Hassall, Reverend Thomas (1794 - 1868)

Born: England (Coventry)

Church of England clergyman and settler at `Denbigh' estate (Cobbity)

Career Highlights

Thomas Hassall was the eldest son of Rowland and Elizabeth Hassall, members of the Duff missionary expedition of 1796. Thomas was raised and educated at Parramatta and worked as a clerk in the offices of the merchants Campbell and Birnie, before opening the coloy's first Sunday School in 1813 and acting as the superintendent and secretary of the New South Wales Sunday School Institution from 1815. He went to England in 1817, studied at Lampeter College and was ordained deacon and priest in 1821. On returning to NSW he was married to Reverend Marsden's eldest daughter, Ann, and worked as curate at Parramatta before serving stints as chaplain of the Port Macquarie penal settlement and the Bathurst district. In 1827 he was appointed to the extensive parish of Cowpastures and built his estate `Denbigh' at Cobbitty, where he lived unitl his death in March 1868.

Biographies

See ADB, s.v. "Hassall, Thomas,", by N. Gunson, 1:522-23.