John Copson was born 20 August 1839 in the Northern Rivers district NSW. His parents James and Elizabeth who were from Warwickshire England, boarded the Orontes as bounty immigrants with 2 year old daughter Sarah in November 1837. James and Elizabeth were 27 years old on arrival, and under the 30 year old age limit that was required of the bounty scheme. James is recorded as a blacksmith and Elizabeth a dairy maid, Bounty immigrants were strictly selected on age criterion as well as fitness and health. Under the Bounty Scheme that operated from 1835-1841, settlers in the fledgling colony paid 30 pounds for Emigrants passage. On arrival in May 1838, settlers were examined by a Board appointed by the Governor and if satisfied, a Certificate was issued to the settler allowing to claim the Bounty money back from the Government. However from records sourced at Queensland State Library, James Copson was one of only two bounty immigrants who were not assigned on arrival in Sydney 18 May 1838, having found his own employment. It is evident that James, Elizabeth and toddler Sarah Copson were among the first white settlers in the Richmond River district, according to John and sister Sarah's obituaries. The Pastoral District of Port Macquarie was too large for the Commissioner of Crown Lands to control, and so was divided with the Clarence Squatting District proclaimed in 1842, which included the valleys of the Richmond, Clarence and the Tweed. Richard Craig was the first white man to find the Clarence River, and from his reports with sawyers at Kissing Point Parramatta, the 52 tonne schooner Susan left Sydney in the autumn of 1838 with John Small and twelve pairs of sawyers on board. As a blacksmith, James Copson would have been in high demand. The family would have made their way with sawyers and timbergetters to the rich grounds of cedar timber in the Richmond valley. However by 1844 two years after the Moreton Bay area was open to free settlement, the family had moved to Kangaroo Point when daughter Elizabeth Copson was born 14 January 1845. Sarah and siblings Ann, James and Elizabeth were baptised at St John's Church on 27 December 1845. Elizabeth was born 14 January 1845 in Brisbane Town, and siblings Mary c.1848, Thomas c. 1852 in Oxley, and Matilda December 1853.
In 1848 John's father James found the head of murdered timber cutter Robert Cox beside the Bush Inn, known as Suttons Hotel at Kangaroo Point. James Davis known as Duramboi, arrived shortly after the discovery and with the help of Aboriginal guides, investigated the crime scene. Davis' evidence at the trial helped convict Cox's friend William Fyfe who was hanged for the crime. Jim Davis was a 14 year old convict when he escaped a chain gang and subsequently lived with the Gubbi Gubbi for over 17 years, where he became known as Duramboi. Legend has it that Davis 'rescued' Eliza Fraser after the ship her husband captained ran aground, and she was subsequently taken in by the Gubbi Gubbi. However it later came to light that John Graham was the convict enlisted by Tom Petrie's party that found Fraser and brought her back to Moreton Bay. There is also dispute over Eliza's reports that she was mistreated by the Gubbi Gubbi who maintain that she was averse to contributing to her upkeep and expected to be waited on.
John Copson's mother Elizabeth nee Jeffrey was born at Hillmorton, Warwickshire 3 June 1810. She shared the same birth date as her husband James. Elizabeth was the third child of William Jeffrey and Elizabeth Colledge who had eight children all born in Hillmorton, Warwickshire. James and Elizabeth married in the parish of Hillmorton, Warwickshire on 30 October 1834. Elizabeth could read, but presumably not write. In just over 15 years and after bearing 8 children and a life of arduous labour since arriving in the colony, Elizabeth died at age 44 on 23 January 1855 at Kangaroo Point. She was buried on 24 January in Church of England Burials in the Parish of Ipswich, St Johns in the county of Stanley New South Wales. John's sister Matilda born 1853 when Elizabeth was over 43 years old, died of croup on 29 June 1856, 18 months after the death of her mother. Father James Copson was declared insolvent in June 1848. He had appeared at the Court of Petty Sessions on 9 occasions, 6 times as the defendant. James was hospitalised at the Moreton Bay General Hospital on 5 occasions from 1848 until 4 January 1859 when he died of emphysema. James was buried in the Church of England Burial Grounds on 6 January 1859. His mother was Sarah Copson of Tamworth, Staffordshire England. On arrival it is recorded that James could read and write. Both Elizabeth and James died before Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859.
