Relating to the Lindo family in South Australia.

                        Rosa’s maternal grandfather was Robert Christmas Lindo born 25th December 1812, allegedly at the village of Brooke in Norfolk, son of Jonothan Lindo and Sarah.  There is no record of his birth in the IGI.  According to others who have researched the Lindos ‘his ancestors were Serphadim Jews living in Spain from whence they fled to Holland in the 15th Century during the Spanish Inquisition; they were wealthy merchants and traders and during the early 17th century migrated to England.  They were ceded land in Norfolk by Queen Elizabeth for services rendered and apparently prospered as landed gentry’.  Be all that as it may, no trace of them could be found in parish and IGI records.

                        If the above is so, then Robert apparently moved to Yorkshire as a young man where he married Jane Wilson in the Church of England at Acklam in the Parish of Malton on 2nd October 1842.  This is recorded in Parish Records and in St Catherine’s House Records Office London, from which the marriage certificate was obtained.  Curiously on this certificate his name is spelt with an “e” on the end, Lindoe, possibly an error by the Vicar who married them or a clerk.  The occupation of both Robert and Jane is shown as “servant”, that of his father as “Publican”, and her father “Butcher”.  Jane’s father, Christopher Wilson was christened at Old Malton on 27th March 1790; her mother was Ann Smith, married on 28th June 1814. Jane was born on 21st April 1815, in the Parish of “Wetwang with Firmer”; she had a brother Aron, born 24th September, 1816.  Her paternal grandfather was also a Christopher Wilson and grandmother Ann Spink.  These are according to “Individual Entries” received from the CLDS at Utah. 

                        Robert and Jane’s first two children were born in Yorkshire, Wilson (known as Jack) on 25th February 1843 at Malton and Sarah Ann (known as Miriam) on 1st September 1844 at Newington.  In 1849, Robert, Jane and the two children, together with 360 other emigrants boarded the “Steboneath” at London bound for South Australia. A further 33 migrants boarded the ship at Plymouth,  and sailed from that port on 31st January 1849. The “Steboneath” was a large ship for her day , being 1013 tons.  It was built in Hull in 1842 and made at least two voyages to SA and Victoria with migrants, and on this journey arrived at Port Adelaide on 11th May 1849, taking 100 days for the journey, a very reasonable time for those days.  The master was John Sargeant and the Surgeon Supt James John Evans.  According to the latter’s report to the Colonial Secretary, 358 persons embarked in England and 363 arrived in Australia, one having died and six born on the journey.  An interesting document photocopied was a certificate by the Emigration Agent in Adelaide, apparently to the Colonial Secretary, which begins,

  “I have the honor to inform you that I have this day mustered the Immigrants on Board the ship Steboneath 1013 tons, and that they all express themselves satisfied with their diet and treatment during their voyage” etc etc.

On the same document is a certificate by the Surgeon Superintendent:-

“I certify that all the requirements of the Charter Party of the Ship Steboneath as regards the treatment of the Emigrants on board, have been strictly and satisfactorily complied with”.

On another document he lists persons entitled to “Gratuities for Services” performed on board commencing with Joseph Walker, Schoolmaster whose gratuity was 10 pounds, Hospital Assistant 3, Nurse 2, Matron 5, six constables at 2 pounds and a cooks assistant at 3 pounds; these would have been appointed from among the emigrants.  On this document he also declares the “Second moiety of passage money at the rate of twelve pounds seventeen shillings and twopence per Statute Adult, payable in England”. For the purpose of the payment of passage money a statute adult was a person over the age of 14 years, two children 1 to 14 years were counted as one adult, and infants under one year not counted at all.  Apparently the Charter Company was paid a first instalment of passage money when the ship departed and a second instalment on the arrival at the port of destination. Yet another document states :-

                        List of persons related to Emigrants but being ineligible for a free passage have paid for their conveyance at a rate of 14 pounds for each adult:-

The Stebonheath must have been a well organised ship to have had only the one death and to have had the schoolmaster etc employed – there were 94 children between the ages of 1 and 14 aboard.

                        Robert and Jane had five more children in Australia, Eliza, Emma, John, Annie and the youngest, Rosa’s mother, Harriet born 12th September 1855 at Hope Valley.

                        Robert and his family lived at Nairne in 1855, at Childers Farm in 1861, at Clare in 1863, at Kooringa in 1873 and he secured a property at Cudlamudla in 1879. Jane died at Moyleton Jamestown in 1895 and Robert in 1904; they are both buried in Jamestown cemetery which Ray visited  and took photos of the headstone which reads:-

In Loving Memory of Jane Lindo.
Beloved wife of R. C. Lindo
who died August 9th 1895
A colonist of 45 years
A faithful wife and loving mother.

