RESEARCH FILES

This letter led me to research the Thomas Roses of this age who had a brother named Robert, I came up with one Thomas and Robert of the same Parents in the Vital Records Index, but I yet to find something from Australia to tie the two together.

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Christening Date: 15 Feb 1773 Recorded in: St. Nicholas, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England

Christening Date: 15 Nov 1775 Recorded in: St. Nicholas, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England

For many years past the Rose families of the early days of New South Wales, and incidentally the "Rose Millions" have been the subject of considerable newspaper discussion. The romantic story has been told from various angles and committees have been formed to further the claims of those who consider themselves entitled to share in the millions---if the supposed huge fortune could be located, and a claim to it substantiated. Now entirely new light is claimed to be thrown on the families---but not on the millions---by Mr Alfred Rose, of Cooma, and Mr Alfred Rose Payten, of Campbelltown, grandsons of the Thomas Rose who is generally known as Thomas Rose of Mount Gilead, near Campbelltown. Mr Rose (who is a solicitor) and Mr Payten have spent much time in searching old records, and a few days ago made available to the writer their conclusions, which are certainly entitled to respect.

To follow these conclusions it is necessary to state briefly what has generally been accepted to be the position. Most writers up to the present have been in agreement---but wrongly so---that there were involved in the discussion two Roses of the same Christian name, Thomas, who bore no relationship to each other. It has been generally thought by all writers including myself, that the "first" Thomas Rose arrived in New South Wales in the ship "Bellona" on January 15, 1793, and that the "second" Thomas Rose reached Sydney by the ship "Barwell" on May 18, 1798. The confusion has always come about by the belief that the "first" Thomas Rose arrived a free man (there is no doubt whatever on this point), received a grant of land at Liberty Park, later removed to the Hawkesbury, and died there in 1833. and that the "second" Thomas Rose---better known as "Mt Gilead Rose"---arrived as a prisoner in 1798 (there is no definite proof of this), and was granted a pardon some years later. This Thomas Rose , described as a versatile pioneer---baker, publican, miller and grazier---acquired considerable city property, received substantial grant of land in the Campbelltown-Appin district, later acquired the Mt Gilead property, and built the historic windmill there. This Thomas Rose died in March, 1837, and was buried in St Peter's cemetery, Campbelltown.

The latest research work has led to an attack on the previous contention that the "first" Thomas Rose and the "second" Thomas Rose were of two totally different families, and the definite claim is now made that Thomas Rose of Mount Gilead, did not arrive as a bond-man in 1788, but that he was the eldest son of Thomas Rose, the free-settler, who came out in the "Bellona" in 1783.

It has previously been stated that Thomas Rose, of Mount Gilead, had no connection or relationship with Thomas Rose, the free settler, who arrived in the "Bellona" in 1783, accompanied by his wife, Jane Rose (aged 33years) and his children---Thomas Rose (aged 18years), Mary Rose (11 years), Joshua Rose (9 years), and Richard Rose (three years). There is no dispute to these facts, as the records are clear. Some writers have gone on to state that; Thomas Rose of Mount Gilead arrived in Sydney as "a Government man" in 1798, and by conduct received his freedom and then made good.

One well known writer on the subject, in support of his contention that Thomas Rose, of Mount Gilead, was in no way connected with Thomas Rose, the free settler, stated that the latter Thomas Rose owned land by settlement, and quoted an advertisement in the "Herald" of May 10, 1839, of a sale by auction of Fulham Park, "the property of the late Thomas Rose Esquire". It was also stated that Thomas Rose the free settler, was an educated man, quoted the marriage of John McDonald and Lydia Benn, and that Thomas Rose of Wilberforce, was a witness to that marriage, and. judging by his signature, was undoubtedly a good penman.

