This portrait is unsigned but is attributed to William Griffith, who lived for a time with the Hassalls in Parramatta
Elizabeth was born on 19 July 1766, one of seven surviving children by John and Ann Hancox, the others being Thomas, Samuel, Abraham, Mary, Susannah and John. Her father was also engaged in the weaving of silk ribbons. Her mother Ann died in Coventry while Elizabeth was in Tahiti in 1797.
In July 1819, Elizabeth asked her son Thomas, then in England, to bring her sister Susannah with him when he returned, but it is not known whether he did.
According to her grand-daughter, C.A. Campbell of Dandenong in Victoria, Elizabeth “had beautiful hands and kept them in fine order. When her father had a special order for ribbons for bridals she finished the tiny edges for him”.
In 1805 she had the misfortune of breaking her arm when her chaise overturned near Parramatta owing to the horse taking fright. At the time she was carrying her infant (probably six month-old Eliza) who was reported to have been severely hurt.
Elizabeth 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.
Elizabeth Hassall developed business interests in her own right after the death of her husband. In 1821 eight cows were issued to her in return for premises relinquished by her husband in the service of the government. She became a shareholder in the Bank of New South Wales in 1823. She engaged 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.
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’s domestic servants extended into at least one case in which she erected a tombstone in the St Patrick’s cemetery at Parramatta inscribed: “JOHN CORMICHAN departed this life 23rd 1828 aged 47 years A faithful servant to Mr Roland Hassall and Family 12 years”
She was affected by the robbery from her premises 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 fraudulently obtaining sheep from the Hassalls.
In 1825, her son Thomas 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, 50 miles south-west of Bathurst on which to run their stock. 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.
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.”
Her courage in going to Tahiti with her husband and her encouragement of her family as they prospered reveal a remarkable woman.
Children – Second Generation
Rowland and Elizabeth Hassall had four sons and five daughters: Thomas, who was born in 1794 and died in 1868 and who married Ann Marsden, eldest daughter of Reverend Samuel Marsden; Samuel Otoo, who was born in 1796 and died in 1830 and who married Lucy Mileham; Jonathan, who was born in 1798 and died in 1834 and married Mary Rouse; Mary Cover, who was born in 1799 and died in 1825 and who married Rev Walter Lawry; James, who was born in 1802 and died in 1862 and who married Catherine Payne Lloyd; Eliza Cordelia, who was born in 1804 and who married Rev William Walker; Susannah Marsden, who was born in 1806 and died in 1890 and who married William Shelley Jr; Ann, who was born in 1808 and married Robert Mackay Campbell; and Elizabeth, who was born in 1810 and died in 1812.
All the sons engaged in rural pursuits, although Thomas’ main activity was that of minister of the Church of England.
Three of Rowland and Elizabeth Hassall’s children were married in a famous triple wedding ceremony at St John’s, Parramatta on 22 November 1819: Samuel Otoo Hassall married Lucy Mileham; Jonathan Hassall married Mary Rouse; and Mary Cover Hassall married Reverend Walter Lawry. According to Eric Ramsden, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1934:
“The newlyweds heard four addresses that day – two from the minister, Mr Cross, and two from old Rowland. The patriarch of the Hassall clan composed some verses to the tune, ‘Adoration’, which the happy Mary, so much in love with her ‘good, pious Lawry’, copied and sent to brother Thomas.”
Rowland and Elizabeth’s Grave
Elizabeth Hassall died on 11th February 1834 at her son James’ property Matavai, which he had bought from his brother Jonathan.
Elizabeth was buried in the same grave as her husband in St John’s Cemetery, Parramatta. It is a sandstone altar (2ft x 3ft x 6ft) on a sandstone plinth (3ins x 4ft x 6ft 1in). The inscription on it (complete with the miss-spelling of Lawry) reads:
Sacred
to the Memory of
Mr. ROWLAND HASSALL
one of the first missionaries appointed
to the South Sea Islands
after upwards of 22 years residence in
this Colony walking in the Fear of God
and the esteem of Good men
He died in Peace
on the 28th of August 1820 in the 52nd year
of his Age
Also 3 days after was interred in
the same vault with its grandfather
The first born daughter of the
Revd. WALTER & MARY LAURY
Aged 13 days
Also 5 days after its grandfather was
interred in the same vault ROWLAND JAMES the
First born son of Mr SAML. OTOO & LUCY HASSALL
Aged 12 days
Insatiate archer could not one suffice
Thy shaft flew thrice and thrice our peace was slain
And Thrice! Ere since yon moon had fill’d her horn
And James the infant son of
JONOTHAN and MARY HASSALL
who died January 8th 1828
Also
ELIZ HASSALL
relict of ROWd. HASSALL
Who died 10th Feby. 1834 aged 68
Beside it is the grave of his friend and fellow missionary William Shelley, and behind them are the remains of another of the Duff missionaries, Francis Oakes.
Her will, made out just four weeks before her death, honoured the wish of her husband by leaving the house at Parramatta to Thomas and to divide the Parramatta properties named Burder Park, Hassall’s Farm, Bolger’s Farm and David Farm – which had been combined into a single 365-acre property called Burder Park – between their children. Elizabeth directed that this property be sub-divided into six lots, complete with roads and such, to be selected by the children in descending order of age.
All her sheep and cattle were to be sold for the benefit of her daughters and grand-daughters, but the first year’s clip of wool from the flock was to be sold with half the proceeds going to the London Missionary Society and the other half to her relatives back in England (brothers John and Abraham Hancox and two nieces, both named Elizabeth). Her stock of horses and money were to be divided equally among her children. A seven-acre block of land in Macquarie St, Parramatta was left to her son James while a plot of land bounded by Macquarie, George and Charles Streets in Parramatta (presumably part of the original house block) was to be held in trust by Thomas for the benefit of her grand-daughters Elizabeth Henrietta Walker and Susannah Matilda Anna Walker. The will was executed by her son Thomas and son-in-law William Shelley.