boot Manufacturers’. The building on the right, with the people sitting on the awning, is on the south-eastern corner of Victoria Street.
The business began primarily as a boot and shoe store. Over the next decades, it expanded to include general merchandise, groceries and other goods, and an export business based in Sydney. Morris Benjamin’s two sons joined the firm.
A very small sample of advertisements in the Maitland Mercury.
click on above images for larger views
A lengthy article in the Maitland Daily Mercury on 20 September 1897 describes the business. The article is glowing about the recent improvements made to the premises. It begins by noting that half of the property belongs to ‘the proprietors of this journal’ and the other half to M Benjamin and Sons. Expansion in the business, over time, saw the passageway between two buildings closed in, the purchase by the firm of ‘premises known as Hart’s’, the construction of extra storage accommodation, the widening of the original shop, the installation of modern fittings and shutters, and extensive remodelling of the stores at the back of the premises.
Key personnel in the business are listed:
Morris Benjamin, the head, who generally supervises everything'; Harry S Benjamin, manager of the grocer and produce departments; Alfred D Benjamin, financial manager and supervisor of the drapery and boot departments. Mr H Lasker is manager of the Sydney business; and Mr G Wells is salesman for hay and produce on the wharf and for livestock trucked to the Redfern railway station.
The remainder of the article details the success of the firm’s export business based in Sydney, and sees a very bright future for both the firm and the benefits it will bring to the Hunter.
Residence
Morris and Mary Ann had eight children. The family lived above the store, at least for the first couple of decades. Vicki Brown explains:
I believe the premises were of brick. The family lived upstairs and had a private entrance to the High Street along the side of the building.
Vicki Brown recalls her grandmother, who was Mary Ann and Morris Benjamin’s youngest daughter, telling her that the family always had ‘maids/servants’ and the children were brought up as ‘young ladies and gentlemen, always dressed immaculately and playing piano and violins’. Vicki Brown also notes that her grandmother and her great-aunt were both members of Maitland Amateur Orchestral Society. Florence played the violin; Rosetta played the violoncello.
Maitland Mercury, 5 March 1867, p 1.
Community
Morris Benjamin played a significant role in the Maitland Jewish Community. At the time of the laying of the foundation stone for the Maitland Synagogue in February 1879, he was the President of the Maitland Congregation (Forbes 1979:426). Forbes (1979: 436, fn.62) also notes that Morris Benjamin’s brother, Samuel Benjamin, was the President of the Hobart Congregation.
‘Laying the corner stone of a synagogue in West Maitland’, Maitland Mercury, 25 Feb 1875, p 4.
Death
Morris Benjamin died suddenly in October 1897. The Maitland Mercury carried a lengthy account of his death, a glowing acknowledgement of his contributions to Maitland, and a description of his funeral.
‘Sudden death of Mr Morris Benjamin’, Maitland Weekly Mercury, 9 Oct 1897, p 11.
In his will dated September 1891, Morris Benjamin appointed his two sons as trustees and executors.
Real estate and one third share in the business to my wife until her death or marriage, and then to my sons and their heirs subject to payment of £300 to each of my daughters on their marriage, and that the sons should support my daughters in the way they were supported in my lifetime from date of wife’s death to the date of marriage of said daughters.
Morris Benjamin’s will, 25 September 1891
(Probate packet of Morris Benjamin, SRNSW: NRS 13660, Series 4-14410)
(click on above images for larger views)
Morris Benjamin is buried in Maitland Jewish Cemetery. His mother-in-law Elizabeth (nee Jones) Israel and brother-in-law, Charles Lewis Israel, are also buried in Maitland Jewish Cemetery.
Morris Benjamin’s gravestone, Maitland Jewish Cemetery
click on above images for larger views
The photographs document disintegration and damage over time. By 1972, much of the black lettering had fallen out. By 2012, the monument was leaning, the marble inscription plaque was on the ground, and there was substantial cracking. Conservation work on the cemetery completed since 2012 has reinstated the marble plaque, stabilised the leaning and the cracking. (Killam 2014: #17)
Following Morris Benjamin’s death, Henry and Alfred continued with the family business and, according to Vicki Brown, unsuccessfully branched into investing in gold mining. Their finances suffered. The business closed. In 1901 the High Street premises were advertised for rent.
