Thomas HASSALL

HASSALL, THOMAS (b. Coventry, England 29 May 1794; d. Cobbitty, NSW, 29 May 1868). First Anglican clergyman from colonial Australia.

Child of pioneer LMS missionaries to Tahiti Rowland and Elizabeth Hassall (q.v.), Thomas Hassall arrived in NSW at four years of ago Apart from five years spent as a theological student in Britain, the rest of his life was spent in NSW. He received the best education possible in the penal colony, wit encouragement from his parents and his mentor the Rev Samuel Marsden (q.v.), as well as access to the library donated to NSW by Elizabeth Fry. In 1813, Thomas began the first Sunday school in NSW, in his parents' home for instruction in literacy and Christian faith for the children of convicts, soldiers and settlers as well as Aboriginal children. The school grew to 150 students and was transferred to St John' Church, Parramatta, and the direct supervision of Marsden. Hassall left NSW in 1817 to study for the Church of England ministry in Great Britain, the first Australian to do so. His studies were undertaken at Lampeter College, Wales and he was ordained in 1821. During that period he met William Wilberforce, who encouraged him to return to NSW. On returning home in 1822, he became curate to Marsden and married Marsden's daughter Anne. After brief ministries in Port Macquarie and Bathurst, he began his lifework in the Camden district in 1827 and remained in that parish till his death forty years later. His parish initially included much of the newly settled southern districts and Hassall travelled many hundreds of miles on horseback to minister to scattered shepherds and selectors, earning him the name 'the galloping parson', though in his later years, the vast area was divided into a number of parishes. Hassall bought the farm property of 'Denbigh' at Cobbitty and built Heber Chapel (1827) and St Paul's, Cobbitty (1842). He had special care for youth and for the distribution of Christian literature and scriptures. Hassall was a man who was greatly loved, not only by his own parishioners but also by people of other faiths and no faith. Methodist labouring families in the area, before they had a minister of their own, valued his gospel preaching, brought their children to him for baptism, and were grateful for the hospitality of the ample 'Denbigh' verandah for their class meetings. As a landowner, he suffered with his people through economic recession, droughts and floods, and knew hardship with the failure of the Bank of NSW in 1843. In the same year, Hassall received an MA from the abp of Canterbury through Bp Broughton. It was a great sorrow to him when many of the people who had lived in the Camden area moved off to settle in newly opened districts to the north and west, leaving his own parish comparatively depopulated by the end of the 1840s. His zeal for evangelism was lifelong and Hassall was still leading people to Christ in the final months of his life. The six hundred people who attended his funeral were a cross-section of the NSW community, a symbol of the love in which this godly man was held.

Hassall Correspondence (ms, Mitchell Library, NSW); J Hassall, In Old Australia: Records and Reminiscences From 1794 (Brisbane, 1902)

MARGARET REESON