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INTRODUCTION
For several years I worked on the history of the Hassall Family, seeking information on its members from a wide range of sources. Many of the Hassalls had held significant positions in the church, the pastoral industry and in many other walks of life. They were therefore relatively easy to track down. Details of the London Missionary Society's attempts to convert the natives of Tahiti have been well documented. Various members of the family kept much of the correspondence which flowed constantly between them and a huge collection of this correspondence exists in the Mitchell Library in Sydney. This is a great source although it is very difficult to use as the handwriting and reproduction on microfilm is often very poor. Nevertheless much useful material was gained from it.
As the bicentenary of the arrival of Rowland and Elizabeth Hassall approached in May 1998, a committee of descendants set about arranging a Bicentennial Gathering of their descendants. This event was a wonderful success and held at Camden. During the weekend of the celebration family trees were prepared, much memorabilia was displayed, pageants were held, visits were made to Hassall properties in the vicinity and a church service was held at St. Paul's, Cobbitty. It was the occasion for many people to meet and to reminisce. A book, The Hassall Family, edited by David J. Hassall, dealing with the first several generations was launched and much of the material in it was supplied by me from my research into the family.
During the wekend and later more material came to light about various members of the Hassall family so in the ensuing months I have virtually re-written my material to incorporate as much as I could. This has been the result. I have not copied all the pictures contained in The Hassall Family but have included others. Therefore for a more complete view of the family this manuscript should be read in conjunction with The Hassall Family.
Jean Stewart 8 Acworth St., Kenmore 4069
7 December 1998
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THE HASSALL FAMILY
Arriving in Australia in 1798 must have been a great relief to Rowland and Elizabeth Hassall even though the early settlement was still undeveloped and quite alien compare with the England from which they had come. The relief must have been felt very strongly after all they had endured on the way. When the Hassalls left England their destination was not Australia. They had been inspired to travel far beyond English shores to distant Pacific islands where they imagined that untutored native people would be ready to receive the benefits of Christian teaching which they felt they could impart. Things did not turn out quite as they planned and after only two years in Tahiti the family, with other missionaries, fled to the nearest refuge, Sydney. There they stayed and although there were no natives in the same sense as the Hassalls thought they would find in Tahiti, nevertheless they found plenty of opportunity to preach and spread their version of the Word in the new colony. Rowland Hassall, incidentally, also found that he had certain entrepreneurial skills and took to farming in a very successful way, becoming quite comfortably off in the new country and achieving much more highly than he would have had he remained a silk weaver in England. He and his wife thus provided great opportunities for their children and generations of Hassalls have contributed significantly to the land reached so dramatically and unexpectedly.
There are several ways in which Rowland Hassall is remembered. Hassall Street, Parramatta is named after him as is the school which is on that street. There are Hassall Streets in Smithfield, New South Wales and Corinda, Brisbane. There is a suburb called Hassall Grove in New South Wales. In the suburb of Ainslie in the National Capital, Canberra, there is a street named after him as one of the first herdsmen and callte managers in the colony. An attempt to put together some details of his life and that of his descendants follows.
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Rowland Hassall (1768-1820) For many years this picture has been assumed to be that of Rowland Hassall. Attempts to find a more positive identification have so far proved fruitless. This picture appears in Gunson, Niel, Messengers Of Grace, Evangelical Missionaries in the South Seas 1797-1860, and its source is given as coming from the Council for World Mission Archives in London. Rowland Hassall was born on 31 Mar 1768 at Coventry, Warwickshire, England, the son of James Hassall and his wife, Elizabeth nee Whitmore. The family lived at Bablake and St. John's was their parish church. There is a suggestion that the family lived in Spon Street, Coventry which still has a number of medieval houses in it, and which was the centre of the ribbon weaving and dyeing industry. Rowland Hassall's parents were married at St. John's, Bablake on 2 May 1757. James Hassall remained in Bablake after his wife died it was reported to his family in New South Wales that he remained in good health in 1800 and later in 1803. Their children were as far as can be ascertained: 1. Ralph Hassall, a flaxdresser, who was baptisted at St. John's Bablake, Coventry on 10 July 1759 and who perhaps married twice, first to Rachel Reeves on 4 April 1771 at Bickhenhill and had a daughter Ann, born on 24 May 1774, who married Tom Allen, a weaver. Secondly he married on 13 January 1776, Sarah Loxley. 2. James Hassall was baptisted on 13 October 1760 and became a soldier. He married Sarah Claridge on 15 September 1787 at St John's, Coventry and they had a large number of children baptised at the West Orchard Congregational Church: James baptised on 25 June 1789, Sarah, William, Thomas who died young, Joseph, Samuel baptised on 17 June 1799, a second Thomas who also died young, John and Ann baptised on 15 June 1806. It is clear that James Hassall was in financial difficulties in August 1804 when he wrote to Rowland Hassall. He said that though he had ten looms his family would have starved during the Napoleonic War because their was no work and food was very dear. He had been at Colchester Barracks while his family had stayed in Coventry where his wife received "12 shilling per week from the County." He became ill and a lung complaint caused him to be discharged from the army. He then attempted
