Series 17: 'The Hassall Family: Descendants of Rowland and Elizabeth Hassall', unpublished manuscript by Jean Stewart (1999); and 'James Samuel Hassall (1823-1904)', paper by Jean Stewart (1998), 1998-1999

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countryside.

The Hassalls moved to Berrima in 1853 where he was minister of the Holy Trinity Church which had been designed by Edmund Blacket. This was the first Blacket commission to design and build for the Church of England under Bishop Broughton who had appointed him the diocesan architect at the age of thirty. Holy Trinity was designed in the style of an English parish church, derived from St Peter's, Biddestone, Wiltshire with the distinctive bell-cote directly copied from Wiltshire church. The foundation stone was laid on 7 April 1847 and two years later on 9 June 1849 the church, built for £900, was opned - Broughton described it as "one of the best and handsomest churches in the diocese".

The Hassalls were delighted to move to Berrima, a parish of about ten miles in diameter instead of 100 miles as Bungonia was. Because there was no suitable parsonage the family lived at first with his wife's Oxley relatives at Wingecarribbee, Bowral, a gift to the Oxley family made in 1855 by Governer Darling, in recognition of the meritorious services rendered to the colony by their fathe, John Oxley. The house there was a fine mansion constructed of prefabricated iron sections shipped from England. There must have been some criticism from the local District Committee that Hassall was not adequately carrying out his duties so he was forced to write to explain the situation. In his letter he said that he had come to Berrima with promises and the district understanding "that I should have the best house that could be procured for me in Berrima and rent paid". A house was found but when two years had elapsed and repairs were not completed he realised that he would have to pay for them from his own pocket. He explained to the committee that he was therefore forced to spend time on his own affairs but insisted that although his time and attention had been taken from his ministerial duties he had always carried out the most urgent requirements of the parish.

The parsonage he was eventually forced to build was a handsome building designed by Edmund Blacket and set in 30 acres of wooded grounds bordering the river and which still stands. After passing into private hands including Paul Sorenson, landscap gardener of Leura's Everglades, and Sir Charles and Lady Llyod Jones, it was owned by the National Trust and is now again privately owned. To build this parsonage, Hassall sold some land at Braidwood in 1855 although he ha hoped in 1851 tht gold could probably be found there. It was land on which he ran sheep and though it never became as profitable as he had first hoped he was able

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to sell it at about £1 an acre to people who were anxious to invest their n=money in land - a considerable profit on land which he had judged to be worth only 5 shillings an acre two years before. To compensate his wife, Fanny Hassall, for the loss of her share in the Braidwood property he arranged to give her a thousand acres with some improvements on it, given him by his father, at Camden in return for her share. He also received occasional financial help from his father who, among the large amount and variety of property held by the extended Hassall family, had bought a house in Parramatta in 1854 which would eventually be owned by James Hassall.

Several attempts had been made to establish schools in Berrima and James Hassall took up the challenge and converted his stables into a school for girls from as far away as Bendemeer as well as his own daughters who were taught there. Presumably the boarders lived in the Hassall househol. Hassall's interest in his sons' education led to his being a member of a committee set up at a meeting on 28 February 1868 to re-open the King's School after a temporary closure. Others on that committee included some of his close associates - Charles Campbell, J. M. Antill, E.M. Betts, Chales Oakes, George Rouse and, interestingly, George Thorne of Ipswich.

Hassall's interest in education was evident as he establised schools in other parts of his parish including one at Bowral. His wife's cousing, John Norton Oxley, owned most of the land on which Bowral was built and in 1859 after a survey had been carried out he informed Hassall that a reserve for church, schoolhouse and personage as well as for a glebe of 43 acres 3 roods had been set aside. In 1861 Bishop Barker laid the foundation stone of a building, designed by J.N. Oxley and built by local residents, which was to be both curch and school. The school was run by a Denominational Board which included Hassall, but when the first teacher resigned in 1867, Hassall initiated a move to convert the Denominational School into a Public School. He arranged for the appoinment of a teacher to be transferred from Cobbitty after the school was conveyed to the Council of Education in 1868.

