Joseph SAUNDERS was convicted of rape at the Abingdon assizes on 26 February 1851 and received a life sentence. He arrived in Western Australia on the ship "William Jardine" on 1 August 1852. He was a shoemaker and at first worked in Perth for one Charles Freeman. He was issued with a ticket-of-leave in 1856, and granted permission to marry on 7 January 1858. On 11 January 1858 Joseph married Mary Flynn, an Irish immigrant. One of the witnesses to the marriage was William Osborne who was also a convict on the "William Jardine". Two children were born to Joseph and Mary Saunders in Perth - Mary (1859) and Joseph (1860).

In 1860, Joseph was granted a conditional pardon and the family settled in Gingin where Joseph worked for himself as a shoemaker, and where 7 more children were born. They were John (1862), Sarah (1864), Susan (1866), Harriet and Selina (twins, 1868), George (1871) and Ada Elizabeth (1873).

Joseph Saunders died of heart disease in October 1872 (before the birth of his youngest daughter) and his widow Mary married again in 1874 to one John Baynham. The Baynhams had two children - William John (1875) and Frances May (1878).

My father, Reginald Allan Hobson, was the son of Joseph's daughter Sarah Saunders and her husband, Samuel Hobson. Joseph's daughters Susan, Harriet and Selina also married and have many descendants about whom I have a good deal of information which I am happy to share with anyone who is interested.