Daniel Vigneaulx

Daniel Vignaulx som namnet oftast stavas i svenska källor var en av många flamländare från Oostende som arbetade för det svenska Ostindiska kompaniet efter att ha arbetat för Oostendekompaniet.  Han var systerson till Francois De Schonamille, en affärsman från Oostende som var verksam i Bengalen och i många år representerade Oostendekompaniet där.

Daniel Vigneaulx var superkargör ombord på Suecia 1737-1738, Götheborg 1730-1740 och 1741-42 samt Götha Leijon 1746-49. Han tycks ha blivit kvar i Sverige därefter då han fick en dotter 1757, född i Kristine församling, Göteborg, vid namn Johanna Friederica Vignaulx. Hans fru hette Magdalena Brun. 1775 ägde Daniel Vignaulx en fastighet i Göteborg som han troligen köpt 1758. Vid den tidpunkten titulerades han handelsman. Dottern gifte sig i sitt ena äktenskap med Peter Maurice, styrman i Ostindiska. De hade dottern Elisabeth Maurice (1793-??), gift med E.M. Borgman. I sitt andra äktenskap var hon gift med Johannes (Hans) Bäck (1738-1809).

Morbrodern Francois De Schonamille kom till Bengalen 1719 och bedrev fram till 1723 privata affärer. Därefter representerade han Oostendekompaniet och slöt avtal med fransmännen i Bengalen. Han gjorde privata affärer ihop med Joseph François Dupleix (1697-1763), generalguvernör i Franska Indien mellan 1742 och 1754. Precis innan upplösningen av Oostendekompaniet år 1731 utnämndes Francois de Schonamille till chef för Oostendekompaniets faktori i Bankibazar. Han fortsatte dock att verka i Bengalen och gjorde stora investeringar i olika affärer som organiserades av Dupleix, bland annat resor till Manila, Aceh, och Mahé. Förutom de Schonamille gjorde också andra personer som varit knutna till Oostendekompaniet såsom Pierre Strebel, John Ray och Leendeert Meynders affärer ihop med Dupleix.

Bankibazar och Hooghlie-flodens stränder var vid denna tid ett centrum för diverse illegitima affärer i vilka de Schonamille var engagerad:

In Europe, the Austrian emperor wanted to get out of the Aix-la-chapelle accord and formed a league with Denmark and Sweden. Poland did not join as they were preparing to send two ships to India. The English and the Dutch seized these two ships while Denmark was persuaded to withdraw. The french in Chandernagore gave protection to the Poles. By 1730 the banks of the Hughli were full of European deserters and adventurers, who were first employed by the Danes and later by the Ostend Company. One of the most active of such men was Francois de Schonamille of Antewerp, who declared himself to be the chief of Bankibazar. By that time the Danes had withdrawn and the Austrian emperor had first suspended and then abolished the company, a fact that had remained unknown in Bengal for many years.

Schonamille lived by country trading and often dealt with the English and the Dutch traders. In 1730, he tried to mediate unsuccessfully between the Poles and the Anglo-Dutch cartel in Bengal. Another such self-styled captain was John Combes who declared himself captain of the Ostend Company. He quarrelled with Hume who cautioned restraint and dependence on the nawab against Combes’ policy of confrontation. But Combes persuaded the rest of he company officials, although one was not sure whether the projected attacks on Anglo-Dutch shipping would be in the name of the company or in the name of the Polish King. The English and the Dutch, becoming aware of the project, seized the ship. Combes blamed Hume for the delay, who left for Europe in a French ship leaving Schonamille in charge of the factory at Bankibazar.

Despite the Dutch blockade, Ostend ships visited Bengal regularly till 1733 as is evidenced from a letter of Dupleix, although by 1732, the Ostend Company was definitely abolished. Yet a French visitor had found in January 1734 the flag of the emperor of Austria floating at the Ostend factory at Bankibazar. It appears that after seven years from the date of the accord, the English and the Dutch were allowing the Ostend ships to come with the flag of the emperor. At the end of 1735, Dupleix had found that the Ostend Company had no money and no ship. In another French letter of 1739, the situation of the Ostend Company was described as dismal. Till 1744, Schonamille and a few Ostenders lived largely with the help of Danish and Swedish travellers. He blamed the lack of support from Vienna as the chief reason of their plight. But the letter of a Flemish merchant, who visited Bankibazar in 1741, would suggest that there was a good deal of unofficial contact between Ostend and Bankibazar, which had become the principal centre of European adventurers in Bengal.

In 1744, perhaps with Dutch funds, the faujdar of Hughli imposed a fine on Schonamille for his alleged collusion with the Maratha traders. Schonamille denied the accusation, led an attack on the forces of the faujdar and easily routed them. Next the faujdar led a bigger force and Schonamille, escaping to Syrium in Burma, met a violent death. Bankibazar was plundered and the flag of the emperor was hauled down. The Ostend Company, perfectly viable economically, was sacrificed at the altar of high politics.

Francois Dupleix gifte sig 1741 med Jeanne Albert (1706-1756), änka efter en av det Franska Ostindiska Kompaniets direktörer, M. Vincens. Jeanne Ursule Vincens, dotter till Jeanne Albert och M. Vincens och född 1723, gifte sig 1743 med Corneille de Schonamille, son till Francois de Schonamille och alltså kusin till Daniel Vigneaulx.