mid-1842, he bought a small block of land in the newly created village of Murrurundi, where he established a butcher shop and also sold fresh vegetables. About the end of 1850, Benjamin Senior moved down to the Lachlan River area, taking with him the children Ben Junior, William, Mary and his stepson Thomas Wade. It appears that Ben Junior never returned to Murrurundi, although his father did in 1851. Young Ben spent his early years working with horses and cattle, developing his expertise in stockwork and bushcraft, skills which would later serve him well. In 1856, at the age of 19, Ben married Bridget Walsh (1841–1923) at Bathurst. Kitty, one of Bridget's sisters, was married to a Wheogo stockman named John Brown, but in 1862 she became the mistress of Frank Gardiner and eloped to Queensland; another Walsh sister Ellen married John Maguire. On 7 August 1859, Ben and Biddy (as she was called) had a son, whom they named Henry. In 1859–60, Ben Hall and John Maguire jointly leased the "Sandy Creek" run of 10,000 acres (40 km²) about 50 km south of Forbes. Bushranger During the summer of 1861–62, his wife Biddy left with their young son Henry to live with a young stockman named James Taylor. They moved to Humbug Creek, near Lake Cowal, well away from Ben Hall. He soon began a disastrous association with the notorious bushranger Frank Christie, alias Gardiner. In April 1862, Ben was arrested by Police Inspector Sir Frederick Pottinger for participating in the armed robbery of Bill Bacon's drays near Forbes. Hall was identified as having been in the company of Gardiner during the robbery, and two other men, names unknown. The charge was dismissed when one of the Crown witnesses changed his evidence. Shortly afterwards, on 15 June 1862, Gardiner led a gang of eight men, including Ben Hall, in robbing the gold escort coach near Eugowra, New South Wales (at what is now known as Escort Rock), of banknotes and 2700 ounces of gold worth more than 14,000 pounds. Ben Hall and several others were arrested in July, but once again the police were unable to gain enough evidence to formally charge him. He was released about the end of August. However, he and his partner at Sandy Creek faced mounting legal costs and were forced to transfer the lease of the property to John Wilson, a Forbes publican.