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settled. He continued this work single handedly when Cover returned to England. He later
shared the ministry of Castle Hill with William Pascoe Crook after 1803.

Rowland Hassall found the colony daunting in some ways and reported to the London
Missionary Society that ''Adultery, Fornication, Theft, Drunkenness, Extortion, Violence and
uncleanness of every kind'' abounded. He noted that Samuel Marsden found it pretty depressing
and met with ''littel els but trouble and grief in his striving to do good to the souls of men''.50

Of special interest for Hassall whose own education and literacy was so limited was the
establishment of a school at Kissing Point under Matthew Hughes, a former convict who married
Mary Small on 6 October 1808 from the Hassall house in Parramatta where she had gone to live
after leaving the school where she had been taught by her future husband. Hassall wished to
build a church there
''...partly on account of the prejudice of the people against each other, they not willing to
attend at each other's houses, and partly for the purpose of opening a schoolroom''.51

He assisted the school by appealing to William Wilberforce in England for assistance for
the provision of money and books.52 Hassall not only contributed £40 to the cost of the school
building but visited regularly after it was opened by Reverend Richard Johnson and Reverend
Samuel Marsden and even paid the fees of seven poor children so that they could attend. He
supported Matthew Hughes who was by all accounts considered to be a fine Christian man who
combined religious and secular education by teaching the children to read from the New
Testament. Hassall wrote:
''In my visits to the school, weather to catechise the children or supervise other affairs,
I find them in good order, and they make pretty good progress in their book, so that some
of them can now read the Testament''.53

Hassall was also anxious to improve the school at Toongabbie which he described in
August 1801 as ''very bad, having no floor, walls, windows or doors, & at this time of the year
the hearers tremble with cold...''. He appealed to the London Missionary Society for Testaments
and Bibles and books of all kinds, not forgetting to mention that his son, Thomas, was ''now
learning lattin''.54

As well as the establishment of the school at Kissing Point, Hassall was a pioneer in the
Sunday school movement and the first Sunday school at Parramatta was set up in this house by

50 As cited in Grocott, Allan M., Convicts, Clergymen and Churches, Sydney University Press, 1980, p.67.
51 Historical Records of New South Wales, Vol. IV, p.74.
52 Gunson, Neil, ''Hassall, Rowland (1768-1820)'' in Australian Dictionary of Biography 1788-1850,
Vol.1, p.251.
53 Pollock, William John ed., The Small Family in Australia 1788-1988, John and Mary Small
Descendants Association, Erskineville, 1988, p.120.
54 Goodin, V.W.E., ''Public Educationin N.S.W. before 1848'' in Journal of the Royal Australian
Historical Society, Vol. XXXVI, Part III, 1950, p.89.

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