Now we can set out to prove that Thomas Rose of Mount Gilead did not arrive as a prisoner in 1798, but that he was the eldest son of Thomas Rose the free settler who came out in the Bellona in 1793. In regard to Fulham Park, the writer has a certified copy of the will of Thomas Rose, of Mount Gilead, who died in March, 1837, and probate of whose will on April 13, 1837, granted by the Supreme Court of New South Wales to the executors, James Pye and Edward Smith. On page 2 of that will, Thomas Rose of Mt Gilead, devised unto Jane Perkins, a daughter of Sarah Perkins, "my farm at Richmond, commonly known as Oroplay's farm, otherwise Fulham Park, consisting of one hundred and thirty acres, granted by the Acting governor, William Paterson Esquire, in the absence of then Governor, to James Bannister and others by deed, dated on or about the seventh day of September, one thousand seven hundred and ninety five" etc. Therefore, Fulham Park was in 1838 part of the estate of Thomas Rose of Mount Gilead and was not owned by Thomas Rose, of the Bellona. This Rose died on November 15, 1833, so it may be that Fulham Park was acquired by his eldest son, Thomas Rose, of Mount Gilead as heir at law. It is significant that in the will of Thomas Rose, of Mount Gilead, of all the properties he devised he gave the name of the original grantee and added the words "and purchased by me", but in the case of Fulham Park alone these words are omitted. There are several other devises in the will of land about Richmond.

There seems no doubt whatever that the Thomas Rose who witnessed the marriage of John McDonald and Lydia Benn in1817, and who signed his name as "Thomas Rose of Wilberforce" was identical with Thomas Rose of Mount Gilead, who married Sarah Pye in St Peter's Church, Campbelltown on September 2, 1829, and the witnesses of whose marriage were John McDonald and Lydia McDonald. The writer has personally inspected his signature, and even to the non-expert, the two signatures of Thomas Rose appear to be absolutely identical. One may be seen in the Registrar-General's office, Sydney and the other at St Peter's Church, Campbelltown. I have also inspected the certificate of marriage of Thomas Rose, who was admittedly the eldest son of Thomas Rose of the Bellona, to Jane Jones, on May 24,1800 at St Phillips Church, Sydney (the records are now in the Mitchell Library). His mother, Jane Rose, was a witness to the marriage, and was evidently a well educated woman. Although Thomas Rose as a young man of 20 wrote his name in full, "Thomas Rose", I feel certain, after inspection that the writing is of the same man who witnessed the marriage of John McDonald and Lydia Benn in 1817, and who, subsequently to the death of Jane Jones, married Elizabeth Bartlett, and after her in1826 married Sarah Pye at Campbelltown in 1828. If that is so, proof is conclusive that Thomas Rose of Mount Gilead, was the eldest son of Thomas Rose, the free settler, who arrived in the Bellona in 1798. Apparently the only issue of the marriage of Thomas Rose and Jane Rose was one son William Patrick Rose, born on May 2, 1802, which birth was registered at old St Phillips Church, Sydney, and this record, together with the certificate the marriage to Jane Jones may be seen at the Registrar-General's office. As far as can be ascertained, there is no authentic record of the death of Jane Jones, but we may assume that she died some time between the date of the birth of the one son, William Patrick Rose, in 1802 and Rose's second marriage---to Elizabeth Bartlett---in 1806.

A close examination of the vital signatures---those of 1800, 1806, and 1817 referred to above, convince the writer that the same Thomas Rose was responsible for all of them. But in order to have the opinion of a recognised handwriting expert, photographs of those signatures were submitted to Dr C A Monticons, the Government interpreter and handwriting expert, who made a scientific analysis of the three signatures. Dr Monticone, whose qualifications are undoubted, has reported that 'The three signatures submitted show ample evidence of identity; there is complete coincidence in all the principal elements of analysis.

"The true elements and all the significant features" adds Dr Monticone "are demonstrably the same. My thorough and conscientious analysis brings me to the positive conclusion that the three signatures were written by the same person" The value of this definite opinion is undoubted and confirms the contention that there were not two Thomas Roses of different families, but that the second Thomas Rose (of Mount Gilead) was the son of the "first" Thomas Rose, who arrived in the "Bellona" with his family in 1793.

NB: Appendix 12a to this document is the Biography of Thomas Rose of Wilberforce, “Bellona”

Once upon a time it looked upon as an involuntary choice mend driven by bitter fortune from the amenities of life if an Englishman adopted New Holland, or the Thieves Kitchen at Botany Bay, as his homeland; yet when Sydney had only five years of human woe to broadcast, four venturesome men, clad in freedoms garb desired to try their luck in a new land of bountless opportunity.

of these four. one stood foremost, “a freeman who the truth makes free". and spoke the Dorset tongue - mout for much, woon for Win, Pris for price, and the like Vernaculars – Dum it. Man, that's Colonial, not Do'set; it's rank as 'Possum fat in a beefwood tub; It'll not butter my biscuits.