In 1855 at 16 years, John Copson was working for James Holmes of Mooki Springs in the Liverpool Plains NSW, where he contributed 1 pound to the Patriotic Fund that was set up by the Colony to support the Crimean war. In 1866 John is recorded as a Fencer residing in Brisbane. He leased Portion 284, 31 acres in Yeerongpilly in the County of Stanley on 27 December 1866. He also leased Portions 362, 363 (30 acres) and 364 (30 acres) on 20 February 1867 in Bulimba, County Stanley (Brisbane). He paid annual fees for these leases until 1874. John Copson formed a partnership with Henry Ponting who was born in Wiltshire England in 1841 and had arrived in Brisbane on the Montmorency in 1862. As building partners, they worked on the Dunwich Asylum on Stradbroke Island around 1865. They joined in the rush to the Gympie gold field in 1868 and after fossicking for a while, followed the short lived Imbil rush. While in Imbil the partners obtained a contract to build a portion of the Imbil homestead. The original Imbil homestead was built when there was no sawn timber available. Timber and saplings were adzed on top and underneath. The slabs were red cedar with large auger holes where the settlers could shoot aboriginal people who were waging war on the settlers.
By 1872 John Copson registered for a timber license, and in 1873 he selected 240 acres in Conondale. He also selected 123 acres in the Parish of Gundiah downstream of the Numabulla (Mary River). The Copson & Ponting Company punted logs from the source of the Numabulla through the Conondale and Kenilworth pastoral runs, following the river's course past Gundiah to the mills in Maryborough. The Dandathu saw mill there had been established by government surveyor turned timber merchant William Pettigrew with partner Wiliam Sim in 1863. Pettigrew named the saw mill Dundathu after what he believed was the Gubbi Gubbi name for the native Kauri pine. However Dundathu meaning "place of dead trees" was a word used by the Aboriginal people to describe European activities that had altered the natural landscape (Gregory, 1991). As with all continuing expansion into Aboriginal territory, the saw mill's construction was met with Gubbi Gubbi resistance as reported in the Maryborough Chronicle in 1862.
Over the years, John kept in close contact with younger brother James, five years his junior. There is an unclaimed letter for James at Burrandowan Station in 1862 where it is likely James and John worked. Burrandowan was a pastoral run taken up in the Wide Bay area in 1843 by squatter Henry Stuart Russell. When the Moreton Bay penal colony was closed in the early 1840's, pastoral land was opened up for selection. Initial leases were secured in Moreton Bay, the Darling Downs and the Brisbane Valley. However, by 1842 squatters were pushing the frontier against fierce Aboriginal resistance. Henry Stuart Russell chose land in the Wide Bay area that was named Burrandowan, said to mean 'big wind' by the Wakka Wakka. The Burrandowan Station occupation demonstrates the pattern of white invasion with vast pastoral runs taken by squatters prior to government gazetting selections that eventually controlled how settlement was managed. Once Aboriginal resistance had been broken with retaliated violence and massacres, land became available for lease where agricultural development followed pastoral expansion. Further land subdivision brought closer settlement with the establishment of towns.
John's brother James Copson selected 160 acres of pastoral land in the Parish of Esk in 1869 and was issued a Deed of Grant in 1876. In 1874 James went to Gympie with the aim of trying to get his brother John to come and live with him on his Esk selection. Between 1877 and 1880, James is found purchasing supplies at Low's Hotel Mooroochie House, Yandina Post Office and General Store. The Gympie Road from Brisbane to the Gympie goldifields was opened in 1868. James and Christina Low established their store at South Maroochy Crossing (Yandina) to catch the passing trade. James Low kept an Account Book which is the earliest surviving record of any hotel in Qld, held at the John Oxley Library. There are several entries in James Low's Accounts for James Copson who was "timbergetting cedar in Mary River as far as Conondale, bed, meals and drinks, supplies" (Entries 60, 80). Low added interest at the rate of 12% on accounts more than three months overdue and James Copson paid nine months interest on an overdue account during that time (Audienne Blyth, 2010).
Christina Copson was born in Kenilworth around 1874 at the time John Copson was operating as a timber getter on his Conondale selection next to Kenilworth Station. Manager of the Kenilworth Station Patrick Lillis wrote in his diary on 23 February 1875, of a flood where Copson's men saved six of their horses in Pullen Pullen, part of the Kenilworth station. In the same year John Copson reported sighting an "alligator two and a half miles below Dundathu." He pulled up alongside with his men and they measured it to be around fourteen feet. Copson was also involved in a boating accident on the Mary River in 1887. In the company of Freshney and other men in a second boat, they were unable to clear the oncoming Ranelagh steamship that rammed Copson in the side, although he did not sustain serious injuries.
