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by Allan Hawke (Author)
Joseph Blundell, sentenced to death for attacking a gamekeeper while poaching near
Maidstone in Kent, was transported for life to the NSW Colony in 1826.
His grandfather Thomas of Chelsfield in England, who should have rightfully become
extremely wealthy as the recipient of the Blundell family fortune, was denied his inheritance
by the Court. Two generations later, Joseph had descended from a proud and privileged
birthright to penury and illiteracy.
Mercy Balcombe of New Romney married Robert Blanch in 1831 and they with other
family members were given assisted passage to the Colony in 1838 to work for the Brindley
family near Newcastle.
In 1842, Mercy adopted the Susan Osborne alias, absconded from her husband's protection,
leaving four children behind and fled to the far reaches of the Colony with Joseph Blundell
by whom she had had a child. They came to the Limestone Plains settling at what is now
Canberra the national capital.