One of Hassall's duties included being chaplain at Berrima Gaol. Hassall left his own recollections of the gaol and wrote some of the attempts by prisoners to escape. One story was that he was travelling in a trap along the Bargo Road towards Picton when he met a tramp to whom he gave a lift. The tramp said he had just been released from Berrima Gaol and wished to tell him of a plot to escape which he had not been able to tell the gaoler for fear of reprisals by the other prisoners. Apparently the cooks in the kitchen were cutting a hole in the back of the oven through the gaol wall. Hassall acquanited the gaoler of this, the hole was discovered and the cooks were replaced.

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James Hassall took his prison chaplaincy duties very seriously and was a constant visitor to the gaol. As chaplain he received a salary of £100 per annum. In 1862 Berrima Gaol was converted into a seperate treatment and solitary-system establishment which meant the people on sentences of five or more years had to spend the first year in solitary confinement. He believed that the prison sentence should be used to reform prisoners and to help with that he spent time with men in solitary confinement, tought some of the prisoners to read and supplied books including Bibles printed in large type so that they could be read in the dim light of the gaol. He often brought about pardons for the wrongly convicted and in having solitary confinement terms reduced. He wrote long, carefully thought out ideas for the proper management of prisoners where they would not be kept idle and would have the opportunity to reform with the encouragement of moral and religious teachings. He feared that gaols could become the "hot-beds and nurseries of crime" and that many would learn how to become effective bushrangers by listening to the words of older criminals. His care and concern for prisoners was much appreciated by them and for many years after he received letters of apprectiation from former prisoners and their families. In fact in 1878, after he had moved to Queensland, he met a former inmate of Berrime Gaol now a prisoner in Brisbane Gaol, who wrote a later to thank him for the visit and to describe to him the circumstances of his being in prison - evidence that Hassall not only kept up his Berrima connections but also continued to show an interest in prisoners and their treatment. Other letters to him also point to this concern.

Although Hassall was very active in Berrima and worked very hard at his extensive duties he was constantly writing about his poor income and the reluctance of the parishioners to actually provide the financial support they had promised although in May 1855 a collection was taken up to increase his previous year's salary and he also hoped to receive a government subsidy. In spite of these complaints about money he sold by auction in June 1856 portions of Russell's Farm (one of the many farms bequeathed to his descendents by Rowland Hassall) for £652 and was able to pay £508 to the Crown Lands office in December 1857 for 465 acres 2 roods of land at Mandemar. Lack of support from his parishioners caused him to write to the Bishop complaining that his income consisted only of £200 per annum, and with money from fees and voluntary sources his income was increased to about £300 altogether - less than £400 per annum the church considered adequate. He wrote that he could certainly live without servants and without horses but then he could not do his duty conscientiously. He gave an outline of the work he had done: "There are now six thousand people in this Berrima District and I have the far greater proportion of them under my charge. My work is really heavy and but unsatisfactorily fulfilled. To show you, my Lord, for I think you should know. I have had 20 Baptisms already this year. My past week's work is not unsual I had to visit a dying man (sent for expressly) 20 miles. Sunday duty 12 miles, an express to Baptise a sick child 12 miles, another express - Ditto - 25 miles. two days collecting with Mr Jordan rising all day and one day a funeral. Thus not less than 120 miles unavoidable duty ---the past week. My dutes have always been of this character..." He continued

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"When I entered the Ministry in the Ch. of England I expected to be maintained under her care such has not been the case and I have consequently suffered much unhappiness and detriment. I have --- those private means which I feel should have been received for the education of my family to supply the deficiencies --- and I regret to say I see no means of sending one boy, much less four to a public school, or placing them in that station of life to which it would appear God desires them to be called. If the Ch Of England is unfaithful to her Ministers which I maintain she is, then we must either withdraw from her... or as St Paul, labour with our own hands to supply what is lacking. I for one, my Lord, am ready conscientiously to do anything reasonably to maintain my position as a Xtian Minister... Then I cannot become a drone I should resign my all. I have always looked beyond my clerical remuneration for a maintenance and I regret to say I must do so still.

