Series 17: 'The Hassall Family: Descendants of Rowland and Elizabeth Hassall', unpublished manuscript by Jean Stewart (1999); and 'James Samuel Hassall (1823-1904)', paper by Jean Stewart (1998), 1998-1999

quite a comfortable income. His wife referred to a "shop" which may have been his business premises in Oxford Street. His own father appeared to have died sometime in the 1820s. They appear to have had no children of their own although they referred to two nieces, Eliza and Mary Ann. Eliza was married to a "good Man" and was comfortably settled with three children, but Mary Ann was afflicted with a husband who was a foreigner and was came home "intoxicated using bad language" and had "no idea of doing either well for himself or her" and they had two surviving children having lost one. According to Mrs Hancox, Thomas Hancox was afflicted with some "nervous disorder" which was less violent than when Thomas Hassall knew him and that he was very restless and change of scenery seemed to be the best remedy he could find. This meant little journeys to Wales and other districts. There seems to be some connection between the Hancox and Cover families which would explain a further link in the connections between the missionaries who went to Tahiti. One of the missionaries was Reverend James Fleet Cover who had strong ties of friendship with the Hassalls until he returned to England. One of the letters in the Hassall Collection was written by Thomas Hancox to Rowland Hassall on 6 March 1800 in which, among news of other friends and family, he says: "... April 97 Mrs Cover was delivered of her second son which our dear Mother was their which was the last labour she was at..." Very little else is known about Elizabeth Hassall's family. Rowland and Elizabeth Hassall had two sons born in England, Thomas in 1794 and Samuel in 1796. Rowland and Elizabeth Hassall were both devout people. A family story handed down suggests that he had become so because he had "almost died of cholera and came close to being mistakenly nailed into his coffin! He tells the story of how he had revived, sat up in his coffin and vowed to serve God in some way in thanks for his rescue." Another version of the story of Rowland Hassall's near death experience was provided by his great grandson, Archdeacon George Spencer Oakes, who received the story from Mrs C.A. Campbell, of Dandenong, Victoria, a granddaughter of Rowland Hassall: "When he was 17 years of age, our grandfather had a serious illness. There was an epidemic of black measles, of which his brother died, and he himself lay as dead for three days, and was measured for his coffin. He knew all that was taking place, and tried to speak, but could not. They placed him in the coffin, and were just about to close down th elid when he opened his eyes. It was this circumstance that decided him to devote his life to the service of God." Rowland Hassall and his wife were "called under one sermon" by Reverend George Burder, a leading preacher of the Congregational church and under his influence became active members of the West Orchard Congregation. Burder had no regular training for the ministry but was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church at Lancaster in 1778 becoming a traveling

preacher in various parts of England until he was invited to the West Orchard Chapel at Coventry in 1783, being fully recognised in 1784. It was no wonder then, that Burder felt that anyone could become a preacher and could be suitable as a missionary. He also initiated Sunday schools at Coventry in 1785, a movement which no doubt vastly impressed Rowland Hassall who was recruited to start the Sunday school there and began to do some lay preaching using the Village Sermons written by Burder for use by field preachers whose religious training and theology was limited. It was probably on one of those lay preaching trips that Hassall was stoned by the villagers at Welston as was commented on by his son, Thomas Hassall, years later when Thomas visited the district. Burder was a prominent member of the London Missionary Society and did much to encourage the society to establish foreign missions and it is believed that the first money "ever contributed to the London Missionary Society was raied at a meeting held in the vestry of West Orchard Chapel." In 1803 Burder moved from Coventry because he no longer enjoyed being there "for the obstinate, wicked notions and behaviour of the people in two late Elections made me pretty much dislike my situation ..." He became pastor of the Fetter Lane Congregational Church in London and became secretary of London Missionary Society of which he became life director in 1827. Later he became one of the founders of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The Directors of the London Missionary Society felt the need to select suitable people for their mission to the South Seas. Because it was felt that these people should not only instruct the islanders in religious matters but that they should also teach them suitable craft skills, the Directors deliberately chose pious artisants with very little religious training. These missionaries have been described as "a Set of Tinkers," "selected from the dregs of the people" who look like "humble petitioners at a gentleman's door, and it is easy to observe that they are men of no education." Those selected for the first venture were quite unfamiliar with the task ahead of them, were extremely young and on the whole not very literate. The few ordained men among them were not regarded as having any special control over the others, in fact on the voyage one of the ordained men, Reverend John Jefferson, was actually excommunicated on board the Duff for expressing Arminian opinions and his accuser was one of the artisan missionaries. Most of the unordained missionaries had had some experience as lay preachers or Sunday School teachers and their wives had also had some similar kinds of experience. In 1796 Burder recommended that Hassall should be accepted by the Society to become an artisan missionary in Tahiti and described him as a "'stout young man' with a 'rather bold' disposition who could read and write tolerably well but was 'rather illiterate than otherwise'". Burder was to continue his contact with Hassall and other missionaries by correspondence after they had moved to the Pacific and later to Australia, and was significant as mentor and advisor. Hassall was accepted as a carpenter, a curious change from his early occupation as silk weaver,

