One of the first things on checking out Tim Sherratt’s GLAM workbench was to search for Van Cootens in the name index. I found the expected references to William John Fraser Van Cooten in the Queensland teaching archives, to Van Cooten and Sons store in the Queensland Companies Register, and wills for John Hughes Van Cooten and his wife Elizabeth Van Cooten nee Berry. But I had a little surprise in a reference to H. Van Cooten in the Queensland Colonial Secretary’s Correspondence for 1895—1861 with the note “Application for employment.” As far as I was aware the earliest Van Cootens arriving in Australia were Jane Wilson nee Van Cooten arriving in Melbourne in 1852 with the Wilson family (see First Van Cootens in Australia? for more details), and John Hughes Van Cooten arriving in late 1874.

Examination of Item ITM846746 shows that H Van Cooten is referred to in an application for employment in the public service from Alexander Cameron to the Colonial Secretary.

A transcript of the letters is:

Alexr Cameron 28 Decemb. 60/2440  Application for employment
Redbank near Ipswich
27^th December 1860
[[To] The Honorable G. W. Herbert Colonial Secretary]
[Alexr. Cameron Esq.
18th January
Council
[indecipherable signature]
The council advise that Mr. Cameron be informed that his Application has been received and will be taken into consideration.
John Bramston
9/1/61 Clerk of Council
Inform accordingly
A. White
61.1.10]
Sir,
In doing myself the honor to address you I take the liberty to solicit at the hands of His Excellency the Governor, employment in any of the various Public offices for which my previous business habits or avocations may have qualified me.
In youth (1828) I became clerk and book-keeper in an extensive mercantile in Berbice, British Guiana, and (1835) a partner of the same.
On the dissolution of the firm (1840-1) I was employed in the Vendue Office of the County (a patent office under the Crown through which all Judicial and other public sales were effected) until its abolition in, I think 1847, but continued winding up its affairs until 1848.
In July 1848 I became a paid servant of the Colony, under circumstances detailed in the accompanying correspondence, numbered to be 4—Copies of which are respectfully submitted.—when I sailed for Europe on leave of absence, pending which, at the instigation of my Father, I decided on coming to Moreton Bay.
I have now been resident in this district upwards of six years, for five of which I have been engaged in agricultural pursuits, but these, from exhausted means and other untoward causes, I have recently been compelled to relinquish.
Being unknown to any of the Heads of Department in Brisbane I can only meantime hope for employment in a subordinate capacity, though desirous it should be such, that I may reasonably look forward to preferment according to merit.
Trusting that some suitable opening may be at the disposal of His Excellency’s favorable consideration
I have the Honor to be
Sir
Your most obedient
humble Servant
Alexr Cameron.

 

No. 1. (Copy)
Berbice 24^th June 1848
[To The Honorable W. B. Wolseley Acting Government Secretary]
Sir,
Having heard from authority which I consider to be quite undoubted, that Mr. H. Van Cooten, the Keeper of the County Prison who has been some time very unwell, is now beyond all hope of recovery, I trust the present application to His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor through you will not have the appearance of indelicacy, which in other circumstances I feel persuaded it would have.
It is in a few words that I may, in the absence of any more worthy in His Excellency’s estimation, be appointed successor to Mr. Van Cooten in the event of his decease.
I do not accompany this with any credentials, but for the information of His Excellency I may mention that from His late Excellency, Governor Sir James Carmichael Smyth, I received a Commission in the County Militia, and from his successor in the late Governor (Sir Henry Light) a Commission as a Justice of the peace and a Coroner of the Colony, besides which I have for some time served as a member of Vestry, and an Auditor of Accounts to the Supreme Court, under appointment of the Government.
These several appointments being more honorary than remunerative I am induced to urge upon His Excellency this my first application for remunerative Public Service; and should it be deemed necessary to obtain testimonials from either the resident Officials of the County, or the merchants and principal planters, I have no doubt I could procure such as would be most satisfactory to His Excellency.
I have the Honor to be
Sir
Your most obedient humble Servant
(sgd) Alexr. Cameron.
Note—In the following month the vacancy was conferred upon me, and due notification thusly inserted in the Government Gazette, by Lieutenant Governor W. Wallis.

