were grown at what became Wallacia) and Hunter Regions as a result of discovering a route to the area. His grant was in the area now known as Broke and by 1830 he had established a mill in the nearby area of Fordwich. Over the years he was successful as a stock owner. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1829 to 1844 and died at Newington on 5 August 1845. Family and descendants Blaxland married twice, firstly to Sarah Davies (who died during childbirth) and secondly to Harriott de Marquett, daughter of Jean Louis de Marquett (a Calcutta merchant and a bodyguard of Louis XVI). He was survived by several sons and daughters from his second marriage. His younger brother, Gregory Blaxland of Blue Mountains crossing fame committed suicide a few years after his death. Their eldest daughter Harriott firstly married Calcutta merchant Alexander Macdonald Ritchie with whom she bore three children: Elizabeth, Arthur and Alexander. Through her family connections (both maternal and spousal) Harriott spent some time in India and wrote an account of a suti or widow-burning, the account is now in the Library of New South Wales. Harriott and Alexander's daughter, Elizabeth, married a Welshman, Charles Boydell, who was a pioneer in the Hunter Valley, in particular, Gresford, New South Wales where he had a property called Camyr Allyn. Charles' brother William married the daughter of the first Anglican Archbishop of Australia, William Broughton, also an alumnus of the King's School, Canterbury. From Elizabeth's line, descendants married into families such as the wine-making Lindemans. From Arthur's line, descendants married into the British nobility. Harriott, as Mrs Ritchie, was the subject of a romantic tryst with French navigator Hyacinthe de Bougainville. In de Bougainville's account, the navigator was pleasantly surprised to find an Anglo-French speaking family in the colony, connections to Louis XVI and praised Blaxland as a truly English gentleman. After Alexander Ritchie's death, eldest Harriott married the second Chief Justice of NSW, fellow widower Sir James Dowling, thereafter becoming Lady Dowling. Furthermore, Lady Dowling's father, who was known as a liberal, made Sir James pointed out the difficulties of advancement in the colony for having so close a connection to a "Kentish whig": Dowling recognised that his recent remarriage to Harriott Ritchie, a widow, ("the daughter of a most respectable man and worthy gentleman...and an honest upright man...who has the