FL14369583

James Samuel Hassal (1823-1904)

On 10 August 1796 a small shid, the Duff, sailed down the Thames leaving London with the blessing and hoped of those on shore whose voices combined with those on the ship to sing Jesus, at your command we launch into the deep. On board were thirty artisan missionaries of the London Missionary Society who were bound for Tahiti to begin a mission to the heathen of the South Seas. Among those was a silk weaver from Coventry, Rowland Hassall, his wife formerly Elizabeth Hancox who had also been a silk weaver, and their two small sons, Thomas and Samuel Otoo. They were devout people who were active members of the West Orchard, near Coventry, branch of the Congregational Church. They responded to the call of the London Missionary Soicety and Hassall was described by those recruiting him as a "stout young man" with a 'rather bold' disposition who could read and write tolerably well but was 'rather illiterate than otherwise'.

The journey was long but eventually the missionaries arrived in Tahiti where they remained for a year until civil strife among the native tribes created a dangerous situation for the wives and children and some of the missionaries fled o nthe first ship to call there, a very battered Nautilus, and arrived in Port Jackson on 14 May 1978. 1998 is thus the two hundredth anniversary of the arrival of the Hassalls in Australian and this year a celebration and gathering of descendants was held in Camden in May.

From these two devout people, Rowland and Elizabeth Hassall, many eminent citizens have descended and it is one of these in particular that I wish to talk about today. James Samuel Hassall is their eldest grandson and he became the first native born clergyman of the Church of England in Australia and spent the last twenty years of his ministry at St. Matthew's Sherwood. Apart from his illustrious connections he deserves considerable recognition in his own right because in his retirement and at his house Matavai at Corinda, now the site of Corinda High School, he wrote on if the most significant reminscences of life in colonial Australia. In Old Australia, first published in 1902 and reprinted in 1977. This book gives us an unparalleled glimpse into the life of a very significant family and the lives of their friends.

Rowland Hassall arrived with very little in the way of worldly possessions but through effort and opportunity became a very significant landowner. He received a grant of land soon after his arrival and commenced farming on what is now the Pennant Hills golf course near Sydney. He and his fellow missionaries were welcomed by Samuel Marsden, the so-called 'floggin parson', who saught their help in the religious life of the colony. This friendship with Marsden was to be significant for Rowland Hassall who learned much about sheep breeding from him and enjoyed his patronage as well as being trusted to manage Marsden's enterprises when Marsden was away from the colony. Hassall, at Marsden's recommendation, became government storekeeper at Parramatta for a time and then later under Macquarie became Superintendent of Government Stock and conduction the first government herds over the new mountain road constructed by William Cox. At Bathurst he, and later his children, acquired significant tracts of land.

His eldest son, Thomas Hassall, received the best education available in the colony and came under the notice of Marsden who recognised his potential, especially after Thomas Hassall established the first Sunday School in the colony in his father's house. Marsden's influence