Ann MARSDEN

MARSDEN, ANN (b. at sea on the ship 'William', 2 March 1794, d. Denbigh, NSW, June 1885). Daughter of Samuel Marsden (q.v.) and wife of Thomas Hassall (q.v.).

As eldest daughter of the rectory at St John's, Parramatta, Ann Marsden played a vital role in bringing up her brothers and sisters and in acting as hostess and virtually unpaid curate after her mother's incapacitating illness in 1811. When barely six years old, she was sent to England for an education free from the corrupting influence of the colony, as her parents saw it. She returned ten years later and entered vigorously into public life in Parramatta. She and the daughters of Rowland Hassall (q.v.) helped with the Sunday school which had begun in Hassall's home and was now in the more spacious St John's Church. They led the prayer meetings, played the music for hymns and conducted picnics for the children. When a Bible Society was founded in Parramatta in 1820, she reported happily, 'A Bible Society has been established lately at Parramatta and a female committee is also formed to act in conjunction with it. I am proud to say, the ladies prosper the best.' On 12 Aug 1822, she married her father's curate, Thomas Hassall, and by him had eight children. They worked in various government chaplaincies at Port Macquarie and Bathurst until in 1827 he was appointed to the Cowpastures, a huge parish which he referred to as 'Australia beyond Liverpool'. They lived on the large estate of Denbigh, building the Heber Chapel as their parish church. Ann Hassall deputised for her husband on his frequent absences which earned him the title of the 'Galloping Parson'. Their eldest son James Hassall entered the church, working in NSW and Queensland and their daughter Eliza Marsden Hassall (q.v.) was founder of Scripture Union in Australia and first principal and founder of the Marsden Training Home for women missionaries in Ashfield.

A Yarwood, Samuel Marsden: The Great Survivor (Melbourne, 1977); Some Private Correspondence of Reverend Samuel Marsden and Family, 1794-1824, G Mackaness (ed), ( Sydney, 1942)

JANET WEST