Joseph Underwood (1779 - 30 August 1833) was a prominent Australian merchant in the years following the Rum Rebellion. He arrived in New South Wales in 1807 on the back of sound references from the British Secretary of State and in 1810 presented himself to Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales following the usurping of William Bligh earlier in the year, as an expert merchant. Macquarie commissioned Underwood to visit foreign markets and increase economic imports, starting with Calcutta, India where he imported spirits. By owning the ships privately, but mortgaged to a nominal owner, Underwood could evade taxes imposed by the East India Trading Company. His journeys took him to London, India and South Africa's Cape of Good Hope, where his ship was wrecked in 1812, d