William Gamblin was borm inn  wiveliscombe, Somersetshire, England in 1775.  Wiveliscombe is about 200 kilometers West of London at the intersection of B3227 and B3188 toward the Cornwall coast.  He was apprentice to a blacksmith, and joined the Royal Marines, Plymouth Division, on January 3, 1805 at the age of 29. He enlisted in Taunton.  In 1810, he married Joanna Seymour, and they came and settled in English Settlement, New Brunswick, Canada, when it was a wilderness in 1818.  (Today, English Settlement is located in Pearsonville and Highfield which is South of the Trans-Canadian Highway Route 2 about 8 km NW of Sussex.) Both are buried in the Woodland United Church Cemetery, Pearsonville, New Brunswick, Canada.

An alternative background for William and Joanna has been proposed by family members and was included in research done by Colonel Frederick H. Mills in July,1950.  The findings show William Gamblin fought at the Battle of Traflagar in 1805, and Joanna Seymour was a daughter of a Nobleman - - a direct descendant from the family of which Jane Seymour, wife of King Henry VIII, was an illustrious member, and whose brother was her progenitor.