Series 17: 'The Hassall Family: Descendants of Rowland and Elizabeth Hassall', unpublished manuscript by Jean Stewart (1999); and 'James Samuel Hassall (1823-1904)', paper by Jean Stewart (1998), 1998-1999

[Picture] Some of the lands owned by the Hassalls in the Parish of Cook, County of Cumberland. Portion 8, Jonathan Hassall; 9 (Bosworth Farm), Samuel Hassall; 10, James Hassall; 26,39, Thomas Hassall; 44 (Denbigh), Charles Hook later owned by Thomas Hassall; 40 (Stoke Farm), 52 (Coventry), Rowland Hassall.

It seems that the appointment of Edward Eager as one of the executors of Rowland Hassall's will was to cause some difficulties with his family's affairs later on. Edward Eager had been born in Killarney, Ireland in 1787 and became a lawyer, but in 1809 he was sentenced to death for uttering a forged bill. His punishment was commuted to transportation for life and he arrived in Sydney on the Providence in July 1811 and was assigned to Reverend Richard Cartwright as a teacher for Cartwright's children. He set about promoting himself as a very pious person holding prayer meetings and doing pastoral visits. Later he became one of the leaders in Methodism establishing a reputation for piety and generosity. When Reverend Samuel Leigh arrived to establish Methodism in the colony he spent his first night in Eager's house. Not all were deceived

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by him because Reverend Walter Lawry, later to become Hassall's son-in-law, wrote that Eager ''attends to the world first and religion afterwards''.97

Eager was conditionally pardoned by Governor Macquarie and set himself up as a law-agent and attorney in Sydney but in 1813 it was ruled that he was not eligible to practise. He then set himself up in commerce and began trading with the Tahitians. He began to support the emancipist cause after he received a full pardon in 1818 and argued for the establishment of legislative council and assembly. In 1821 when the emancipists drew up a petition-concerning their grievances, Eager and Dr Redfern were commissioned to take it to London where they succeeded in some measure to improve some aspects of convict transportation conditions. He did not return to Australia. He had left the colony with the local Wesleyan society owing him £2000, a debt which he quickly recovered in London from the Wesleyan headquarters. Eager also took advantage of the Hassall family who had entrusted him to sell wool for them. He did not do as instructed and also told London agents that a Mr Cobb had been engaged to one of the Hassall girls and that their mother had wished him (Eager) to keep the goods and take the profit. This was a false story and the Hassall family was incensed by it. ''If it were an Enemy that had done as Mr Eager has in this business I could have born it but with him I could have entrusted thousands had I possessed them. But what is Man!'' So wrote Thomas Hassall on 27 March 1823.98 Thomas Hancox, who acted as agent for the Hassall interests in London urged Thomas Hassall to proceed against Eager but Thomas Hassall explained that on the best legal advice he found it not to be worth while especially when so much distance separated Eager from the Hassalls. Even if they instituted proceedings against Eager it would be impossible to get anything because nothing of Eager's property remained and his wife and her family had been forced to live on charity so they could expect nothing if ever Eager returned to colony which was very doubtful.99

In 1828 Eager was arrested for debt and spent some weeks in Fleet prision and was declared bankrupt in 1829. Afterwards he continued to interest himself in emancipist and convict cases and argued for some form of elected government.

In 1815 at St. Philip's Church, he had married Jemima McDuel, of Windsor, the daughter of John McDuel and Margaret Maloney. They had four children and his wife was left in dire circumstances when he went to England. In 1830 she had a son by W.C. Wentworth. It was reported by Lawry that ''Poor wretched Eager is as usual among the Prostitutes of London, living I suppose upon our cash''.100 Eager met Ellen Gorman soon after his arrival in London and had ten more children. After his death in 1866 she went to Australia and died there in 1870.101

97 Grocott, Allan, Convicts, Clergymen and Churches, p.259. 98 Hassall Correspondence, A1677-4, p.234. 99 Ibid., A1677-4, p.249 and 257. 100 Ibid., A1677-2, p.759. 101 McLachlan, N.D., ''Edward Eager (1787-1866)'', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. I, p.343.

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[Picture to the left] Elizabeth Hassall had been a devoted and busy supporter of her husband's activities. She was famous for her open house and hospitality and was noted as a thrifty housewife renowned for her baking and preserving. She had not lost her skill in silk weaving and ''had beautiful hands and kept them in fine order''. When there was ''a special order for ribbons for bridals she finished the tiny edges''.102

In 1805 she had the misfortune of breaking her arm when her chaise overturned near Parramatta when the horse took fright. She was carrying one of her babies (probably six month old Eliza) who was reported to be severely hurt.