It is probable that an alliance with the local Gubbi Gubbi people served John Copson's purpose pursuing the timber trade. In the 1870's the Gubbi Gubbi although continuing to resist intrusion and possession of their land, also formed alliances with merchants that would provide trade offs to their survival. Kenilworth Homestead became a refuge for the displaced Aboriginal people surviving the atrocities committed by the Native Police answering the demands made by squatters in their thirst for land. Isaac and Anne Moore took over Kenilworth in 1863 where surviving Gubbi Gubbi and Wakka Wakka lived in relative harmony under their protection. In her memoir, Gubbi Gubbi Evelyn Moiar Serico relates that traditional owners were paid full wages at Kenilworth while managed by the Moore's, a highly unusual arrangement for the day. The Moore's left Kenilworth in 1875 after their child Lily's death and went to live on their Barambah Station pastoral selection. A block on the western side of Barambah was excised around 1906 that became Cherbourg where displaced Aboriginal people were incarcerated. Kenilworth station was subdivided between 1891 and 1921 during Duncan Beattie's management of the station.
Timber men were prolific in the Burnett and Mary Valley, contributing to the wholesale depletion of the vast natural abundance of cedar. Taking up selections meant timber getters avoided paying landholders for each tree they felled. Selections were subject to annual lease fees and conditions such as improving the land for pasture. John Copson had also been in a partnership with Patrick Joyce and Richard Gill which was an association that was dissolved in 1879 when Copson's Gundiah selection was forfeited. Copson held the Conondale selection from 1873 and avoided paying annual lease fees from 1875 until the portion was forfeited and sold in 1887 to John & Arthur McConnel and Henry Wood who owned all the surrounding property including Durundur.
When the trees had been exhausted, timber men turned to farming. In 1884 John Copson applied for a Gympie Goldfield Homestead Lease of 4 acres in South Side of the Mary River, and he also owned land in the Parish of Elliot (Maryborough). By 1895 he owned freehold land in Blackmount Tiaro where he was dairying with his nephew William Harding Dowling. He also owned 652 shares in the South Phoenix Gold Mine Company Limited which he sold in 1897. Copson's partner Henry Ponting, also bought a property in Tiaro in 1878 where he became a farmer. In 1892 brother James Copson was living in Widgee Pocket (Gympie) while John Copson was a Noosa freeholder. James most likely sold his Esk property to Hugh Conroy of Castleholm, Deep Creek (now Bryden) where he worked as a labourer in 1898 until his death in 1913. Although the Copson family were members of the Church of England, James is buried in the Catholic quarter of the Esk cemetery, probably due to his close association with the Conroy family.
John's elder sister Sarah married shepherd William Cole in 1858. They had a number of children born in Condarrah (Burnett) and the family moved to Gympie around 1862. Sarah's husband William died in 1903 when they were living in Duke St, Gympie. John Copson was also living in Duke St in 1880 where Sarah later died in 1923. John and James' younger sister Elizabeth married John Abbaack in 1865. Abback was from Hong Kong, however the marriage did not last. Elizabeth selected land in Clermont North Queensland in March 1872 but forfeited in November 1872. She placed an ad in The Queenslander 1873 seeking contact with lost relatives. In 1888 Elizabeth married gold miner Jules Lesprit from Tolga who at 82 years of age in 1907 killed himself with a shotgun over an incurable neck infection. Like John and James, Elizabeth also is not recorded as having had children. Younger sister Mary Copson married John Hirst/Hurst in 1863 in Rockhampton, Queensland. As she was under the age of consent Mary required permission to marry by the Police Magistrate John Jardine. Mary's husband John Hirst was born in Yorkshire England c.1830, parents Samuel Hirst (Waterman) and Eliza Routh. He arrived on board the Wansfell in 1862 and was a Machinist. At the time of his marriage to Mary he was living in Bemdemeer, Dawson River Rockhampton. A child Mary Elizabeth was born in 1866 and died in the same year, buried in the South Rockhampton cemetery. John Hirst filed for divorce in 1867 on the grounds that Mary had committed adultery with neighbour Charles Freeman. At the time John was employed as a Fireman on board the steamer the Lady Bowen travelling between Sydney and Rockhampton. During this time, John also took out advertising notices in the Rockhampton Bulletin and Central Qld Advertiser declaring that he would not honour any of his wife's debts incurred on his behalf. Records show that the divorce proceedings lapsed in 1867 through lack of funds, and that after John Hirst had gone to the Gympie goldfields he was in a position to continue with the dissolution of the marriage. However no further records are found that this occurred. Another child Mary Ada was born 17 October 1869 and died soon after on 10 January 1870. On this child's birth register, John Hurst (sic) is listed as a Clerk from Wales, living with wife Mary (Copson) in Milton Brisbane. It is also evident that in the 1870's, John Hirst established a blacksmith's shop known as Hirst's Smithy in Maryborough. The business was sold in 1881 to Hansen and Stephensen's Sawmills and Carriage works in Tinana on the Gympie Road. John Hirst is next found in Tiaro in 1883 having a stake in the Dalkeith Sawmills with an interest also held by John Copson. No further records have been found on John and Mary Hirst and whether there were other children or where they died.
