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Nicolas Tindal (1687 – 27 June 1774) was the translator and continuer of the History of England by Paul de Rapin. Very few comprehensive histories existed at the time and Tindal wrote a three-volume 'Continuation', a history of the Kingdom from the reigns of James II to George II. Tindal was Rector of Alverstoke in Hampshire, Vicar of Great Waltham, Essex, Chaplain of Greenwich Hospital and a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford.
Tindal went up to Exeter College, Oxford, where he took an MA degree in 1713. From Oxford, he took up his rectory in Hampshire and was later appointed a Fellow of Trinity. When Tindal mastered the French language is unclear, although he was the first member of his family to bear the French spelling of his name - a very popular one amongst his descendants. Burke's Landed Gentry (1973) 'Tindal-Carill-Worsley' However, he first engaged in his life's work of historical translation with the publication, in monthly numbers, of his translation (from the French of Antoine Augustin Calmet) of the "Dissertation of the Excellency of the History of the Hebrews above that of any other Nation, wherein are examined the Antiquities and History of the Assyrians, Chaldans, Egyptians, Phoeninicans, Chinese &c. with the Peopling of America... Written in French by R. P. D'Augustin Calmet", which appears to have been a considerable undertaking. Tindal went on to write a History of Essex, having become Vicar of Great Waltham, although this project never came to fruition. New Dictionary of National Biography ('DNB') (Oxford, 2004)
Rapin had finished his work at the death of James II, giving Tindal the opportunity of demonstrating his own historical abilities. His Continuation brought forward the works to the reign of George II. Tindal's work was much valued at the time, although not without controversy. Some had questioned the authorship of the Continuation;DNB although there is no evidence to support those contentions and his many other works and literary style point to his pen.
Tindal appears to have attracted some controversy during his life. Aside from that relating to his 'Continuation', he was engaged in a bitter dispute with one Eustace Budgell about his apparent disinheritance by his uncle, Matthew Tindal. Budgell had adopted some of Tindal's freethinking views and assisted him in publishing his 'Christianity as Old as the Creation'. However, he had fallen on hard times, losing up to £20,000 in the South Sea Bubble. It was therefore of some surprise that Matthew Tindal had apparently left the greater part of his fortune to this man, to the exclusion of Tindal, who had been named in a previously published will. Budgell was prosecuted for forgery but committed suicide by drowning himself in the Thames before the case came to trial.'Encyclopædia Britannica (1823): Article on Budgell, p 778 The Spectator, 17 May 1711 Whether Tindal was ever repaid the 2000 guineas of which he had been defrauded is unclear, though Alexander Pope declaimed:
Tindal himself was recorded as saying of David Garrick that 'The deaf hear him in his action, and the blind see him in his voice.'. Gentlemen's Magazine.
Tindal's long association with Greenwich Hospital and the Naval Office is commemorated by a portrait by George Knapton, now in the collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich Website of the National Maritime Museum From this was taken the engraving that illustrates this article.
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