This humane adventurer and unofficial pioneer was Thomas Rose "the most respectable of the first three settlers". who took a sporting chance in playing the roughest of all games - pioneering in an unknown hemisphere. He shouldered each trouble as his predecessor did in Pennsylvania. Nursing them into quietude harnessing them to his needs as a farmer, baker, miller, publican, middleman, and grazier, until he wore the Colonists crown made from wheat and wool raised on his own broad acres. As a pastoralist he never forgot that once his voice was heard in the bar-room of an Inn which stood upon the sight now occupied by The Daily *Telegraph building, reciting his favorite author, Rev George Crabbe of St Quinton’s rectory, Frome. Mr. Rose was at Lulworth when George III. visited the Castle.

In Europe when there were earth-shaking events at the end of the nineteenth century, not less exciting, however, in the infant colony. was the arrival of our first free settlers, our pilgrim fathers, who left Old England for the sake of I25 acres of a steading “at the upper part of Sydney Harbor”, above the flats which they aptly named “Liberty Plains". At that time when people were living from hand-to-mouth. Thomas Rose put on a baker’s apron, then donned a miller's smock, to feed the hungry. Slowly but surely he rose to a thriving colonist, acquired land in town, built an inn soon to be called the "Rose and Crown” and began to supply the Government with wheat meat, and horses. Every appeal to a good cause - the Waterloo fund, Benevolent Society, the building of churches, bridges, the needs of those with crepe upon the door- met with response from Tammis, the poor mans friend.

It was not however, until 1806 that Mr. Rose obtained a Baker's license and began to turn out loaves as loaves as well as dollars. Rose’s bread and goat-milk cheese made dry eating without a wash of beer, so, on, July 2Ist 1810, he obtained a license to sell colonial ale. The Rose and Crown Inn stood on the aristocratic side of Sydney’s lazy stream. Officers walking to Hyde Park, cracked jokes with the jovial round faced publican.

Clerk by keeping the track clears of intruders. The Rose and Crown grew into a sportsman’s rendezvous, it's Commercial room had all the

Latest news form London every ship's captain bringing a special mail for the proprietor - there could be read the pros. and cons. About racing, hunting, fighting, rowing, highway robbery, court scandal, home politics, the clash of arms as Wellington met Bonaparte, or, what touched Australia more. The newest books on agriculture, cattle

Breeding, and deforestation. Mr. Rose kept racehorses of a sort, as his Leadbeeter won both events in the subscription plate run on August I4th I82I. He remained clerk of the course until racing ceased in I822, when its memory, linked to the years of Macquarrie’s administration, found voice In song and speech over a champagne dinner given by him to the patrons of that royal sport introduced by officers of the 73rd Regiment.

For s few years Hyde Park was known as Rose’s Paddock, as he ran 30 head of cattle there under an adgistment lease.

Amoung his activities was a lease of Palmer's Hill, in the Domain June 1813. He relinquished baking in 1815. In April 1827, Mr. A. Hill, of Hyde Park Tavern, took over the Rose and Crown, The original licensee having grown land hungry, indicating colonistic health. He became a squire of broad acres when Governor Macquarrie resumed a block of land adjoining the Hotel. And used as a sale yard, allowing in exchange I300 acres of land At the Airds, about 30 miles from Sydney. That cattle pen was Recently sold to Sir Benjamen Fuller for 100,000 pounds. In 0otober 1818 he purchased from Reuben Uther, the first maker of furry Hats in Sydney, a farm of 400 acres named Gilead, on the Appin Road. His inside knowledge prompted the purchase of 50 acres on theroadside, just north of Campbelltown, to which he soon added 40 acres on the banks of Bow-Bowing, or Bore-Borang, Creek. Here 32 miles from Town he built Woodbine Cottage, which even now is conspicuous within its leafy dell of fruit and flower and scented cedars.

It is hard to appease land hunger. Mr. Rose encouraged it by an early purchase of 104 acres near Schuldham, on the Napean River, and in June I823, he received a grant of 300 acres on the river. This alluvial, breathing perfumes of honey-giving native flowers, contrasted with the barrenness of Gilead, where forest leaves hung faint in the summer heat, and drought so gripped the land that it’s skin cracked and gaped for water.

