Calamity and Conquest : A chronicle of the convict Joseph Blundell and his consort Susan Osborne

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.