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to provide for his family by breeding fowls and by 1804 had "24 of Fathens and Layes" although he was so often ill. His eldest son, James Hassall, worked with him in the "Shop at my own Bisness." His daughter, Sarah Hassall, "nurses", and his son, William Hassall, worked in St. John Gift shop. Joseph Hassall became a watchman and in 1841 when the Census was taken he was 45 years of age, living in Much Park Street, Coventry, with his wife, Elizabeth Hassall, aged 43, a silk weaver, and their two daughters. Ann aged 12 and Elizabeth aged 8. Sarah Hassall nee Claridge died on 13 January 1819. Her daughter, Sarah Hassall, wrote to Thomas Hassall then in England and informed him of her mother's death and that she would now take care of her brother John and sister Ann. 3. Rowland Hassall, baptised on 21 Febuary 1763 in St. John's, Coventry. 4. John Hassall baptised in 1764 in St. John's, Coventry. 5. Ann Hassall baptised on 7 September 1767 in St. John's, Coventry and died c. 1820. 6. Rowland Hassall, who was baptised in 1769 and came to Australia. James Hassall seemed to be a man of strong faith and there have been suggestions that he or his parents could have been Quakers as there were many members of the Society of Friends in Coventry. Rowland Hassall became a silk weaver, having been apprenticed to his father on 31 December 1781 when he was 12 years old, and was employed in the ribbon trade which grew up in Coventry at the end of the seventeenth century in response to the fashion for ribbons as part of wearing apparel. They were used for waist bands and for large decorative bows on women's dressses. They were necessary on caps, bonnets and hats. He married Elizabeth Hancox at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Coventry in 1793. The witnesses were Thomas Hancox, probably the bride's brother, and James Hoggins. Rowland signed the certificate but Elizabeth signed with her mark. She was born on 19 July 1766 also at Coventry and also became a silk weaver. She was the daughter of John and Ann Hancox of Brandon, a village five miles to the east of Coventry. John Hancox was baptised on 7 October 1733 at Bretford, Warwickshire and was the son of John and Ann "Hancock", neither of whom signed their names on the marriage certificate. He married Ann Hom on 31 December 1757 at the parish church in the neighbouring village of Wolston. John appears to have been a weaver and Ann was 20 years old when she was married, the daughter of William and Frances Horn. The family left Brandon in the early 1780s and moved to Coventry. Ann died at Foleshill on 9 October 1797 after a lengthy illness described to the family by Thomas Hancox as follows: "Its the painful its pleasing to me and you to hear of our Dear Mothers Desease if you
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remember Mother had to flushing red in her face before you left us but this seem to be the beginning of her last Complanint which was a Decline which begun to appear about in May '97 she was in the greatis pains at times ... Mr Evans attended her and Mr Barton .. A day before she sent for John Hassall and spoke to him ..." In 1803 Thomas Hancox again reported news to the family in Australia and told them that their continued to live in the same house in Coventry and that he was in better health than he had been for a long time and in the same year a report from J. Evans mentioned that he still regularly attended "the house of God." John and Ann Hancox had the following children: 1. Thomas Hancox, who married twice. First he married Catherine Wallington at Holy Trinity, Coventry on 21 Feb 1796. She died in June 1801. Their children included Thomas born in 1797 after a difficult birth described by his father in a letter to Rowland Hassall: "... the Lord in Mercy appeared about ten at night tho it was with instruments he the Doctor supposed the Child to dead as it had been in birth from 7 in the morning but the Delivering moment came & a live boy to our great surprise the mother was not stood till the Teen days & this -- still speared with her son Tho..." Catherine Hancox later had a miscarriage from which she took a long time to recover and her husband nursed her because he was out of work for nine weeks. He eventually got shift work with Mr Lithgoe. While the family lived in Gosford Street, Coventry, they had a daughter, Elizabeth Hancox, in March 1799. Catherine Hancox died on 31 May 1801, she "sings herself away to everlasting bliss" and her son William to whom she gave birth then three weeks later "died after is mother." After being in "a very low way for some time" THomas Hancox married Elizabeth Underhill on 24 November 1802. Elizabeth Underhill had been a servant of a family friend, Mr Merridew, for many years and then worked with Reverend George Burder. She was "a pleasant woman with what is called red hair, I trust will make him a valuable wife." Reverend Burder also had a good opinion of her "she is a pious person & I doubt not will make a good wife." In 1841 Thomas and Elizabeth Hancox lived in Lockhurst Lane, Coventry. He was 70 years old and described in the Census as a weaver. She was aged 55 and they had a daughter, Caroline, aged 14, living with them. Elizabeth Hancox, daughter of Thomas and Catherine Hancox, worked in service in Coventry and saw a little of her cousin, Thomas Hassall, when he visited his relatives. Two letters she wrote to him in 1821 survive. They are fairly unlettered but demonstrate a piety one would expect from members of such a family. She spent several evenings with him and wrote that her mistress was not angry at her having returned late from one of these outings. She invited him to visit her again and to bring with him their cousin Susan if she could be spared. She spoke of her sorrow that Thomas Hassall was returning to his family in Australia and wished him and