This threat to resign brought a reply from the bishop:

"while I cannot but feel much regret that your Parishioners should not have fulfilled the promised which appears to have been made in 1861 of £100 per annum as a supplement to your Governement stipend. I cannot recommend your resignation of the care of Berrima upon this ground. I certainly think the people have shown much apathy and indifference to the comfort of their Clergymen but may it not be hoped that any application to them and representation of the case may produce some better result?"

It is doubtful that the parishioners produced much more income but Hassall remained at Berrima for another ten years.

James Hassall went to Queensland at least twice in the 1860s and he and his brothers, George and Charles, bought a property referred to as "The Flinders: which must have been somewhere on the Flinders River in the Gulf Country. This was not successful venture and worsened the financial problems of which he often wrote. In 1863 he bought 4000 sheep from Archer & Co. for himself and his brothers but whether that was for the Flinders station or another enterprise near Rockhampton is not clear. He was granted leave for two months in January 1966 to go to Rockhampton and then to the Gulf country to rid himself of his share in the enterprise, although he was still strying to sell it in 1868. While he was in Queensland on a later visit in February 1867 a notice appeared in the Queensland Government Gazette which indicated that James Hassall was travelling in the districts of Kennedy and Burke in the Gulf country and that he was then registered as a Minister of Religion for the celebration of marriages in Queensland. He must have applied to carry out such a function while he was trying to find a solution to the difficulties his brother had placed him in. James Hassall tried, as did other members of his family, to help his brothers, both of whom had a drink problem, never settled to any occupation, trying in turn gold mining, droving and farming, and never married.

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Nevertheless his visits to Queensland and his money difficulties may have encouraged him to accept a position in Brisbane in 1873, although his wife begged him to think well before giving up Berrima. It is understandable that she must have been apprehensive about the move because she had a pleasant home in a very attractive part of New South Wales and was very near many friends and relatives. When he left Berrima a number of citizens contributed to a purse as a farewell gift and showed some apprecitation of the work he had done.

He was appointed first to Sandgate and Caboolture districts from 1873 to 1876 and that period included the North Suburban Mission in 1874. In 1873 he had written an extensive report on the North Brisbane Mission which was a result of his work during his first six months in Queensland. This report covered an area of 500 square miles and a population of over 6000 people. In July 1874 he wrote to the Secretary of the Diocesan council saying that he felt he would resign from being in charge of the North Brisbane Mission. He had done the work for twelve months, found it very laborious and felt that the salary was inadequate - he could not operate successfully unless he had a clear salary of £300 per annum. The Mission included the chaplaincy of St. Helena Island, the administration of which he found contrary to his idea of the treatment of prisoners. He was instructed to speak to prisoners on matters of religion only and not on any other subject. When he wrote to protest about this rule he stated that he had been chaplain at Berrima Gaol for fourteen years and with his experience and understanding of prisoners, he could not consent to visit prisoners where he would be so restricted. James Hassall, finding that he could not continue with such a large area offered instead to concentrate on a circuit which included Durandur, Kilcoy, Collongton, Cressbrook, Esk and Mount Brisbane.

It is not clear where he and his family lived when they first came to Brisbane but in May 1874 he leased premises in Russell Street, South Brisbane from Henry O'Reilly of the Australasin Steam Navigation Company for £150 per annum for twelve months.

Disappointed by the failure of an application for a vacancy at Maryborough in 1875 he was appointed to a charge which included the Ipswich Mission and he visited Mount Brisbane Station, Wivenhoe, Pine Mountain, Harrisville, Normanby, Redbank, Rosewood, Eskdale and Cressbrook. His timetable for 1876 shows him visiting two of these stations each Sunday. By 1878 he was ministering in the Gatton, Laidley and Harrisville Districts and certainly entertained the Bishop at Gatton in March 1878.

A month later, in Aprip 1878, it appears that Hassall has been appointed to Sherwood because the Government Gazette announced his new address of Oxlet in its recognition of his

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