Shaun,
I wonder whether the term "blue-eyed boy" was in use exactly 200 years ago (well, almost) in the 1820's. I imagine that the "black sheep of the family" was widespread as an expression of scorn and shame.
What I've noticed is that the 1820's was a particularly bad time for people being severely punished for quite minor crimes of theft to supplement their meagre lives. The opening up of these far flung colonies was the perfect excuse for the judiciary to empty the overcrowded jails here and send these poor souls away to the other side of the earth and dump them there. So many cases of young wives left behind to cope with many small children on their own, too.
Desperate times indeed...
Keith
