Here is James Bloodsworth partner in the colony Sarah Bellamy arrived with the First Fleet aboard the "LADY PENRHYN". She had been tried at the Worcester Summer Assizes on the 9th July 1785 and received a sentence of 7 years. She was a spinster - her occupation "in service" and in 1787 she was only 17 years of age. Her son who was baptised Joseph Downey on the 10th February 1788 died later in the month. Surgeon Bowes reported the infant on board the LADY PENRHYN, so it is possible that he was born before Sarah embarked but I am not sure at this stage. More than 200 years ago a young Belbroughton girl became one of the first fleet of British convicts to be shipped to Australia after she was convicted of stealing £15. Sarah Bellamy, aged just 17, was deported along with more than 700 others as part of the state's programme of ridding surplus convicts. Born into a large poor Belbroughton family in 1770, Sarah grew up in a cottage in Queens Hill. At nine-years-old she was apprenticed to Fairfield farmer James Spurrier - a common practice for poor children - and by 15 she was in service in Dudley. But on May 29 1785 she was charged with stealing a two pence linen purse, containing £15 and 15 shillings from her employer Benjamin Haden. Tried at Worcester on July 9 1785, Sarah was found guilty and sentenced to deportation to Oz for seven years. The youngster pleaded in vain for a public whipping rather than transportation. But on May 13 1787 - after languishing in jail for one-and-half-years - Sarah began the 15,000-mile journey Down Under to Botany Bay, on board The Lady Penrhyn with more than 100 diseased women convicts and children. She finally reached her destination eight months later on January 26 1788. Cheers Rhonda