The drought predicted by Sir Thomas Brisbane spread around Gilead. Prayers to reverse what nature had decreed fell from parched lips. Now Mr. Rose had little faith in such supplications, believing that providence helps those who, timely, help themselves. So he decided in I1829 to build an embankment across the dried up pond at Gilead, and form an artificial reservoir for rain when it came. This proved a blessing to distant farmers, who were compelled to use Rose’s dam, or walk to the Napean for water. Sixpence a quart was their distributing price. Rose’s Mill erected in 1836 stands on a slight prominence; it is the most beautiful relic of a wind driven mill to be found throughout Australia. Its story has often been told by imaginative writers. A picture postcard tells us it was built in 1812, and of such history is built. Nearly ninety years ago one could read on a board near the entrance gates: “Road to Mill and Ferry". For about I0 years the mill ground merrily, then a rust in wheat cut short its usefulness. Times grinding teeth have dealt gently with the structure. It is a landmark, which should be cared for by a trust as a survey reserve. Lawrence Kendal was the miller. He like Mr. Rose was bookish, so they ground out Feeble verse when the wind refused to blow. After 44 years of ups and downs in a fight where the hitting was hard this unobtrusive Englishman died at Mt Gilead on March 3rd 1837 and was buried like an old English Squire within his estate, in a garth so placed that the evening shadows of the mill empailed his tomb. We read "The friends of the late Mr. Thomas Rose are requested to attend his funeral, at his residence, Appin, on Monday next the 6th instant at one o’clock".

"From a bark hut to a colonial mansion" would be a fitting title for this article,

In the twenties the livestock and farming establishment at Mount Gilead had become so extensive that Thomas Rose “was seriously affected by want of water”. He stated that he considered every conceivable expedient for obtaining an adequate supply, finding unsuitable the only artificial resources he had ever heard or read of – sinking for springs, damming running streams or excavating tanks.

It occurred to him at last that it might be possible to collect the run-off of rainwater in sufficient quantity to withstand evaporation and absorption by building an embankment.

i. A Family of Significant Substance. Written and Publish by Christine Thomas.

Thomas was born c 1773 at Shropshire, England. He arrived in the colony of New South Wales in 1798 on the vessel "Barwell" and had been sentenced to life in March 1793 at Shrewsbury. Eight years later Thomas married Elizabeth Bartlett on 13.4.1806 at St. Phillip's Church, Sydney.

In November 1809, Thomas Rose was recorded as a Baker, living in Chapel Row, Sydney. That same year, Thomas was robbed of property to the value of sixty or eighty pounds; nearly the whole of which, through the activity of the Police, had been recovered. The depredators, as it turned out, were Thomas Rose's next door neighbours; upon whom suspicion falling, two men whose names were Warrington and Hargrave. They were apprehended with part of the stolen property in their immediate possession and afterwards confessed the fact and gave information of the remainder of the articles they had robbed and concealed in a tomb, buried in the ground.

On July 21, 1810, Thomas Rose, still living in Chapel Row, Sydney, was granted a Beer Licenee by His Excellency, J.T. Campbell. His name being published in the Sydney Gazette along with forty nine other people who also obtained Licences to vend and retail Beer on the terms that each person pay an annual tax of five pounds for their licences. Two months later, on September 8, 1810, Thomas Rose placed an advertisement in the Sydney Gazette as follows;- Thomas Rose, Baker, Chapel Row, begs to inform Owners and Commanders of Shipping, and the public at large, that he has erected buildings for the purpose of carrying on the Baking business on an extensive scale; and that all orders for supply of vessels with Biscuits, &c. shall always be complied with at a short notice, and in a manner that will insure the same to keep well. Those furnishing their own meal orfiour will also be treated with at a cheap rate. N.B. Customers supplied, as usual, with bread of the best quality (according to the assize).

Two years later, Thomas Rose placed another advertisement in the Sydney Gazette as follows;-

Just imported, and now selling for ready sterling money only, at the Warehouse of T. Rose, Castlereagh Street, the following valuable Articles, viz. A choice variety of hats of every description, ladies' Spanish leather slippers, children's black and coloured ditto, shop scales of all sizes with weight suitable, black tin tea kettles, oval ditto for cooking, coffin furniture, shoe brushes and blacking, an assortment of ironmongery, consisting of bricklayers' 12-inch blade cast steel trowels, plasterer's ditto, curry combs, brushes and sponge, chalk lines and pius, carpenter's chissels, handle and plane irons of all sizes, hand, tenon, frame, and pit saw files, and various other articles.