R.C. Lindo
Husband of the above
Born Christmas Day 1812
Died March 4th 1904
Aged 92 years
He loved truth and justice.

Also Wilson (Jack) Lindo
Son of the above
Born February 26th 1842
Died January 26th 1905
Aged 63 years.

                        The eldest Lindo child, Jack, married Louise Lydia Zeihn in 1867 at Hindmarsh and they had three children, James who died a child at Mintaro, Wilson, and Emily Jane. Nothing is known of them but others would have researched the Lindo’s and may know something of their history.  Jack is listed on his death certificate as a Station Owner Parachilna and is buried at Jamestown as shown above.  It was probably he who arranged for the grave and probably one of his children had the headstone erected.

                        The second child was Miriam, born at Newington, Malton, Yorkshire. The record of her baptism, obtained from the CLDS Utah, is the first entry on a photocopy of page 107 of the register of “Baptisms solemnized  in the Parish of Wetwang in the County of York and Deanery of Buckrose in the year 1844”.  Not surprisingly the surname is shown as Lindow, an obvious error by the Vicar, J Matthews, who performed the baptism. She married John Bowles at Gilles Flat in 1861 but they had no children. Miriam had the store at Yongala and as mentioned elsewhere, Rosa sometimes went there to help in the store and do sewing.  Ray deviated to Yongala on the way back from Orroroo to Broken Hill in 1993 but could not find any trace of what could have been the store, and enquiries from the current storekeeper brought no result, although he produced a booklet on the history of Yongala which only gave Bowles’ name as the store owners. Yongala, like many other small towns in the country have shrunk, and no longer the thriving communities that they would have been in Miriam’s day.  Miriam is buried at West Terrace Cemetery in the same grave as her sister Eliza, Road 1 South, Path 25, Plot 22; Ray took photos of the headstone which is a plain one and simply says:-

Sacred to the Memory
of Eliza Day
1847 -1903
Miriam Bowles
1844 – 1930
Beloved Daughters of
R C Lindo

                        The third child Eliza Jane, born 3rd September 1849 was the first to be born in South Australia and married twice; her first husband was Walter Moyle, who arrived in SA from Cornwall with his parents William and Frances Moyle on the “British Sovereign” in 1847, who she married on 1.7.1871 at Hill River SA, “In her fathers house” – Book 3 Page 209 Clare marriage register – and they had three children, Robert, Frances Jane, and Walter Lindo. Their eldest child Robert must have gone up to Silverton, either to work in the mines when they were in operation there or working with his Uncle William Henry Bray who was a teamster as also was another, his Uncle, Alfred Gray, but in any case he died there from typhoid fever at the age of only 16. Many people died there, and also at Broken Hill, in those early days, from typhoid due to the lack of good water.

Walter Moyle died in 1878 and in 1882 she married Edgar Henry (Harry) Day and  had five more children, Effie, Albert Henry, Edgar Washington, Violet Alice, and Emma Rose. The children, from Frances to Violet were born at Jamestown and sighted in the Clare Birth Registers at the Clare Library; Emma Rose’s entry was sighted at SAGHS Library.  Eliza died on 13th January 1903 and is buried at WTC with her sister Miriam.  An interesting discovery at the Clare Library in Deaths Register Book 1 Entry 1320 was the death on 9.1.1867 of Henry Lindo, male, 10 weeks, infant son of Miss Eliza Lindo, Mintaro, cause of death English Cholera there was no indication of whom the father was; poor Eliza, she would only have been 17 years old; her eldest child by Edgar Day also died as an infant.

                        The fourth Lindo child was Emma, born 28.2.1851, and who was well known to the Broken Hill Olivers, and known by them simply as “Aunty”, a tall upright old lady, dressed always in a floor length black dress and very deaf, living in Wills Lane Broken Hill Railway Town, and looked after by her daughter Hilda.  Aunty’s was the calling place by Rosa with a couple of the younger Olivers on their way back from the cemetery after putting flowers on Jean’s grave; Rosa would be given a cup of tea and the boys a currant bun and glass of cordial; it was always the same currant buns, made by Hilda, and they were very good as far as the boys were concerned.   On 19.7.1871 Emma married William Henry Bray at Mintaro SA “in the dwelling house of John Bowles” (her brother in law) – Book 3 Marriage Register Clare P214, shown at the time as a farmer – he is later shown as a teamster and a dairyman. In 1877 he had taken up 544 acres at Wirreanda and held it through the 1880’s, many of them drought years. He must have then gone up to Silverton as the twins Hedley and Gilbert were known to have been born at Silverton in 1894. He was the son of Frederick George Bray and Ann Rapsey; it is not known what ship they came out on. Their first two children, Emma Jane and William Henry, were shown in the Clare Birth Register Book Nos 1422 and 1724 respectively, as being born at Jacobs Well – a little unusual for a couple of that era to name their first girl and boy after themselves.  They had 11 more children but two of them died as infants and names are not known.

