Family background
Thomas Pinnick Hyndes, possibly the relevant person, was christened on 1 March 1778 at Saint Martin in the Fields, Westminster, London, son of Charles and Elizabeth Hyndes. He married Charlotte Green on 9 February 1806 at St Phillip’s Church, Sydney. She died on 6 February 1849. He married Lucy Havens (d.1867) at Enfield, New South Wales, on 2 April 1850. He had several children and also adopted Amelia Ibbotson, the daughter of his housekeeper Hannah Ibbotson. He died on 8 February 1855, aged 77, and was buried in the family vault at St Thomas’ Church of England, Enfield. A Memorial acknowledges him as the main founder of St Thomas’ Church and school. His widow married the Reverend William Purves of the Church of Scotland in 1859. Note that there may be more than one Thomas Hyndes in Sydney during the relevant period. The genealogical details above are speculative only and need confirmation.
Occupation & interests
Thomas Hyndes or Hindes was convicted for life at the Surrey Assizes on 11 August 1800. He arrived in Sydney on the Glatton on 11 March 1803. In 1808 he received a conditional pardon and in 1810 he petitioned for mitigation of sentence. In 1809 he was granted 100 acres in St George Parish. In 1814 Hyndes was employed as a clerk in the Lumber Yard. By 1822, he was a master sawyer in Castlereagh Street and had been assigned convict mechanics. In the 1828 census he was a timber merchant of Sussex Street, employing 18 Government Servants and nine free men. He received a two acre grant in Darlinghurst where he built a large stone windmill known as Hyndes or Craigend Mill. He was one of the original grantees of land at Wahroonga on Sydney’s North Shore, leasing 2000 acres from 1822 and receiving a grant of 640 acres in 1838. By this time he had already purchased Lane Cove land, where he had a private wharf, and was established at Hyndes Farm at Castle Hill. In August 1837 he bought 29 acres of the Gilchrist Grant in Balmain. He still had his Sussex Street timber business and mill in 1844 and a private residence in Gloucester Street. In the 1840s he built Adelaide Park Hall (demolished 1937) on the Punchbowl Road. At the time of his death, he had land and houses in Cumberland Street, Druitt Street including a wharf, Kent Street, Elizabeth Street, the Omnibus Inn in George Street, stables in Sussex Street, and a bakehouse in George Street. He was also said to have built Chestnut house at Dawes Point.
Community activity
Thomas Hyndes was a philanthropist who was on the Committee of the Bethel Union Mariners church at The Rocks. He is regarded as a founder of Enfield. In 1847 he built the Adelaide Park Free School and later St Thomas’ school. He commissioned the architect JF Hilly to design St Thomas’ Church which held its first congregation in January 1849. In his will, he established an annuity for a Minister to celebrate services at St Thomas? Church on Punch Bowl Road.
Local government service
Thomas Hyndes was Councillor for Cook Ward, 1 November 1845 to 31 October 1849.
References
Burwood Council website www.burwood.nsw.gov.au
City of Sydney Archives: Aldermen’s Files
Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW: Manuscripts catalogues; William Purves Papers A5346; View from South Head Road, Sydney, New South Wales, c.1842 / pencil drawing by Henry I Campbell PXC 291 p.26
Society of Australian Genealogists: AGCI index; Cemetery transcripts
State Records of NSW: Col Sec Index; Col Sec re Land; Convict records