Maitland Daily Mercury, 11 Feb 1901, p 3.
Mary Ann Benjamin relocated to Waverley in Sydney, where, as Vicki Brown notes, she ran a boarding house. Mary Ann died in Waverley in September 1933. She is buried in Rookwood Jewish Cemetery.
Second generation
Morris and Mary Ann’s eight children were born in West Maitland.
The comments in italics are from Vicki Brown’s family chart.
Henry Samuel (c1867-)
m: Doris Norrine Fogarty in 1912
Henry was an exceptional piano player. He took his family to England.
Elizabeth Eve (1868-1925)
m: Alban Short in c1899
Eve and Alban Short and family lived at Lambton in Newcastle.
Alfred David (1870-1940)
m: Lillian Sands in c1906
Alf and his wife had no family.
Sketch of Alfred D Benjamin
The sketch accompanies an article about Alfred Benjamin published in the Newcastle Morning Herald, 7 March 1896, p5 under the title ‘A prosperous West Maitlander’.
Victoria Deborah (1872-1953)
m: 1) Harris Benjamin Lasker in 1893
m: 2) Samuel Lasker in 1930
Aunty Vic had a ‘Knitting Establishment’ in Sydney and her label was ‘Fay-Mos Mills’.
Harry and Sam Lasker were sons of Polish Jewish parents. Their father was a shop-keeper at Beechworth, Vic. Harry d 1928 at Coogee. In the Jewish faith it was obligatory for an “available” brother to marry his brother’s widow. Sam … was a linguist and school teacher… He was appointed Chief Inspector of Primary Schools … and Deputy Director of Education in NSW in 1925 …When he married Aunty Vic they travelled to England and Europe. They lived at Potts Point, Sydney.
Lydia Alexandra (1875-1958)
m: Isador (John) Simsohn in 1908
John Simsohn was from Estonia. Occ: tailor.
Fannie Louise (1876-1954)
Fannie, it was always accepted, ‘as delicate’ and not well. She was a wonderful ‘tatter’.
Rosetta Matilda (1878-1956)
Played violoncello in the Maitland Amateur Orchestral Society in the 1890s.
m: George Vincent Miller in 1913
After Morris died, Rose was employed by Alf in the Commission Agent/Import/Export office in Sussex St, Sydney.
Florence Miriam (1880-1952)
A member and a first violinist of the Maitland Amateur Orchestral Society in the 1890s.
m: Charles Barber in 1907
Florence became a school teacher and she and Charles came to Queensland to live. Rose came to visit her on a holiday and met and married Geo. Miller, also a farmer.
Florence Barber
(Vicki Brown Collection)
References
Brown, Vicki, Family history research notes, 2010.
Cohen, Michael, From Chains to Honours: The first 200 years of an Australian Jewish Family, Caulfield South, Victoria, Makor at Lamm Jewish Library of Australia, 2021. On the family history of brothers Judah and Joseph Solomon.
Hooper, Beverley, ‘Recalling the Solomon/Benjamin family’, Hobart Synagogue, 7 Feb 2020.
Killam, Sach, Maitland Jewish Cemetery Report: Safety and assement works project, Rookwood Cemetery Trust for Maitland City Council, April 2014.
Levi, John S., These Are the Names: Jewish Lives in Australia, Carlton, Victoria, Miegunyah, 2006.
Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser.
Maitland pre-1900 pioneer register: contains genealogical details of pioneer families in the Maitland and surrounding district, Maitland Family History Circle, 2001.
Rudkin, Val, Who? What? Where?: People of 19th century High Street, Maitland, Maitland and District Historical Society, 2015, pp 81-82.
Wilton, Janis, Maitland Jewish Cemetery: A monument to dreams and deeds, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, 2010.