and he and his family sailed for Tahiti in the Duff in 1796. A second son had been born on 13 May 1796 before they left England and he was given the name of Samuel Otoo in honour of the Tahitian King.37 It was said in the family that this name proved to be an embarrassment as it offended Tahitian custom.

[Picture] The Duff at Rio de Janeiro with the city and the Benedictine Monastery in the background. From London Missionary Society, A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, 1796-1798.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 17. 1934 ARRIVAL OF A FAMOUS MISSIONARY SHIP AT TAHITI. [Picture] The Duff, on which Mr. Rowland Hassall, who subsequently settled at Parramatta with his family, arriving at Tahiti in 1796

37 Ibid.

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The commander of the Duff was Captain James Wilson, chosen for his piety, and an attempt was made to recruit crew with similar moral qualities. Captain Wilson was born in Newcastle, England the youngest of nineteen children. He became a soldier and fought with the British at Bunker Hill and Long Island against the Americans. An account of some aspects of his life points to early adventures followed by a pious retirement:

''Later he became a navigator with the East India company on a ship carrying supplies through the Indian blockade to British soldiers at Mysore, surrounded by the army of the famed Sultan, Hyder Ally Haider Ali). Here Wilson was captured and imprisoned for 22 months, until peace was declared, and he returned to England in 1784. His biographer, John Griffin, in The Memoirs of Captain James Wilson, stated that Wilson was shackled in chains weighing 32 pounds, and nightly leg-ironed to a Scottish Highlander. 'Often a dead corpse was unchained from his arm that another living sufferer might take his place'. Back in England, Wilson, an atheist, saw the light and in 1796 was admitted a member of the Chuch of Christ in Portsea, and became a devout Christian ever after. In 1795 an organisation was formed in London by a group of Anglican and nonconformist clergymen with the object of preaching the Gospel in foregin lands, a sort of counter to the Jesuits of France, who had formed the Society of Jesus over two hundred years earlier. This new group, named the London Missionary Society, was the pioneer Protestant Society in the Pacific. Buisness began with the purchase, for £5000, of the Duff, a vessel of 267 tons commanded by Captain James Wilson. Thirty men were chosen as missionaries to start the headquarters in Tahiti, from where the faith would be spread to the Marquesas, Friendly, Samoan and Pelew Islands. On 10th August 1796 the Duff was farewelled from the Thames by a devout crowd of friends, well-wishers, and relatives of the Pilgrim Fathers of the South Pacific. After a voyage via Rio de Janeiro, the Duff reached Tahiti on 5th March 1797, where King Pomare made the missionaries welcome, ceded a house and land to them, and later embraced Christianity. It was Sunday when the Duff dropped anchor, and Divine Service was held on deck. Wrote Wilson: 'Such hymns were selected as had the most harmonious tunes: first, O'er the gloomy hills of darkness; then, Blow ye the trumpet blow, and at the conclusion, Praise God from whom all blessings flow'. Two Swedes, shipwrecked sailors, welcomed Captain Wilson and offered their services as interpreters, an offer that was gladly accepted. After visiting various islands and leaving missionaries on them to teach Christianity to the cannibals, Captain Wilson sailed to China, picked up a cargo of tea, them voyaged home around the Cape of Good Hope. 'On the 4th of July, 1798', wrote Wilson, 'we saw the coast of England. On the 8th we passed the Downs; on the 11th came to anchor in the River Thames; and discharged our cargo of tea, which was landed in as perfect order as we received it in China'. The Directors of the London Missionary Society were happy when the Directors of the East India Company paid them £4,100, for safely bringing the cargo of tea to England. Later when Captain Wilson wrote A Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, the L.M.S. received £2,000 in royalties from the publishers. Captain Wilson retired from the sea, and married a pious, amiable, and wealthy lady

