Robert Williams and Susannah Tindall

Robert Williams

(1815 - 1880)

and his wife Susannah Tindall

Farmers and Graziers of Castlereagh and of the Monaro and Bega districts

Robert Williams was born in 1815 at Castlereagh NSW to John Williams and Sarah Nash, almost certainly at his grandmother's farm near the Nepean River. In 1823 the Williams family moved to West Bargo where Robert remained for around four years before returning to the Castlereagh district to assist his uncle George Nash and grandmother Maria Nash with their farms, and to secure his inheritance. He remained there for nearly two decades.

In 1835 Robert married currency-lass Susannah Tindall (1817-1901), the daughter of convict Daniel Tindall (Duke of Portland 1807) and his wife Jane (Kangaroo 1814). Robert and Susannah remained at Castlereagh until Maria Nash's death in 1844, moving to the Monaro district shortly afterwards. Robert sold his grandmother's farm to the neighbouring Single family in 1863.

Upon their arrival in the Monaro district Robert and his family settled initially at the Williams' “Curry Flat” run near Nimmitabel, before Robert found employment on other runs in the Monaro district. These included William Bradley's "Dangelong" where he was working as a shepherd in 1854 and as a carrier in 1856. By the late 1850’s Robert and his family were squatting at “Numeralla”, probably sub-leasing grazing land from another leaseholder.

Robert and his family left the Monaro district in 1863 and moved to Tantawanglo parish near Bega where Robert “selected” and resided upon different portions of land over the following decade. Land records provide detailed information about his land acquisitions and the "improvements" he made on the different properties, and reveal the confusion experienced by the authorities when Robert and his son-in-law Joseph William Hammond transferred properties between each other.

By 1877 Robert had left his selections and settled in Bega where he died in 1880. His widow Susannah remained in the district, dying at North Bega in 1901.

This is a brief summary of the chapter relating to Robert Williams and Susannah Tindall published in Nash: First Fleeters and Founding Families - A Three Generational Biographical History.

The family of Susannah Tindall

A. Mary (Mary Jane) Tindall/Williams (1833 - 1907) md Richard Doyle in 1852.

The family of Robert Williams and Susannah Tindall*

1. John Williams (1836 - 1918) md 1. Mary Ann Shannon in 1858 and 2. Mary Ann Teresa Summerell in 1901.

2. James Thomas Williams (1838 - 1838)

3. Henry Williams (1839 - 1900) md Eliza Harvey in 1861.

4. Daniel William Williams (1841 - 1856)

5. Sarah Anne Williams (1843 - 1925) md Thomas Linger in 1870.

6. Elizabeth Maria Williams (1845 - 1901) md Joseph William Hammond in 1862.

7. Robert Williams (1847 - 1899) unmarried.

8. Charles Williams (1849 - 1925) md Ann Plumb in 1875.

9. Eliza Ellen Williams (1851 - 1933) md John Robinson in 1874.

10. Emma Matilda Williams (1854 - 1945) md William Henry Wynne Folland in 1894.

11. Caroline Isabel Williams (1856 - 1881) md William Craigie McCarthy in 1876.

12. George Williams (1859 - 1933) md 1. Catherine Albertha Thornton in 1889 and 2. Dorcas Parker in 1894.

NB. Robert and Susannah also had two daughter (probably twins) who were born and died pre-1859.

* Many of these dates come from registrations of births, deaths and marriages. In some cases the event itself will have occurred late in the previous year.

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