Catherine listened while James told her Letters of Administration had been granted on his father’s estate. She heard him say he would sell off the home of James and Sarah Blay, the businesses, the farm, and other belongings. A lifetime of achievement to be lost from the family forever. He seemed to relish in the telling of how the convicts would be reassigned. Knowing that sometimes convicts, particularly women, were treated with contempt by some settlers, she would pray all the Blay convicts were reassigned to good people.
‘Can you not keep the house?’ Catherine asked.
‘And how would you suggest I do that?’ he hissed. ‘I would have to buy out my two brothers. I could sell Tedder’s properties and the flour mill, but that won’t leave me with a way of making a living, apart from the farm.
