Sightings of Tyndale

Die Welt ist ein Dorf!

(The World is a Village!)

At a recent Tyndale society event I found myself in conversation with Nicholas Tyndale, a descendant of Edward, one of William Tyndale’s two brothers. We lamented the lack of hard facts concerning William’s birthplace and early life: several weeks later I received by post from Nicholas a package containing two books on loan and a recent family tree of Henry Witton Tyndall. The books were The Tyndales of Gloucestershire by J.H.Cook (Bristol 1877), and Notes relating to the family of Tyndale by B.W.Greenfield (London 1878).

Of course, the collections of quotations from court rolls, the infamous Stokesley letter and other documents are well known to Professor Daniell, other biographers and historians of the Tyndale era. It remains for future workers to search for more information, if any, amongst the archives and muniments of Gloucester, Worcester and Berkeley. At present the trail seems to have gone cold.

What did surprise me was to find the name of a friend lodged in the Henry Tyndall family tree! There she was, Esmée Cromarty, whom I have known for some 45 years, though latterly we have only exchanged greetings at Christmas. She is the widow of Bob Cromarty, the classics master and a colleague when we both worked at Woolverstone Hall, the boys’ school in Suffolk. Esmée’s grandmother was one of Henry Tyndall’s seven children. This was a great surprise because I knew that she had been born in Northern Ireland of an Austrian mother!

It is so strange how the Tyndale Connection seems to creep into the odd corners of one’s life!

David Green, March 2005