In January, 1813, Thomas Rose was a Steward for the Commemoration Dinner, held on 29.1.1813 at 11 George Street, Sydney which celebrated the landing of His Excellency, Governor Lachlan Macquarie. Tickets for the dinner were available from seventeen stewards at 22s. 6d with wine included and any inhabitants of the Colony were able to purchase these tickets.

By 1814, Thomas Rose was recorded as a free man. He was able to support himself and was recorded as a land-holder in Sydney.

That same year, Messrs. C. Tompson and T. Rose begged to inform Bakers and the public through the Sydney Gazette, that the price of Grinding at Mr. Palmer's large Mill will, in future, be at the under reduced rates; viz.

"lf conveyed to and fro' by T. or R's Carts; Is. 6d. per bushel, currency. If conveyed at the Parties' own expense Is 3d, currency. Application to be made to the Miller, J. Bourke."

He also advertised in 1814 in the Sydney Gazette, a substantial and commodious dwelling house, situated at 45 Castlereagh Street, with every convenience, "to be let". Thomas, himself, also resided in Castlereagh Street at that particular time.

In March, 1815, Thomas Rose, still residing in Castlereagh Street, Sydney, placed a "Wanted" add in the columns of the Sydney Gazette for a "Journey man Baker of Good character.''

A small Investment imported on the Indefatigable; consisting of velveteens, fustians, nimsdraft cord, British Nankecas, waistcoat pieces, child bed linen, ladies, gentlemen's, and children's shoes and boots, ladies cotton hose, threads, tapes and bobbings, pearl and metal buttons, copper tea kettles, copper scales of various sizes, ironmongery, consisting of carpenter's tools, butt hinges and screws, curry combs, bricklayers and plasterers trowels, butchers' knives, and various other articles. N.B. Masters and Owners of Ships and Colonial Vessels supplied with Biscuit and Flour as usual.

Two months later, Thomas Rose decided to Let or Sell his bakehouse in Castlereagh Street, Sydney and placed the following advertisement in the Sydney Gazette on May 27, 1815;-

To be Let or Sold by Private Contract, the commodious Bakehouse, containing 2 ovens, a kitchen, and two floorsover the whole, 40 by 20 in the clear, capable of containing 5000 bushels of grain and meal, situated in Castlereagh Street, the corner of King Street, with an allotment of Garden Ground in the Rear, & in the Front sufficient Space to erect a commodious Dwelling-house and Offices on, the Property and in the present Occupation of Mr Thomas Rose, who is on the point of declining the Baking Business. - The Premises are known to be well worth the attention of any Person wishing to embark in the Baking Line, in which it has been established for upwards of l l years, and has the Advantage of being situated in a popular nei ghbourhood. - Application to be made to the Proprietor on the Premises.

Later, Thomas Rose became the proprietor of the "Rose and Crown" Hotel in King Street, Sydney, and eventually came to own the greater pan of the block bounded by King, Castlereagh, Market and Elizabeth Streets.

In an issue of World News, dated Saturday, July 23, 1927, William Freame wrote an article concerning Thomas Rose and the Rose and Crown Inn, which was situated on the same site as the Daily Telegraph building;-

Once again our attention is focused upon the south-east corner of King and Castlereagh Streets, Sydney, upon which stands the "Daily Telegraph News Pictorial" and the World News Building. In all great cities there are parts where the romance of history lingers; such a corner is the Daily Telegrah corner, for which it is associated a pioneer whose extraordinary history provides one of our most interesting romances. During 1806, all the land from King Street to Market Street along the east side of Chapel Row, since called Castlereagh Street, was granted for fourteen years to Thomas Rose at a "Peppercorn Rental", and on the corner of King Street he opened the Rose and Crown Inn, one of the most notable houses in early Sydney.

Who was this Thomas Rose, and what were his antecedents? People asked over one hundred years ago; and today people are spending considerable time and money trying to solve the same problem. For behind his history, it is thought, are millions of pounds sterling.

Thomas Rose was twenty five years of age when he arrived in Sydney in 1798; ten years afterwards he opened the Rose and Crown. An educated, much travelled, and aristocratic type man was "mine host", and his house soon become a popular resort of the military officers and young bloods about the town. Rose was a puzzle to all his customers. It was said that he had come to the colony in bondage. Tradition associated him with an early morning affair on Hampstead Heath, in which pistols and hot coffee were involved, and it was said that there was a lady in the case. Rose however, denied this, and said he paid his passage out and arrived with gold in his pockets. Now well over one hundred years after, a high authority in England states that no one named Rose was exiled in 1798. But the customers of the Rose and Crown troubled their heads very little over such fine points,for were not some of the wealthiest men in town true patriots? "For be it understood, they left their country for their country's good."

