FL14369440

3 JONATHAN HASSALL (1798-1843)

Jonathan Hassall was born on 31 January 1798 at the British House, Venus Point, Tahiti,
the third son of Rowland and Elizabeth Hassall.

He grew up at Parramatta and on 28 July 1810 he wrote from there to his eldest brother,
Thomas Hassall, who was then in Sydney:
''I take up my pen with pleasure to write to you and are glad to hear you got down safe and
like Sydney so well. Our Father and Mother Sisters and Brothers are all in good health and
I hope you are the same. We got the cattle safe. J. Wise had some trouble in getting them''.
This letter was written by a twelve year old and is quite painstaking but as he grew older and
pressures built up his writing became worse and so did his spelling.

Like his brothers he became a landowner and farmer and held property at Cobbitty,
O'Connell Plains and probably in Cowra and Boorowa districts. In 1814 when he was only 16 he
received four cows on credit from the Government herds which were later to be repaid in kind - five
years later this debt had not been paid. In 1816 he received from Governor Macquarie a grant of
200 acres at the Cowpastures which he called Matavai, after the place where he was born. This was
followed by a second grant of 230 acres in the same district. In the same year he was improving his
skills by learning to be a joiner and house carpenter from Joshua Smith a cabinet maker in Sydney
who was described as a ''pious man''. In 1821 he received, as his brothers did too, a further land
grant. In 1824 he applied for a Ticket of Occupation for land to depasture his stock of 300 head of
horned cattle and 1600 sheep which were being looked after by seven assigned convicts. The land
he was after was 37 miles from Bathurst near Grants Creek and seven miles from Armstrong's
station at the head of Campbells River.

He clearly enjoyed some social life as a love letter from a Christ Brooks remains in the
family correspondence. She invited him to her family's house for her sister Mary's birthday and
ends with an intriguing P.S. ''I hope E. Marsden will not come down for that will spoil all the
fun''.332

He married Mary Rouse, daughter of Richard Rouse and his wife, Elizabeth, formerly
Adams, on 22 November 1819 at St John's Parramatta. His father, Rowland Hassall was very
pleased with the match;
''...they seem made for each other in temper and mind - they are going to live upon his own
farm Matavai and I have promised them Blaxland's Farm in the big Cobity with £100 to
begin the world with, as he has determined to be the farmer after all attempts to the contrary.
His Father Rouse has promised £200 more and we hope they will live in love and the fear
of the Lord - and from the encouragement they have surely they may do well in this world's
goods...''333

Mary Rouse had been born in England on 13 January 1799 and came to Australia with her
parents on the Nile, arriving on 14 December 1801. In the colony her father was granted 100 acres

332 Hassall Correspondence, A1677-4, p.50-51.
333 Ibid., A1677-4, p.107.

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