William (Crittle) Criddle (bef. 1804 - 1875)

Born before 18 Nov 1804 in Ightham, Kent, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Thomas) Criddle — married about 19 Jun 1840 in Toodyay, Western Australia, Australia

Descendants

Died 12 May 1875 after age 70 in Greenough, Western Australia, Australia

Caroline, 1829

Biography

William (Crittle) Criddle was born in Ightham, Kent, England.

William Criddle (Crittle) was born before 18 Nov 1804 in Ightham, Kent, England to parents William Crittle/Criddle & Elizabeth (Thomas) Criddle. He was christened on 18 Nov 1804 in Ightham, Kent. ^[1]

He immigrated to Australia in the ship Caroline at age 25, arriving on 12 Oct 1829, as an indentured servant to Thomas Thomasett.

He married Elizabeth Thomas, daughter of William Thomas and Keziah (Saunders) Thomas about 1840 while living in Deepdale, Geraldton, Australia.

Children: Anne, William, Thomas Vincent, Susanna, Henry, Mary, John, James, Sarah, Eliza, Emily, George, Charles, Phoebe Elizabeth.

He died on 12 May 1875 in Greenough, Western Australia, Australia. ^{[2] [3]}

Immigration and Work

"About CRIDDLE, William: His surname was Crittal when he arrived from Tunbridge Wells, Kent. In 1840, when he married, he married as William Criddle. William Criddle was a very early settler, having come to the colony on 12th October 1829 at the age of twenty-five, at the time and for many years afterwards he was known as "Crittal "; He came as an indentured servant, an Agriculturalist, with Thomas Thomasett, and their employer was, Alfred Stone, a solicitor and prospective farmer. The three men had shipped in the Caroline, which had been chartered by James Henty to bring his many employees and stock to the Colony. On the journey Criddle and Thomasett lived with the other steerage passengers on the lower deck, and amongst them John Chipper, Charles Gee and George Rewell, together with their wives and families. Their diet of salt meat and ship biscuits was not varied during the long journey as was that of the passengers in the Cuddy who had the money to pay for extra, and more tasty food. The latter had Hams, Tongues, Cheeses and salt fish, Soups and Eggs and various Pickles and Spices for disguising the unpalatable Salt Meat.

Swan River Colony 1832 Census #1261

Three weeks after their arrival in the Colony, Stone was granted a villa site of seven acres on the Canning River and a further 5,230 acres 'in the interior', which he ultimately took up on the Avon. On this villa grant Criddle and Thomasett worked at erecting a primitive stone cottage which was named Speldhurst, together with accommodation for themselves. Thomasett made himself busy about the cottage while Criddle set about preparing the ground for the vineyards and orchards that he was to supervise. The two men barely settled when Thomasett drowned in the river while shooting ducks. Within a year of his arrival Stone realized that money was not made easily in the colony and he accepted a position under Governor Stirling as the Sheriff of the colony, or Clerk of the Peace, as he was sometimes referred to. It may have been at this time that Stone released Criddle from his indentures. By Aug. 1834 he was working as a carpenter for J. Phillips, who had subleased James Henty's property, Stoke Farm, near Bassendean. Phillips, like so many others, was feeling the pinch of bad times and he applied to the Commissariat for food for Criddle. To-wards the end of the thirties, and as the Avon settlement began to expand, Criddle found his way over the hills to Toodyay where either as an agricultural labourer or as a carpenter he would have found plenty of employment.

By 1840 Criddle was working at Grassdale, and in that year he was married to Elizabeth Tomas, known to her family as "Betsy". She was eighteen years of age and her husband was thirty-six. Within a few years Criddle's position had improved considerably and he was then able to lease a farm of 200 acres on the old Jimperdine Road to Toodyay. In the census of 1849 Criddle declared that his household, besides his wife and himself, consisted of two males under twelve years (William the younger and Tom) two females (Anne and Susan) also under twelve. He also declared that he possessed 2 horses, 3 horned cattle, 11 swine and six acres of wheat. Another son, Henry was born at Toodyay in late 1850 and by this time, Criddle's lease on the Jimperdine Road had expired. When the first winter rains fell in 1852 and Lockier Burges returned to the Avon Valley looking for men and their families who would be willing to migrate northwards to the Irwin Valley. William Criddle went with him taking his wife and 5 children. The Criddle family remained at the Irwin River until the end of 1859 when William purchased two sections, totaling 80 acres, on the north front flats and roughly a mile south-east from the Bootenall Springs. Portion of one section faced Gregory Road, quite near the road William built a three roomed mud brick house. In the garden he planted a Palm Tree. In the floods of 1862 the house was destroyed. William built another home, that to met a similar fate in 1872. For the third time he built a home from limestone carted from a quarry at Rudd Gully some two miles to the North, on slightly higher ground to with stand the floods. Meantime the Palm Tree continued to grow and a hundred years later it was still thrusting its fonds into the air some forty feet from the ground. William Criddle died in 1875 aged seventy-one. Betsy or Granny Criddle as she was more affectionately known lived until 1909 when she died at the ripe old age of eighty-seven. She had married at 18 and given birth to thirteen children. Mary the first child to be born in the Victoria District died in 1870." ^[4]

