To add to the types of characters, not everyone would necessarily [i]have[/i] to have been forced to go. You might occasionally get people who want to go to the new colony - missionaries from the Ethahnic faith wanting to find converts, or missionaries from a less recognized religion hoping to carve out a niche in a new place. People from poor families who's only choices were crime, soldiering, or the new world. People who have an interest in adventuring and see the new world as the best way to sate that interest. The Government of Aenda would welcome volunteers because volunteers, who are more likely to be loyal to the crown, would bring an element of stability. And really, why would you deny them at all? The rules could be that once you go to Uponhill, you can't return, but most people don't know this an are never told so they don't realize they are going to be stuck.

There is also the possibility of people who just ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe they were shanghaied in a dockside bar, or sold a non-existent new world land grant by a con artist. Maybe they were hiding in a ship that went to Uponhill, and they were dumped there once they were found. They could have slept with the wife of some important official, or maybe they owned land that somebody close to power wanted to seize so they were proscribed and banished. 

Then you have the possibilities of foreigners who have somehow ended up at the Uponhill colony, or pirates who are laying low. They could be explorers, or retired conquistadors, or traveling traders and trappers. 

Really, there aren't a lot of realistic limits to character possibilities.