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house at Dunheved as well as his uncle Charles Simeon Marsden who managed his father, Samuel
Marsden's, sheep property at Mamre. Charles Simeon Marsden had intended to follow his father
into the church and had been sent to Lampeter in Wales but had dropped out and returned to
Australia to manage Mamre, a task which he did not do well and he was declared bankrupt in 1842.
James Hassall remained a close friend all his life and years later bought Charles Marsden's widow,
Elizabeth, what is believed to be the first ear trumpet in Australia to help her failing hearing.188

Hassall then attended Reverend Robert Forrest's school at Campbelltown with two of the
Nortons, two Oxleys and G. F. Macarthur. Reverend Forrest had retired from the headmastership
of the King's School and had been appointed to the incumbency of Campbelltown and Narellan
where his stipend was so low and he had to rent a parsonage so he took in six boys as resident
pupils. For two year after he formally left school, James Hassall rode to Reverend Forrest's house
three days a week to prepare himself to enter the ministry.

As he grew older Hassall enjoyed the company of extended family and often visited those
who had grants in the Boorowa area. At Arkstone Forest he spent time with his cousins, Tom and
Jim Hassall, sons of his uncle Samuel Otoo Hassal, and with whom he had played when he was
a child and visited his uncle at Macquarie Grove on the Nepean River.189 He also spent school
holidays at Hannibal Macarthur's place, The Vineyard, later called Subiaco.

He seemed to be a happy childhood where his family entertained frequently and there was
many visits to and from members of his extended family as well as many significant people in the
colony. There were many journeys undertaken with his father who spent long hours in the saddle.
When he was eight years old he accompanied his father on horseback to Bathurst, a long journey
in very wet conditions staying overnight in the poor homes of small settlers and trying out the road
over Mount Victoria which was under construction and very hazardous.190 While he was at school
he went with his father on another long journey to Bathurst to attend the funeral of his aunt, Eliza
Walker. He also went during one of the school holidays with his father, the headmaster, Reverend
Mr Forrest, the housemaster, Mr Wools, and George Macarthur on a long trip to Illawarra.191
Another trip was overland to Port Stephens in about 1839 which took them across Wiseman's Ferry,
to Wollombi, Maitland, Morpeth and finally to Port Stephens where they stayed with Captain King,
manager of the Australian Agricultural Company's property there. It was on this journey that he
met the North family, friends who were to be very close later when the Hassalls moved to
Queensland and the Norths were at Wivenhoe.192

It was while he was at school at Campbelltown that Hassall made his first acquaintence with
limestone caves - the Wombeyan Caves. He did the journey with Reverend Forrest, Reverend J.

188 Hassall, David J., ed., The Hassall Family, Celebrating 200 Years in Australia, Hassall Family
Bicentenary Association, Newport, 1988, p.61.
189 Hassall, James, In Old Australia, p.47.
190 Ibid., p.9.
191 Ibid., pp.21-2.

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