Abel Alchin: First Cousin, First in the Colony by Garry Smith St John the Baptist Church, Wateringbury, Kent, England We have all puzzled, at some time, about which family member was the first to come to the colony of New South Wales. Was it a convict? A free settler? A member of the military? I had thought that Martha Alchin, convict from County Kent, might have been the first; she arrived in 1835 – but more about her at another time. The puzzle might now be solved. Abel Alchin (1805-1842) arrived in the colony in 1826. He was aboard the convict ship Marquis of Huntley. He was not a convict. He came to Sydney as a member of the 57 th (The West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot to be garrisoned in the colony to guard against convict uprisings, track down bushrangers and generally keep order. Convict Chain Gang for recalcitrant convicts sent to work on the roads Abel Alchin was born in 1805 in Wateringbury, in the Parish of Frindsbury, Kent,...
Upper Lachlan Shire, Southern Tablelands, New South Wales