 

No. 2 (Copy)
B. Guiana Government Secretary’s Office
October 17^th, 1848.
[To His Honor C. R. Whinfield Sheriff of Berbice.]
Sir
I am directed by His Excellency the Lt. Governor to communicate to you for the information of Mr. Cameron the Keeper of the Jail at New Amsterdam, the following extract of a Dispatch received by His Excellency from the Right Honable. The Secretary of State.
“I have to convey to you my confirmation of the appointment of Mr. Cameron, but you will acquaint Mr. Cameron that he must accept it subject to any reductions that the Combined Court may consider it necessary to make in the Annual Estimates.”
I have the honor to be
Sir
Your most obedient
humble servant
W. B. Wolseley
Ag. Govt. Secty.
A true Copy (sgd) Charles R. Whinfield, Sheriff.

 

No. 3. (Copy)
Berbice 30^th October 1850
[To The Honorable W. B. Wolseley, Government Secretary]
Sir,
I have the honor through you to approach His Excellency the Governor with an application for preferment to an office in this County, that of Assistant Receiver General, vacant by the decease of the recently appointed incumbent, Mr. Hollingsworth.
Already holding an office under the Government it may be necessary to state what motives impel me to intrude on His Excellency’s notice.
At the time of my appointment as Keeper of the County Gaol in 1848 the salary attached to the situation, twelve hundred dollars, might (with residence) have sufficed for the maintenance of a family, and it was understood a person with a family and possessing the requisite qualifications would be preferred by the Lieutenant Governor.
At the meeting of the next Combined Court however it was moved and affirmed that the salary (with many others) should be reduced by twenty five per cent. That is to only nine hundred dollars per annum, a sum—without reference to the great hardship of having to refund from the reduce stipend, two hundred dollars paid me as salary at the higher rate—so inadequate to the wants of an increasing family as to have caused me to be on the watch for more remunerative employment; and in the absence of anything better presenting itself I have seriously thought of removing from this to one of the distant Colonies in Australia.
A more responsible and at same time more lucrative post would however induce a preference for my native country, and it is with this view and a reliance on my ability satisfactorily to fulfil the duties of such an office as the one under consideration that I take the liberty to trespass on His Excellency’s time and attention.
I have the Honor to be
Sir
Your most obedient
humble Servant.
(sgd) Alexr Cameron.

 

No. 4 (Copy)
B. Guiana.
Government Secretary’s Office
November 6^th 1850
Sir
His Excellency the Governor* directs me to acknowledge your letter of the 30^th ultimo, and to inform you that should the office of Assistant Receiver General be filled up, the claim of the Gentleman now acting are superior to yours. His Excellency would be sorry however if the colony lost the benefit of your services, and will be glad to promote your views should a proper opportunity offer.
I have the Honor to be
Sir
Your obedient Servant
(sgd) I. Gardiner Austin
Actg. Asst. Govt. Secretary
[*Mr. now Sir Henry Barkly]
[To Alexr. Cameron Esquire
Berbice.]

Ipswich, 5 March 1861
Dear Sir,
I beg to introduce to you Mr. Alexander Cameron a candidate for office in the Government Service of this colony.
I have much pleasure in stating that I feel certain Mr. Cameron will give every satisfaction in any office he may be appointed to by the Govt.
??fully,
?? Panton.
W. Manning Esq

61/52? Alexander Cameron 6 March
Further application for employment
Ipswich 5^th March 1861
[To: A. W. Manning Esquire
Principal Under Secretary]
Sir
I trust you will not deem me importunate in addressing you with reference to my letter to the Executive of 27^th December last, soliciting employment in the Public Service of this Colony.
Earnestly desiring active occupation my object in now writing is to state that under existing circumstance, almost any employment would be thankfully be hailed by me as a boon. I fear chiefly that the Executive Council are beset with applications from various quarters, and that parties at a distance have the least likelihood of being considered in the filling of vacant, or creative of new posts, but if zeal and assiduity are essential in a public Servant, I pledge myself in all sincerity they shall not be wanting in any trust, to which I may have the honor to be appointed.
Craving your reference to the accompanying few lines of introduction from Mr. I. Panton of this town.
I have the honor to be
Sir
Your most obedient servant
Alexr Cameron.

I’m not sure who H. Van Cooten is, but clearly he died in 1848, and was not an arrival in Australia. I suspect he is one of Hendrik Van Cooten’s grandchildren, and most probably his father would have been Nicholas, Anthony, Lucius, or Theodorus Hermanus Hilbertus Van Cooten.