                        Their first child, Emma Jane, married William Scougall and had three children; the second, William Henry, married Edith Carpenter but there were no children of this marriage; the third, Lina, married Ralph Kelly and had one child; the fourth, Frederick, married Evelyn (surname unknown) and had three sons; nothing is known of the fifth, Mina Ann; the sixth Alma Elizabeth was the cousin for whom Rosa went up to Broken Hill to be bridesmaid for and who married Walter Robert Crocker, they had seven children; Alma was one of the persons wounded when the picnic train was attacked by the two Turks in 1915, she was holding her baby in her arms with her sister Clara sitting alongside her when she was struck on the cheek by a bullet, Clara didn’t realise Alma had been hurt until she looked down and saw the baby “covered in blood”; Alma’s son Walter, later Sir Walter, became High Commissioner in Canada.; another son Jim is mentioned in other stories here.  

The seventh child Clara Gertrude Rapsey married Richard Warwick Warden and lived a few streets down from “Aunty” in Ryan Street and their three children, Warwick, Ross and Pat were well known to the Oliver boys; Warwick never married and was killed in action in 1941 at Tobruk; Ross married Ruby Giles and had three children and died in 1990, he had left Broken Hill but Pat still lives there; she married Owen Dowling, had one son Owen and has five grandchildren and one great grandchild at time of writing; Ray maintains contact with her each year when he goes to Broken Hill.

The eighth child of Emma was Hilda Eva who married James White and who looked after her mother, Ray never saw James but believes he went over to the West and is believed to have deserted her; nevertheless “Cousin” Hilda was a jolly person and always glad to see Rosa and the boys. The ninth child Ralph married Letitia Whinnen and had one child. The youngest child Hedley was born at Silverton in 1894 and Ray thinks he was also known to him as the Stationmaster at Burns, a siding between Broken Hill and Silverton on the Silverton Tramway from Broken Hill to Cockburn; his twin Gilbert died an accidental death from suffocation as an infant of only nine weeks old at Silverton.

                        The fifth Lindo child was John Henry who married Rose Anne Williams (on her marriage certificate shown as Rosanna !) and is believed to have had two sons and a daughter, Herbert Henry, Walter James and Rose.  John and his father took up  selections in Cudlamudla and farmed there for many years but gave up farming, and enlarged his property for grazing.

                        The sixth Lindo, Annie Elizabeth married twice, to David Wright Boyd and then a man called Lehman.  She had twelve children and was the grandmother of the Ern Fowler mentioned in other chapters who lived at Peterborough and where Rosa and children used to stay on their way to Orroroo.

                        The youngest child of the Lindos was the grandmother of the Broken Hill Olivers, Harriet, and she is dealt with fully in the Grays section.  In the search of the Births Marriages and Deaths original registers at the Clare Library an interesting, quite surprising, and sad, entry was found in No 1250 of District of Burra Register of Deaths, viz, January 18th, 1872, Arthur Lindo, Male, One Month, Illegitimate child of Hugh McColl and Harriet Lindo, Mintaro, Cause of death Atrophy, Place where death occurred Kooringa: Henry Pearce certified that the entry particulars were correct on 19th January 1872.  Atrophy appeared quite a number of times in the early registers as the cause of death of infants; Webster’s defines it as “A wasting away for want of nourishment”. Poor Harriet, she would have been just 16 years and four months old.  Despite further searches of the registers at Clare there was no record of the birth of the child, nor any reference to McColls.

                        Robert Christmas Lindo was blind, for quite a few years apparently before his death; one of the Moyle descendants who did some research thought that the cause of his blindness was an accident which happened during his days as a teamster, and that he lived for many years with his daughter Eliza and that Walter Moyle used to escort him everywhere including regular attendances at church, and that he also lived for some years with Miriam..   But certainly he was blind when Rosa and her sisters Emily and Alice knew him from staying with their mother Harriet.  Emily says that he always had lollies in his pocket and that she and Alice used to lead him around and would threaten to run away and leave him if he did not give them one.  Rosa used to recite a jingle to the young boys about him:

                        Robert died at the age of 92 in 1904 at Yongala. At 92 years of age one would think it  would simply  be of old age; on his Death Certificate the cause is shown as senile decay which amounts to the same thing.