Australian Royalty: Genealogy of the colony of NSW

Blanch did not migrate to the colony to take advantage of the growing economic opportunities. Rather, he suffered the consequences of an ill judged act of petty theft! The earliest documentation turned up so far has Blanch not as an instrument maker but a ‘Custom-house Officer’ working on the London docks in January 1814. ‘Feloniously stealing’ ten yards of Russia duck, a heavy linen fabric, worth 30 shillings from the ship, Lord Harlington, lately arrived from St Petersburg, saw Blanch, then 29, and his fellow official, John Brennan, 32, appear at the Old Bailey in February. They were both found guilty and sentenced to be transported for seven years. The supply of involuntary passengers must have outstripped the means for sending them ‘bound for Botany Bay’ as the ship Fanny arrived in Sydney with a cargo of convicts, Blanch among them, on 18 January 1816, two days short of two years since the duck-pilfering incident. Having served his time, Blanch gained his Ticket of Leave in February 1821

James Blanch, one of 174 convicts transported on the ship Fanny, 25 August 1815.
Sentence details: Convicted at Middlesex Gaol Delivery for a term of 7 years on 16 February 1814.
Vessel: Fanny.
Date of Departure: 25 August 1815.
Place of Arrival: New South Wales.

Arrived in the colony 1 Jan 1816

Blanch, James 44 free by servitude, Fanny 1816 7 years Protestant, mathematical isntrument maker George Street Sydney
Blanch, Sarah 37 came free Brixton 1822
Blanch, Maria 6 born in the colony
Blanch, James Jr. 5 born in the colony
Blanch, Sarah Jr. 4 born in the colony
Blanch, Joseph 19 came free Lonidas 1826

Blanch set up business in Pitt Street as a mathematical and philosophical instrument maker, brass founder, brazier, plater and general worker in silver and brass. By February 1822 he had moved to ‘a more commodious and centrical situation’ at 78 George Street. ‘J.B. makes, and has always for Sale, brass and plated harness furniture, parlour and chamber candlesticks, copper tea-kettles, brass cocks of all sorts, locks and hinges of every description, scales, beams, weights and steelyards, wire fenders, hand bells, ivory and wood rules, &c.’ He also advertised ‘Sextants, Quadrants, Compasses, Telescopes, and other Nautical and Optical Instruments repaired and accurately adjusted.—Umbrellas and Parasols made and repaired; Musical instruments repaired; and every article in brass, copper, silver or ivory, made to any pattern.’ Such were the diverse means by which Blanch began to prosper. By this time Blanch was aided in his work by assigned convicts, and before 1822 was out he was seeking an apprentice. His address then was 71 George Street, and in time he also acquired the adjacent properties, nos. 69 and 70.
The range of his goods and services suggests that his skills as a mathematical instrument maker played a minor part in his business. While he could not have made a living at this alone, his skill was unique in the colony, and was on occasion valuable to the government. At the beginning of 1823 we find him being paid for the repair of compasses at the government dockyard and the following year he received 32 Spanish dollars and 50 cents for repairing mathematical instruments in the Surveyor-General’s Department.
With the passing of the Bill for preventing the use of false and deficient Weights and Measures in August 1832, a more substantial piece of precision work came to Blanch. ‘It then became a question whether the old or New English Weights and Measures Should be declared the Standard in New South Wales [Governor Bourke informed Lord Goderich in the Colonial Office in London], which question was decided by its being found upon enquiry that no Authorised Set of weights and Measures of the Old Standard could be procured; but, from the Commissariat, a standard Set of Imperial Weights and Measures, Sent out by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, has been obtained, which, being lodged in the office of the Colonial Treasurer, are declared the Standards of New South Wales, by which all Copies and Models are to be compared and verified.’ Bourke added that a Standard Yard had been obtained from the Surveyor-General’s Office.(1)
Seven sets were required each consisting of a series of weights (1, 2, 4, and 8 drams, 1, 2, 4, and 8 ounces, 1, 2, 4, 7, 14, 28, and 56 pounds), a series of volume measures (half gill, gill, pint, quart, half gallon, gallon, peck, half bushel and bushel) and a standard yard.
Blanch had these ready by February 1833. Then balances and scales were required for ‘making a proper comparison of weights’. The provision of these also fell to Blanch, ‘the other Iron Mongers in the Town declined furnishing the Articles no one of them being able to make the same’. A note records the result: ‘The Surveyor General reports that the Colonial Architect considers the articles to be of as good quality as can be made in the Colony & the prices reasonable’.
Sets were distributed to police offices in various regional towns - Parramatta, Windsor, Bong-Bong, Goulburn, Bathurst, Maitland - as well as one to the police office in Sydney. In the end the production of the weights and measures, and their distribution to the various towns, amounted to 323.11.6, rather more than the sum allocated, but no one seems to have complained.
The late 1830s have been described as ‘a period of dazzling but false prosperity’.(2) Blanch shared in this, acquiring farms at Kissing Point, Brisbane Water and Illawarra in addition to the George Street properties.

V184188 108/1841 BLANCH JAMES AGE 57
V18413520 162B/1841 BLANCH JAMES AGE 57

Mr James BLANCH died 26th October 1841 aged 57 years leaving a wife and three children
also Sarah
wife of the above
died 17th December 1851 aged 63 years
also Maria COLE
dau of the above
died 2nd March 1854 aged 29 years
also James
only son of the above J.&. S. BLANCH
died 20th December 1852 aged 29 years
also William Reginald COLE
son of the above Maria
died 7th January 1882 aged 33 years.