The Rose and Crown was a sporting house, and Rose leased the present Hyde Park and had a racecourse there, where he had his own horses, and fortune, smiled upon the snug little house on the corner, whose owner amassed wealth; and turning his thoughts to pursuits more becoming gentleman of rank and mean, he acquired considerable acreage, and employed much labour, both bond and free, and the Rose and Crown knew him no longer.

Rose became a country squire; acquired a fine estate known as Mount Gilead, where he erected a windmill. He drove his own carriage, emblazoned with his crest; he became quite a picturesque personage in old Parramatta, where his carriage was subsequently sold, and where his heavy gold watch, embellished with rare precious gems - a wedding gift from England - is still remembered.

Time has wrought many changes - playing havoc with old Sydney - since the Rose and Crown hung out its sign on the corner of King and Castlereagh Streets. Thomas Rose sleeps his last long sleep in Campbelltown Churchyard - he died during 1837, but fragrance of old romance lingers around the corner, a romance if tradition be true, greater than most imagine.

Most readers of the present day will recollect Host Ushermade his name with a hotel on this corner, which was only displaced when the "Daily Telegraph". building was erected."

On October 7, 1818, Thomas Rose purchased from Reuben Uther, the property known as 'Mount Gilead" at Appin. Reuben Utherhad received a grant of four hundred acres at Appin on August 25, 1812, at a Quit Rent of eight shillings per annum, which was payable after five years. That property he named "Mount Gilead". After the purchase of "Mount Gilead",

Thomas Rose made large additions to the property by purchasing several of the adjoining farms. RHASJ op cit - Christine Thomas

In 1819, he received a further four hundred acre grant, south-west and adjoining Uther's grant in exchange for part of his city block, upon which Governor Macquarie had built the Georgian School and upon which St. James Theatre and part of David Jones' Emporium stood.

In September, 1820, he was recorded as "Clerk of the Course" for the Sydney Races. Sydney Gazette 01.09.1820 - Christine Thomas

It seems as though he found a few fencers and had the task of fencing his property completed, because he gave notice on January 10, 1822, that all persons found trespassing on his farm in the District of Appin, either by grazing cattle, felling or carrying away timber, injuring the fence, or otherwise, will be prosecuted with the utmost Rigour of the Law.

Thomas Rose was one of the early advocates of water conservation and in 1825, he built an artificial lake, which is still to be seen just below the homestead. This lake, which has a depth of up to eighteen feet, and which in 1888 was advertised as being suitable for swimming or boating, was a source of supply in times of drought to all the settlers of the surrounding district.

On November 1, 1826, Thomas Rose's first wife, Elizabeth (nee Bartlett) died at the age of 40, at her Castlereagh Street home, cause of death being Cattarrh. Until his marriage to Sarah Pye in 1829, Thomas remained a widow, caring for his six children, the youngest being Margaret, who was only five years old when her mother died (according to the Pioneer Register).

According to the 1828 Census of New South Wales, Thomas Rose was employing ten employees in 1828. These ten men were;-

The following year on September 21, 1829, Thomas Rose married Sarah Pye at St. Peter's Church, Campbelltown, by Banns. They continued to live at "Mount Gilead", where they raised five children and remained until they died.

When the furniture from the Old Government House was sold in the early 1800's, Sarah Rose, wife of Thomas, commissioned Andrew Payten to purchase items for her. He bought the furniture from the Govemor's bedroom; the famous Pineapple bed, wardrobe etc. and these items Sarah gave to her daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Jane on her marriage to James Payten. The furniture then remained at "Woodbine", James and Sarah's family home, forover one hundred years. The furniture is now preserved and on display at "Hambleton Cottage", Hassell Street, Parramatta - head quarters of the Parramatta Historical Society.

Thomas Rose built a windmill on the "Mount Gilead' Estate in 1836. The Mill tower, which was built from sandstone quarried on the property, was sixty feet in height, comprised four stories, and is reputed to have contained the finest millstones in the colony. A rather remarkable feature of the mill is that no metal was used in its construction, the sails, driving shaft, gear wheels, flooring shaft etc. being made from Ironbark timber cut on the property. Close to the mill there were two water troughs six feet long, two feet wide and nine inches deep, cut from solid blocks of sandstone. The charge for grinding wheat at "Mount Gilead" mill was one shining and sixpence per bushel, with an extra charge of threepence per bushel for dressed flour, and thus the settlers of the district were able to have their wheat ground without paying the exorbitant prices which for many years had been so sorely felt.