Elizabeth Hassall developed business interests in her own right. In 1821 eight cows were issued to her in return for premesis relinquished by her husband in the service of the government. She became a shareholder in the Bank of New South Wales in 1823. She engages in philanthropic works by supplying books to the Male Orphan Institution. She assisted Elenor Diggin to a place in the female Orphan Institution and subscribed to a fund to donate money to Ann Curtis after her brewhouse was destroyed.103

She constantly was responsible for the supervision of assigned servants and continued to receive them well after her husband's death. In fact her treatment of the family' domestic servants extended into at least one case in which she erected a tombstone in the St Patrick's cemetary at Parramatta inscribed:

JOHN CORMICHAN departed this life 23rd 1828 servant to Mr. Roland Hassall and Fam ily 12 years.104

She was affected by the robbery from her premesis by Job Smith, a former servant, who was later tried in 1822 by the bench of Magistrates and sentenced to 100 lashes and fourteen days on bread and water. In 1822 two others, Edward McCabe and James Martin, were convicted of

102 Bathurst National Advocate, memories of C. A. Campbell, Dandenong, Victoria. 103 Colonial Secretary's Correspondence, various reels. 104 Dunn, Judith, 8 Prune Street, Wentworthville, N.S.W., letter to author.

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fraudulently obtaining sheep from the Hassalls.105

In 1825, Reverand Thomas Hassall, Elizabeth's son, petitioned the Governor, Sir Thomas Brisbane, on behalf of his widowed mother and his sisters, Eliza, Susannah and Ann. They were co-owners of 4000 sheep and 4000 head of horned cattle for which they had no pasturage of their own either by Grant or Ticket of Occupation. He asked that they should be given a Ticket of Occupation for land on Warwick Plains, fifty miles south west of Bathurst on which to run their stock.106 Later he petitioned Lord Bathurst for more pasturage for their 35 horses, 600 head of horned cattle and 3,500 breeding sheep. He stated that, through lack of proper pasturage the year before £5000 worth of ewes had been lost and the losses would have been greater if they had not been able to use land granted to his brother-in-law, William Walker, for temporary pasturage.107

Elizabeth Hassall had been left an annuity by her husband and this annuity was to come from then enterprise conducted by her son Samuel Otoo Hassall at Macquarie Grove. After his death it became difficult for her daughter-in-law to continue paying the annuity so in October 1833 her son, Thomas Hassall, certified that his mother had given up freely all claim to her annuity from Macquarie Grove with the exception of any rent which should come from Bosworth, a small farm once owned by her son, Samuel Hassall, and now the property of his widow.

[Picture] Parramatta in the 1820's.

Parramatta as it was during the time Elizabeth Hassall was one of the prominent women there. From Jervis, James, The Cradle City of Australia, A History of Parramatta 1788-1961.

105 Colonial Secretary's Correspondence. 106 Ibid, Fiche 3135, 4/1842A, No.363, p.357. 107 Historical Records of Australia, Vol.XIII, p.717.

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Elizabeth Hassall was part of a closely knit group of women who ''Brought affection and compassion to their role of free wives; who made their contribution to the King era and helped mark it as something new, because, for the first time, the number of women was great enough to give the community, though still small and extremely primitive, a balance and stability it had not possessed before''.108

Her courage in going to the Tahiti with her husband and her encouragement of her family as they prospered reveal a remarkable woman. Like her husband who kept up his contact with missionaries in Tahiti she kept up a correspondence with their wives. She heard about their children and the deaths of some of the women. She gave them advice to them through Mrs Nott recommending the use of caster oil as it seemed to be the best medicine and could easily be made in Tahiti.

[Picture] Landing of the missionaries by the ship Duff at Tahiti, 1796. Elizabeth Hassall is believed to be the woman nursing her second son, Samuel Otoo, and her son, Thomas, is believed to be the child standing in the foreground. The painting was ''The Cessation of Matavaiia'' by Robert Smirke, done in 1829 as a gift to Captain Wilson of the Duff. From London Missionary Society, A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, 1796-1798.

Details about the painting, ''The Cession of Matavai'' by Robert Smirke, were provided by Archdeacon Spencer Oakes in his article, ''Rowland Hassall. A Pioneer Colonist'' in the Sydney Morning Herald of February 1928. Oakes referred to the line engraving made of Smirke's painting which was authorised by the London Missionary Society and executed by Bartolozzi. ''In the picture, Samuel is seen as an infant in his mother's arms, Thomas, aged 3, is standing by his son, Otoo, in whose favour he abdicated. Both Otoo and his queen are borne on men's shoulders. The aged priest in front is ceding the district of Matavai to the

108 Heney, Helen, Australia's Founding Mothers, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1978, p.149.

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