Tombstone Tuesday - Thomas & Jane Tindall

AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE

OF

THOMAS TINDALL

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE

SEPT 12TH 1885

AGED 45 YEARS

ALSO JANE

HIS BELOVED WIFE

Geraldine Cemetery, South Canterbury, New Zealand

Portrait of Jane Tindall & Daughters

Jane Tindall (r) and her daughters - Jane (l), Mary Isabella (c) Elizabeth Ann (r)


The photograph was taken around 1894/95. What a pity Jane's sons aren't present as well. I don't know whether the family likeness between the girls comes from the Tindalls or Rutherfords but one thing's for sure - I see the resemblance to Alan and this is definitely the branch of the family he looks like.

Jane Tindall nee Rutherford 1842-1902

Jane was the youngest of the four children of Thomas and Mary Rutherford and she he was born in Felton, Northumberland . Thomas is listed in the census as an agricultural labourer and as the children were all born in different places it suggests he went where he could find work until finally settling in Chatton. I've written about Jane's early life in these posts.
Jane Rutherford - Toll Collector
Thomas Tindall

Following the unexpected and early death of Thomas , Jane had little choice but to battle on by herself. A world away from her family and with 6 children to raise it must have very difficult for her. I have great admiration for Jane and her fighting spirit. She remains , not only on the farm but as the hotel licensee and, fortunately for us, she has left behind quite a newspaper trail as she seemed to be forever taking someone to the Magistrates Court in Geraldine. If there were those who thought a widow was vulnerable and easy to put one across Jane wasn't about to let them get away with it.

Monday Dec 6th 1886 - Jane Tindall v F Ellery - Claim, $20, for wrongful detention of mare and foal and $5 damages sustained.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=THD18861207.2.26&srpos=3&e=01-01-1886-01-01-1903--10-THD-1----0jane+tindall--

This is a rather drawn out proceeding which came about from an incident the previous April during a sale Jane had to sell off 'her husband's effects".  From it comes the impression Jane is really struggling financially while adding to her grief is the necessity of the sale and particularly of a favourite horse.

Monday Jan 17th 1887 - Jane Tindall sought to recover possession of a smithy at Hilton because the rent hadn't been paid. This smithy was a part of the hotel.

On the same day small cases heard - W Davy v Jane Tindall - claim $9.9s.
Jane Tindall v W Davy claim $11.1.6d.

And - Jane Tindall of the Hilton Hotel was charged with keeping her licensed house open on Sunday January 2nd, also for allowing liquors to be sold on that day. Case was dismissed.
 http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=THD18870119.2.19&srpos=4&e=01-01-1886-01-01-1903--10-THD-1----0jane+tindall--

I have a feeling the magistrate must have wanted to run a mile whenever he saw Jane coming.

Wednesday 28th November, 1888 - Jane Tindall v G R Meredith - Claim $3 for the value of a pig gored and killed by the defendant's bull.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=THD18881130.2.17&srpos=2&e=01-01-1886-01-01-1903--10-THD-1----0jane+tindall--

7th June, 1889 - Jane applies to the Raukapuka Licensing Committee to renew her license for the Hilton Hotel. They 'adjourn till Saturday week to consider Mrs Tindall's application'.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=THD18890607.2.20&srpos=17&e=-------10--11----0hilton+hotel--

Jane's application was denied and a man named Henry Septimus Decimus Homes was appointed as licensee. A decision I'm sure the committee deeply regretted as on the 9th November, 1891 Mr Homes burned the hotel down in order to claim the insurance.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=THD18911130.2.28&srpos=6&e=--1889---1903--10-THD-1----0hilton+hotel--

He was tried and convicted for arson.

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=THD18911130.2.28&srpos=6&e=--1889---1903--10-THD-1----0hilton+hotel--

Jane continues to appear through the !890's but most of the time as a witness in some small disputes for her eldest son, John William.

I've never been able to find a death record for Jane and when she died has been a mystery which I've spent many hours trying to solve. She appears on the 1901 electoral roll but then disappears. But this week I had a major find - I was browsing South Canterbury records when I discovered the province had an online cemetery database which is doing a marvellous job along the lines of findagrave - whole cemeteries with their headstones being photographed. It's proved to be a goldmine of Toomey and Tindall information.

Jane died aged 60 in July 1902 - there is still no date of death but she was buried alongside Thomas in the Geraldine Cemetery on 18 July 1902.

Thomas Tindall 1840 - 1885

Thomas was the 6th child and 5th son of John and Mary Eleanor (nee Charters) Tindall. Born sometime during the first months of 1840 he was baptised in the Holy Cross Church in Chatton, Northumberland on 17th April, 1840.


One of what would eventually be 12 children he was raised at Broomhouse  . In the 1851 census he is listed as a scholar so he received an education and in the 1861 census he is working at home on the farm.

In the second quarter of 1865 he married Jane Rutherford  of Chatton . I haven't yet found the ship they travelled on but presumably they emigrated to New Zealand sometime during 1866.

The first sign of them here is the birth announcement of their eldest child, John William, - March 5, 1867 in Dunedin at the Auld Scotland Hotel. Considering what came later I think it's possible that they weren't just lodging there but Thomas was working at the hotel.

