James Lyddon was born in 1816 at Brompton Ralph, Somerset, England. On 15 December 1854 with his wife, Harriet (nee Smith) and four children, William, Sarah, James and Mary Ann, he left England on the Lady Macdonald and arrived in Adelaide on 7 April 1855. Their fifth child Thomas was born in 1858 near Mt Pleasant.
James worked as a farm labourer and then as a farmer. He died in 1868 (aged 52 years) as a result of injuries sustained when his trap capsized on the road between Mount Pleasant and Springton. Ironically, a local youth took the trap horse for a joy ride a week later and the horse stumbled and the youth fell to his death at the same place that James Lyddon had had his fatal accident. Harriet Lyddon died on 20 June 1892 and is buried in the South Rhine cemetery.
Children of James and Harriet Lyddon
1. William married Betsy Chalmers/Sinclair on 27 February 1863
2. Sarah married Henry Bywaters on 14 August 1861, widowed, then married George Gower on 7 October 1874
3. James married Elizabeth Gosden on 10 March 1870
4. Mary Ann married Robert Alfred Richards on 2 March 1874
5. Thomas married Mary Ann Crane on 4 February 1891
1. William Lyddon had a farm at South Rhine, sections 120 and 127 adjacent to the Miller’s farm. Part of his land contained the South Rhine cricket ground. William died on 24 September 1924 and Betsy on 22 May 1929. Both are buried in the South Rhine cemetery. Their family erected a stain glass window in the South Rhine Church in memory of them.
William and Betsy had seven children:
* Isabella Lyddon b. 30 July 1863 – who married Alexander Spavin and died at Jamestown
* Betsy Lyddon b. 4 May 1865 – d. 6 May 1897 (buried in the South Rhine cemetery)
* William Lyddon b. 3 Oct 1867 – d. 9 July 1943 (buried in the Cambrai cemetery)
* John Lyddon b. 25 Sept 1869 – d. 17 April 1958 (buried in the South Rhine cemetery) He owned sections 524, 525, 539, and 540 at South Rhine.
* Jeannet Lyddon b. 18 March 1872 –
* Peter Reid Lyddon b. 16 April 1874 – d. 21 March 1940 (buried in the South Rhine cemetery)
* Harriet Lyddon b. 4 May 1876 – d. 11 Aug 1878 (buried in the South Rhine cemetery)
4. Mary Ann and her husband Robert Richards had three daughters. Mary Ann died 6 July 1942 and Robert on 19 November 1918 and are both buried in the South Rhine cemetery. Robert was the shoemaker at Eden Valley living next to the Lutheran Church.
5. Vera Beatrice Lyddon, the youngest daughter of Thomas Lyddon and Mary Ann nee Crane is buried in the South Rhine cemetery. She died in 1900, possibly in infancy when her family lived at Eden Valley.
