William Crittal arrived at Swan River as an indentured servant to Alfred Hawes Stone, a solicitor, who planned to become one of the 'Landed Gentry' under James Stirling. Several years later Stone's dream was lost and William was released from his indentures to survive on his skills and experience in building and in agriculture. The evolution of the Colony led William to Toodyay where he married Elizabeth (Betsy) Thomas around 1840. Elizabeth was one of a group of young people who were sponsored, as trained servants, to the Colony by the 'Children's Friend Society'. She arrived with her brother Samuel. In 1842 William built the Toodyay Police Barracks which was the first public building in Toodyay. The couple leased property to farm but drought and a depression in the Colony crushed their dreams of independence. In 1851 these difficult times put the family, with 5 children, on the road to the Irwin River working for Lockier Burges herding sheep north to a new part of the Colony. Mary, the sixth of the Criddle children, is the first recorded birth in the Register of Births in Geraldton. In the years that followed William and Elizabeth worked for the Burges family and were rewarded with the opportunity to become yeoman farmers on the fertile Greenough Flats. The humble servants and their 14 children, became stalwarts of that community then extended to the Chapman Valley and other parts of the State. Many families are linked to the original Criddle including the Connolly family, the Brand family and the Cook family. The family tree is huge and touches most of the old Western Australian population. The beginnings of it are recorded in the publication 'William and Elizabeth Criddle - Alternatives at Swan River' by Roy Criddle.