They then went to a small rural settlement called Hilton near Geraldine in South Canterbury where Thomas bought a farm of 186 acres. At some point he also became the licensee of the Hilton Hotel.
In the 1870's Hilton was an up and coming township with the prospect of becoming a boom town, with mineral, clay, coal and lime waiting to be railed out - the area attracted not only farmers but prospectors, sawmillers and construction workers. There was a PO and various stores including a barber's shop and a school. The school opened in 1875 and Thomas and Jane's older children were founding pupils. Unfortunately, the proposed railroad link between Hilton and Temuka failed to eventuate and neither did the township.

Thomas and Jane had 6 children..

John William Tindall  - 1867 – 1932
Mary Isabella Tindall  -1869 – 1958
Jane Tindall  -1870 – 1932
Thomas Rutherford Tindall -1877 – 1954
Robert Adam Tindall  -1879 – 1902
Elizabeth Ann Tindall  - 1881 – 1963

In April 1885 an advertisement in the Timaru Herald

I only found this recently and it was a huge surprise and raises the big question of why? It may have had something to do with his health and perhaps he felt Jane and the children would be happier and more secure back in England with family something should happen to him.

Sadly it was all too late - September 12 1885 -Timaru Herald

September 14th 1885 - Timaru Herald

Only 45 years old when he died Thomas is buried in the Geraldine Cemetery. 

Thomas Tindall is Alan's maternal great-grandfather.

Tindalls of Broomhouse, Chatton, Northumberland

BROOMHOUSE

Now a Grade II listed property, Broomhouse lies about a mile west of Chatton Village, the farm comprising 300 acres of arable and grassland leading down towards the banks of the river Till.

For more than seven centuries the Tindall family, yeoman farmers on the domains of the Percys, Dukes of Northumberland, have lived and worked on this land.

Chatton Village

Lying 19 miles from the town of Alnwick and 24 miles from Berwick Upon Tweed, Chatton is a  small village, lying close to the Cheviot Hills, and is located in a valley on the river Till.....

 .......with an old and renowned pub, The Percy Arms........

.......and a church - Holy Cross -  where generations of Tindalls have been baptised, married and buried.

Chatton Parish registers 

Surname Saturday - Tindall

Name Meaning

English: regional name for someone who lived in Tynedale, the valley of the river Tyne, or a habitational name from a place in Cumbria called Tindale, which is situated on a tributary of the South Tyne. The name derives from a British river name Tina (apparently from a Celtic root meaning ‘to flow’) + Old English dæl or Old Norse dalr ‘valley’.


Below are the recorded ancestors - before them, generations of Tindall yeoman farmers living near Chatton, Northumberland, England.

TINDALL LINEAGE

Thomas Tindall (1685 - )

 5th great grandfather of Alan Toomey

Adam Tindall (1710 - 1767)

Son of Thomas - b/d in Chatton, Northumberland, England. Married Margaret Thompson 30 May,1747. 

Robert Tindall (1755 - )

Son of Adam - b/d in Chatton, Northumberland, England. Married Mary ?

John Tindall (1800 - 1863)

Son of Robert - b/d in Chatton, Northumberland, England. Married Mary Eleanor Charters in 1832.

Thomas Tindall (1840 - 1885)

Son of John - b. in Chatton, Northumberland, England. Married Jane Rutherford in 1865,  emigrated to New Zealand in 1866. d. Hilton, Geraldine, South Canterbury, New Zealand

John William Tindall ( 1867 - 1932)

Son of Thomas - b. Dunedin, NZ -   Married Georgina Cullen 30 April 1902. Farmer at Hilton, Geraldine , South Canterbury, NZ. - d. Timaru

Alice Eileen Tindall (1903 - 1974)

Daughter of John William - b. Hilton, Geraldine, South Canterbury, New Zealand. Married Mark Anthony Toomey 3 June 1931. d. Christchurch, New Zealand.

Alan Mark Toomey (1943 - )

Son of Alice Eileen

Jane Rutherford - Toll Collector

I've been browsing through the census records and looking at the different occupations undertaken by our female ancestors prior to emigration. For most lower class women work was not a choice, but a necessity which would provide the few extra pennies needed to survive. For most women this meant working at home and finding the time between domestic chores to produce something to sell or to provide a service. Among our ancestors are the lacemakers of Beds. and Bucks. and the glovemakers of Somerset. There are farmers wives, dressmakers but not as many in service as I expected. From them all one young lady stands out........one of Alan's great grandmothers......

Jane Rutherford

In April of 1861, on the night of the census , Jane is 19 years old and living in Chatton, a small village in Northumberland way up in the north-east and close to the Scottish border. Her occupation is listed as Toll Collector i.e. a person who sat at a tollgate or turnpike and collected the fees for using the road, bridge or canal. There were many of these tollgates , most of which had a small building, the toll booth, from which the collector worked and sometimes lived. I wonder if Jane's residence is in fact a tollhouse - she is listed as the head of the household and is living alone which is unusual for a young woman of the time even if her father does live two houses away. The toll roads were run by Turnpike Trusts who were responsible for maintaining the road, providing the tollhouse and appointing the toll collectors - Jane was likely employed in this capacity.

Jane's work indicates an independent young woman, unafraid to look for more than the traditional role, and who did have some choice in her occupation.