John Copson's youngest brother Thomas, was born at Oxley around 1852. It appears that Thomas was deaf, as reported in a civil court hearing regarding the Redcliffe Shire Council in 1915. Thomas' wife Annie Cawthorne Wassenage was born in Sheffield England in 1845 and arrived in Qld on the Chybassa in 1882. She was a servant in Clontarf before marrying Thomas in 1884. Their baby Ebenezer Copson died in March 1885 and the couple did not have any other children. Together Thomas and Annie were trustees of the Humpy Bong cemetery. Thomas and Annie were considered Redcliffe pioneers. On the Redcliffe Peninsula Thomas was a considerable landholder. He took up a selection in Redcliffe in 1873 which became freehold in 1884. Following his purchase of Portion 165 in 1877, he then bought eleven neighbouring Portions Nos. 166 to 176, giving him a total area of 251 acres and 5 perches. As a result of these purchases, Thomas and Annie's farm Coleville included all the land bounded by present day Redcliffe McDonnell Road, Maine Road, Duffield Road and Elizabeth Avenue. Copson St in Redcliffe and Annie St in Clontarf are named after Thomas and Annie. Thomas was 7 years old when his mother Elizabeth died in 1855. Naming their farm Coleville suggests that Sarah and husband William Cole took on the surrogate role of caring for the younger Copson children, particularly after the death of father James in 1849. Annie died 20 May 1929 at age 83, 4 months before Thomas' death at 77 years. After his wife's death, Thomas made his last will and testament on 18 June 1929. As his siblings had predeceased him (with no further records found on Mary and her husband John HIrst) and with no children, Thomas appointed Walter Grant, retired master baker of Redcliffe, as his sole executor and trustee. In his will, Thomas left 4 legacies. To Bridget Haskins, wife of Patrick Thomas Haskins, carrier Thomas left 10 pounds: Eliza Williams (widow) 10 pounds: Mrs Moran (widow) 10 pounds, and to Walter Grant 50 pounds. The residue of his estate was to be divided in equal shares between the Salvation Eventide Home for Aged Men and the Redcliffe Congregational Church. When his estate was wound up, 57 pounds, 10 shillings and 6 pence remained for monumental work to be carried out by W E Parsons which did not occur. An affidavit by executor Walter Grant notes that on 2 October 1929, four days before he died, Thomas sold all of his real estate to Stanley Thompson of Brisbane, and that the value of Thomas' personal estate amounted to 522 pounds. Solicitors James Crawford and Williamson note in records found in the Qld State Archives that following extensive and detailed disbursements, no funds remained. Personal letters archived with Redcliffe local history indicate that in 2001 there was no monument at the family's unmarked grave site. However on a visit to the Redcliffe Cemetery in 2017, it was found that a head stone has since been erected at Thomas, Annie and Ebenezer's grave.
John Copson died 29 October 1921 at age 82. In his will, he instructed his Executors Henry Ponting, Fred Shepherd and Joseph Dowling (nephew) that he be buried in the Tiaro Cemetery and that a headstone be erected at a cost not exceeding seventy five pounds. His real estate was valued at 1,987 pounds and personal estate 955 pounds, which was left to his brother Thomas (two hundred pounds) and the remainder divided between his nine nieces and nephews; Sarah Woods, Mary Fleming, Matilda Heilbrown, Thomas Cole, Elizabeth Steele, William Dowling, Ellen Little, Joseph and Walter Dowling. Copson's death certificate does not register a marriage or children, and obituaries in the Brisbane Courier, Gympie Times and Maryborough Chronicle praise his exploits as a pioneer timber getter, and confirm that he never married. John Copson's association with Christina if any, has yet to be determined.
