Vaiben Solomon

Vaiben Solomon (1802 – 21 June 1860) was a London Jew who was, with his brother Emanuel Solomon, transported for larceny to New South Wales in 1818. He had further brushes with the law but seized business opportunities and became quite prosperous. He and his brother were then joined by a contingent of brothers and sisters who made their mark in New South Wales and South Australian business and politics.

Vaiben and his brother Emanuel Solomon were arrested at a boarding house in Northallerton on the evening of 16 October 1816, charged with having broken into a farm house and stealing a quantity of clothing, the property of Thomas Prest, some of which they had already sold. They were subsequently committed for trial at the Durham Assizes, which took place on 6 August 1817. They were found guilty of theft, but not of breaking and entering (which was then a capital offence) and sentenced to transportation for seven years. They were taken away to Woolwich, where they were incarcerated in a hulk named Justitia moored in the River Thames. They were taken aboard the Lady Castlereagh which around mid-December 1817 set sail for Australia, arriving at Port Jackson on 30 April 1818. Governor Macquarie would only allow thirty-nine prisoners to disembark, and ordered the captain to take the remaining 261 to Van Diemens Land, compensating the ship's owners for the change of plans. The two Solomon boys, who were among the latter contingent, were not model prisoners, and after committing a theft of clothes were on 3 March 1821 sent in irons to Newcastle, New South Wales for three years, shortly before its dismemberment as a penal settlement. The boys received their Certificates of Release in Sydney in August 1824.

The means by which Emanuel and Vaiben made their way from poor emancipists to relative affluence is by no means clear but must have been by a series of small-time trading and gradual accretion. But by July 1826 he was in a position to begin employing labour, having written to the authorities to have the convict David Myers assigned to him at his business in King Street, Sydney. By 1928 he had premises to let at 74 George Street, which may have fallen through, as the following year the two brothers were in partnership at that same address. They continued in partnership for over ten years, buying and selling whenever they could see a financial advantage. In 1831 Vaiben bought into the Jamieson subdivision.

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