In 1837, a notice on the "Mount Gilead" gateway read - "To mill and Ferry". Prior to1856, there was no bridge across the Nepean River at Menangle, and the main Southern Road, which had been surveyed by James Meehan in 1817, passed through "Mount Gilead" to Birds-Eye Comer, close to the junction of Menangle Creek and the Nepean River, where a ferry conveyed travellers across the Stream. RHASJ op cit - Christine Thomas

Thomas Rose's flour mill continued to employ a great many employees, of whom in 1837 mainly consisted of convicts. Following is a list of employees that were employed at Appin by Thomas Rose, presumably at the flour mill;-

1. THOMAS ALLSOP, aged 21, tried at Nottingham, arrived in 1837 on the ship "Eliza".

4. THOMAS DIXSON, aged 21, tried at Warwick, arrived in 1832 on ship "Hercules".

7. PATRICK FITZSIMMONS, aged 23, tried at Dublin, arrived in 1831 on ship "Bussorah Merchant".

Such was this estate in its heyday, but little now remains to remind us of its former glory. The old mill tower, still a district landmark, and a favourite study for artists and photographers, forms a. romantic link with the spacious days of last century. Built in the days of convict labour, it now seems a most fitting memorial to those who, by foresight, toil and enterprise, built a nation out of a penal settlement. RHASJ op cit - Christine Thomas

Wales. reached Port Arthur the ship Barwell in 1798. Between 1806 and 1815 he had a bakery in Sydney, and in 1811 he was granted a spirit licence and became owner of the Rose and Crown hotel at the corner off King and Castlereagh streets; eventually he acquired the greater part of lhe block bounded by King, Castlereagh, Market and Elizabeth streets. In 1818 he purchased a 400 acre property, named Mount Gilead in the Campbelltown district, later he acquired a number of neighbouring farms, and in1819 received a grant of a further 400 acres in exchange for part of: his Sydney block upon which Governor Macquarie built the Georgian School (now the site of a cinema and a store).

Rose owned a string of racehorses at Mount Gilead and ran a large number of cattle with which to supplv meat to the government stores.

He also had livery stable in Castlereagh Street, and owned coaches that operated between Sydney and Parramatta; in 1825 he received an order for

a grant of 600 acres .''in consideration of his public spirited and successful exertions in establishing mail coaches in the colony".

Rose was an early advocate of water conservation, and in 1825 constructcd a dam at Mount Gilead that is still (1955) in use. The New South Wales Calendar and General Post Office Directory of 1834 refers to "Mr Rose, who has been the first to construct a tank sufficiently capacious to secure him from the want of water in dry seasons". This seems to be the earliest use of the word "tank" as applied to water-storage dams in New South Wales.

In 1836 Rose built a windmill on his property, the tower of which was 60 feet high; it was used for grinding wheat until 1877. The tower still stands. but the sails were removed long ago.

Rose died at Mount Gilead on 3rd March 1837. He was married twice and had several children, including a son, Thomas, who became a barrister and was member for Argyle in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1891 to 1904

New South Wales Calendar and General Post Office Directory of 1834, 16.01.1999 - Pattrick Mould

Thomas Rose and Sarah Pye. He was the eldest son of Charles Henry Jacob Rose and

ROSE, THOMAS (d. 1837), baker, publican and water conservator, of Newport: Shropshire. England, was convicted of housebreaking at Shrewsbury on 19 March 1793 and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to transportation for life and he arrived at Sydney in the Barwell in May 1798. About 1804 he set up in Sydney as a baker which had been his former occupation. On 13 April 1806 he married Elisabeth whose father Thomas Bartlett had been a fellow-convict in the Barwell and whose mother Ann Bartlett had followed with her daughter in the NiIe in 1801. They had six children. In the month of his marriage he received a publican's licenee. He was conditionalIv pardorned on 4 June 1806, and on 1 December 1809 Lieut- Governor Paterson gave him an absolute pardon which Governor Macquarie later confirmed. and land at the corner of King and Castlereagh Streets, fronting what was then known as Chapel Row. There he had built a bakery, and along side it the Rose and Crown Inn, both of which were opened for business in 1810. He gradually increased his holdings in this part of town until he gained possession of the entire block now bounded by King, Elizabeth, Market and Castlereagh Streets. Together with Charles Thompson, another Sydney baker. Rose rented John Palmer's [q.v.] windmill from June 1813 to June 1814; next May he put his bakehouse on the market.