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in 1799. But he invested his own fortune unwisely in South Sea Bubbles and lost £30,000. 'After a painful and protracted illnesss, which he bore with great patience and fortitude, his death was peacful and triumphant'. He died on 12th August 1814, at the age of fifty-four, leaving a widow and five children to lament his loss''.38

In spite of his early trials and tribulations, Wilson was undoubtedly a good seaman and successfully brought the Duff and the L.M.S. missionaries to Tahiti. He also conducted exploration subsequent to landing the missionaries and the Duff Reef off Fiji bears witness to this work.

''The work that he (Captain Wilson) accomplished in placing the missionaries in their various station in the South Pacific; in navigating successfully some of the most difficult uncharted waters in one of the most dangerous archipelagos in the world, and, finally in bringing his ship and crew safely home after so long a voyage, more than justified the Missionary Society in London in appointing him to the highly responsible position of captain of the ship Duff. The whold voyage has a special interest for the historian, for with it the history of Protestant Missions in the South Pacific began''.39

List of the MISSIONARIES who embarked on board the Duff, at Blackwell.

NO. NAMES. AGE. OCCUPATION. 1 Rev. James Fleet Cover 34 Ordained Minister 2 - John Eyre 28 Do. 3 - John Jefferson 36 Do. 4 - Thomas Lewis 31 Do. and has attended the hospitals and dispensuries, and understands printing. 5 Mr. Henry Bicknell 29 1/2 House carpenter, sawyer, and wheelwright. 6 - Daniel Bowell 22 Shopkeeper 7 - Benj. Broomhall 20 Buckle and harness maker 8 - John Buchanan 31 Taylor 9 - James Cooper 28 Shoemaker 10 - John Cock 23 Carpenter 11 - William Crook 21 Gentleman's servant, and since tinworker 12 - Samuel Clode 35 Whitesmith and gardener 13 - John A. Gillham 22 Surgeon 14 - Peter Hodges 29 Smith and brazier 15 - William Hodges 29 Carpenter and joiner 16 - John Harris 39 Cooper 17 - Hudden - Butcher] 18 - Samuel Harper 26 Cotton manufacturer 19 - Rowland Hassell 27 Indian weaver 20 - Seth Kelso 48 Weaver 21 - Edward Main 24 Taylor (late of the royal artillery) 22 - Isaac Nobbs 24 Hatter 23 - Henry Nott 22 Bricklayer 24 - Francis Oakes 25 Shoemaker 25 Mr. James Puckey 25 Carpenter 26 - William Puckey 20 Carpenter 27 - William Smith 21 Linen-draper 28 - William Shelly 21 Cabinet-maker 29 - George Veeson 24 Bricklayer 30 - James Wilkinson 27 Carpenter and joiner

WOMEN 31 Mrs. Mary Cover 37 Wife of J. F. Cover 32 - Elizabeth Eyre 64 Wife of John Eyre 33 - Elizabeth Hassell 29 Wife of Rowland Hassell 34 - Sarah Henry 23 Wife of Wm. Henry 35 - Mary Hodges 25 Wife of P. Hodges 36 - Hudden - Wife of - Hudden

CHILDREN 37 James Cover 12 Son of J. F. Cover 38 Thomas Hassall 2 Son of Rowland Hassall 39 Samuel Otoo Hassall 16 weeks Do.

List of the missionaries who embarked on the Duff in London. Not all these people went to Tahiti. Some were landed at Tonagbatu in the friendly Islands (now Tonga) and some were landed in the Marquesas as the Duff journeyed around the Pacific.

38 Clune, Frank, Bound for Botany Bay, pp. 19-20. 39 Henderson, G.C., The Discoveries of the Fiji Islands, Murray, London, 1933, p.214

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