Thomas Arndell
(Cir 1753-1821)

 

Family Links

Spouses/Children:
1. Susanna

Thomas Arndell

  • Born: Cir 1753
  • Christened: 4 Mar 1753, Kington, Herefordshire England
  • Marriage (1): Susanna circa 1772
  • Died: 2 May 1821, Cattai, NSW Australia about age 68
  • Buried: St Matthews R C, Windsor, NSW Australia

  Noted events in his life were:

• source. Marion Purnell where it is noted:
No record of this marriage has been found so far with Susanna, but baptisms of five legitimate children were recorded from April 1772. By 1779 only his first child, John (1772) was known to have survived. Thomas was then an apothecary in St Martin's Le Grand. (John would make the voyage to NSW around 1796 and appears to have died there around 1806).
Thomas and Isabella did not marry. Thomas had an affair with Isabella, neglecting his wife who had had his child Martha on 4 Aug 1781. Isabella's child Esther was born 4 months after his wife had Martha.
Apparently deciding to abandon the muddle his life had become, Thomas (who had qualified at the Royal College of Surgeons on 6 Sep 1781 as 'Mate to an Indiaman'), was on the East India Company ship 'Major' for India by the 24th, abandoning both women.
From Calcutta he returned to England as surgeon on another East India Company ship, 'Rochford' in Dec 1782. In 1784 he seems to have returned to his wife Susannah, who bore another daughter May Anne on 21 Jan 1786. His last two daughters, dead by March 1786 (all his children had been baptised in various London parishes) Arndell seems to have decided to leave England and his problem by applying for the post of assistant surgeon to NSW. He made the voyage aboard the ship 'Friendship' with the First Fleet, having been appointed on 25 Oct 1786.
Thomas was assistant surgeon, together with Dennis Considen and William Balmain under surgeon John White at Sydney Town.
When the settlement at Rose Hill (later Parramatta) was established in 1788, Arndell was given charge of the hospital there. In view of the dangers that took other lives in following years, he had a narrow escape in march 1788 when he was lost overnight in the bush when out shooting with Captain Meredith (also a First Fleeter).
On 26 Jun 1789 he was a member of a small party organised by Watkin Tench. They moved first to a high point some five miles from Rose Hill to view the country, and continuing all that day and into the next to find themselves on the banks of a river 'nearly as broad as the Thames at Putney'. This was the Nepean River. The party returned late on the 27th.
In Jul 1792 he received a grant of 60 acres on the south side of the creek leading to Parramatta, though still working as a surgeon, and became a settler, energetic in cultivating his land and receiving additional grants. By October 1792 he had 18 acres under cultivation, but in Dec he lost 30 bushels of wheat, his homestead and all his outbuildings in a bushfire. By 1794 he had retired as a surgeon and was on a pension of fifty pounds per annum. By this time he had also received an additional grant of 70 acres from Lieutenant Governor Grose. By 1796 he and Elizabeth Bureligh had two daughters.
In 1798 Thomas was a member of the court which tried the mutineers of the ship 'Barwell'. In the same year, at Hunter's request, he tabled a report that depicted the colony under Grose and Paterson, the interin lieutenant- governors, as a community of crime, drunkenness and vice, mismanaged and poorly governed, until restored to decency by Hunter's prompt actions. In the same year, with the Rev. Samuel Marsden, he conducted a survey which highlighted the plight of the small landholders in the colony.
He served as a Magistrate and in 1800 he signed the neighbourhood petition protesting the high cost of living. At mid 1800 he was recorded holding three grants: 60 acres at Parramatta, 70 at Northern Boundary (fully cultivated) and 100 acres in the Dundas district (17 cultivated). In addition he held a 100 acre Northern Boundary farm by purchase and a one acre lease at Parramatta. He owned 40 sheep, 113 goats, 26 hogs, four oxen and three horses. Three acres were sown in oats, 8 in barley and 12 in wheat with eight ready for planting maize; seven servants were employed on his various properties.
Two years later he held 560 acres cleared) and had increased his flock of sheep to 89 and held 300 bushels of maize. He had only two servants, the others probably having been withdrawn by the government as an economy measure.
In Jun 1804 he received a further 600 acres at Mulgrave Place known as 'Caddai'. In Aug 1807 he was recorded holding a total of 750 acres, just over 100 of them cultivated with 60 bushels of wheat, 120 of maize and 60 of barley in hand. He owned 9 horses, 11 cattle, eight oxen, 230 sheep, 20 goats, 43 swine and employed 14 convicts and one free man.
By 1806 when his pension was stopped, he owned 630 acres, including 'Caddai' which he made his permanent home. Though he had 87 acres in grain, sheep breeding was his main concern and he experimented with improving the quality of his wool by introducing a Spanish strain.
After the flood of 1806 he and Marsden carried out a thorough survey of the damage. They estimated the value of wheat, maize, barley and livestock lost, as well as destruction of buildings, at 35,248 pounds. They reported that seven lives had been lost and 1,493 residents had suffered losses in varying degrees.
In 1807 he owned 750 acres and 322 head of cattle, but with a family of 7 children, he was forced to seek employment and under Bligh became assistant surgeon at the Hawkesbury. His loyalty to Bligh led to his being replaced as magistrate by the rebel government.
He enjoyed the confidence and favour of all the governors under whom he served, including Macquarie, who was impressed with his loyalty and by the way he had brought up his children. An Anglican, he contributed to the local Protestant churches. Macquarie urged that huis pension be restored.
In 1818 he was appointed trustee of Nelson Common on which he was entitled to runs tock. He had also been reappointed as magistrate.
Thomas Arndell and Elizabeth Burley were allegedly married at St Matthews Church of England Windsor. In an affidavit of 1836, the Rev. Samuel Marsden stated that he had married the couple in 1807. In Thomas Arndell's will, he refers to 'my son or reputed son', 'my daughter or reputed daughter' up until the last daughter Frances Hannah, who was born in 1808.


Thomas married Susanna circa 1772. (Susanna was born circa 1755, died in 1796 and was buried on 1 May 1796 in Deptford, London, Kent England.)


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