In 1816 his grant of forty acres in the Evan district, located for him in 1813, was cancelled, apparently because he had procured signatures to the petition against Macquarie, supposedly written by I. H. Bent and Beniamin Vale [qq.v.]; for the same reason he failed to retain his liquor licenee between 1817 and 1810. In 1819 he clashed with the governor again when Macquane decided to build St lames's parochial school on part of Rose's block; however, in exchange for the school site he was granted 300 acres on the main southern road east of Campbelltown. About the same time he bought a 400-acre farm on the Appin Road, named Mount Gilead, which had been originally granted to Reuben Uther [q.v.]; later he gradually added to this Campbelltown estate, which by 1828 was estimated at 2460 acres.

For some time Rose had been quite a public figure as a Sydney businessman, being a stockholder in the Bank of New South Wales, ,a trustee of the Sydney Public Free Grammar School, and treasurer of the Sydney Reading Room; he acted as clerk of the Sydney race-course until 1827, promoted the first races in Sydney and owned many successful race-horses.

On 1 Novcmhcr 1826 his wife died. and next year he moved to Mount Gilead. There he lived for the rest of his life and won fame for his experiments in water conservation. He had begun these on a small scale in 1824 and next year had built a larger dam, with a stone embankment, holding nearly 120 million cubic feet. In 1829 he built a smaller and cheaper dam near the main road for the relief of his hard-pressed neighbouts in the 1829 drought; later this so impressed Governor Bourke that in 1833 he gave the people of Campbelltown a plot of ground for building a reservoir by public subscription.

In July 1815 Rose asked the British Government for a free grant in acknowledgment of his services in supplying water to his neighbours; though this was refused. the undaunted Rose, next year built a sixty-foot windmill, all. of ironhark timber, including shaft and gear wheels.

the daughter of an old Baulkham Hills settler, bore him five children. He died on 3 March 1837 and was buried at Mount Gilead; later his remains were transferred to St Peter's, Campbelltown. He left a large estate, including farms on the Nepean, at Airds and Botany Bay, houses in Richmond and Windsor, as well as property in Market and Castlereagh Streets, Sydney, and the estate at Mount Gilead. His wife Sarah died on 20 June 1869.

Possessed of great drive, energy and an excellent business sense, Thomas Rose was one of those enterprising men who arrived in the colony as convicts and went on to win wealth and respectability in the tough economic society of their new land. He is remembered as a colourful figure in the early commercial and sporting life of Sydney, and as a pioneer of the Appin-Campbelltown district.

HRA (1), 16-18; Sydney Gazette, 13 Apt 1806, 17 Dec 1809, 8 Sept 1810, 16 Mar 1811. 27 July 1815, 12 May 1821, 9 Oct 1823; Australian. 15 luly 1826. 8 May 1835; Windsor and Richmoral Gazette, 14 Aug 1925; MS cat under T. Rose (ML). VIVIENNE PARSONS - From the Australian Dictionary of Biography, General Editor - Douglas Pike

At "Upper Minto' on August 5 1812 Reuben Uther received a 400 acre grant which he named Mount Gilead. The estate was purchased in October 1818 by Thomas Rose of Sydney who added to it 50 acres bought from J. J. Ware.

He added 104 acres near Schuldhan nearby whilst in compensation for surrendering a block of land on the north-east corner of Market and Castlereagh Streets, Sydney.

South of Campbelltown were the gate and road leading to Mt Gilead, the residence of Thomas Rose. The 1835 edition of the Calendar stated that Rose was the first to construct a tank large enough to secure the property from want of water in dry seasons the fine sheet of water being an ornament to the property. Beyond was the property of J. R. Hume, then the level stretch of the Appin Road which was used as the first racecourse: leading in to

tile village where there was a public house kept by Callaghan The road to Illawarra went off to the left and to the right the road led to Mrs Broughlon's and Broughton's Pass where the ford was dangerous, the bed of the river being large rocks where it was proposed to construct the south road.

Life in Campbelltown and Appin was described in her journal by Mrs Felton Matthews, wife of the surveyor. She travelled and camped with him when on surveys from January 1832 to 1839.