Capitan Jean Benaud was born at La Rochelle, on the west coast of France, in 1818. He arrived in Sydney in March 1840 aboard the French whaler Ville de Bordeaux, which had been whaling since leaving Bordeaux, France, in December 1837.
Benaud married twice – the first time in around 1842 to Emily Benaud, who died, aged 32, in 1856. A tombstone in the Taree Estate Pioneer Cemetery also contains an inscription for a daughter born around 1842–43. In 1858, Captain Benaud married Esther Caroline