The Hentys

"The Hentys" by Marnie Bassett spells out the tale in fine detail...The Henty family chartered the CAROLINE to send out their advance party to the Swan River Colony and had to arrive before the end of 1829 with money and goods in tow (investments in the new colony) to qualify for offers of grants of free land ... part of the goods, apart from sheep & provisions, was servants. Of the 65 passengers on board (cabin and steerage) many were servants, not only to the Hentys but to the other gentlemen on board...Camfield, Talbot, Trimmer, Everard and Alfred Stone 28, solicitor and "a good shot, whose mustachoes were black". Camfield's servants were Frederick & Frances Friend and child Mary Ann, and William Smith and wife and son William. The Henty servants were George Hills and his wife, son and daughter, while other labourers and servants were listed as Mr & Mrs Chipper, Mr & Mrs Gee and 5 children, Mrs & Mrs Rewell and daughter, Mr & Mrs Bushby and 2 sons, Mr & Mrs Sandford and 4 sons and 6 single men by the names of Price, Patterson, Dyer, Barnden, Haybittle and Goble. No other names jump off the pages at me but Erickson says William Criddle arrived on the Caroline and was A.H. Stone's servant and Phoebe was his youngest child, born in 1870. The HENTY servants were nearly all old employees of the family in Sussex UK and "signed on to serve Thomas Henty, gentleman, or his agents, as dutiful servants for five years in return for a free passage, twenty pounds a year, fuel, and board. The Hentys had a rough time of it in the colony and moved on to Tasmania and settled in Launceston where their father and the rest of the migration caught up with them. One son, Charles, set up a shipping business and took goods around to Fremantle, as well as setting up business in South Australia and their Victorian claim to fame of settling the Portland area. It states in a book that the name may have been taken from Crit Hall in the small town of Eneden. Willam Criddle was born 1804 in Kent (not sure where) his surname was spelt Crittal, and his hometown was Tunbridge Wells, he came to Western Australia as indentured servant to a solicitor Mr Alfred Hawes Stone, William was released from his indenture in 1830 to make his own way in the colony. After working for a few years in the Perth area, William went to Toodyay, or Newcastle as it was then known, he met future wife, Elizabeth Thomas, who was born in Bristol UK. They were married at "DEEPDALE" the home of Elizabeth in 1840,he was 36 years and she was 18 years they had fourteen(14) children. William was a stonemason and a builder.

The Perth Gasette of 1842 mentions that the Police Barracks at Toodyay was built by Willaim Criddle he eventually moved the Greenough flats on his own land and engaged in farming, there is much more to this story but cannot write it all on this message.I am not sure where you live, I shall check your email address later, but if you are interested and you don't know already Greenough is about twenty five kilometres south of Geraldton, it is now a tourist area and has a renovated hamlet, and there are various old buildings and ruins in the area (we go there often researching) many of these buildings at Greenough and Dongara were built by William. He died at Greenough 12 may 1875 (I shall ask my wife where he is buried) his wife Elizabeth died in Dongara in 1909 and is buried in Dongara cemetery. One last point the first child of William and Elizabeth was Anne Criddle she married a John Patience (they were my wife Pamela's g/grandparents) John Patience was number two (2) convict on arrival, from England, that is another story." ^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NRCY-G38 : 19 Sep 2020), William Crittle, 1804.
2. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #228699004
3. ↑ https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/25992048?h=40bd9e Australia Death Index, 1787-1985] William Criddle age 74, death registered 1875, Western Australia; database online, Provo, Utah, Ancestry.com, 2010.
4. ↑ Source, but may not be original source
5. ↑ The Hentys, an Australian Colonial Tapestry by Marnie Bassett, 1889]