by R W Rathbone
David Hannam was born in the village of Holton in Somerset on 23rd June 1805, the eldest child and only son of Reuben Hannam and his wife, Elizabeth Hews.
Reuben Hannam was convicted of ‘larceny in a dwelling house” at the Taunton Assizes on 31st March, 1810 and sentence to death, a sentence which, on appeal, was commuted to transportation for life.
He arrived in Sydney on 20th September, 1811 aboard the convict transport “Admiral Gambier”. A brick and tile maker by trade, he was immediately put to work in the Government Brickworks then working at top pressure to meet the demands of the building boom created by the extensive programme of Governor Lachlan Macquarie.
He so impressed the Principal Superintendent of Convicts, Isaac Nichols and the Assistant Chaplain, William Cowper, with his industry that they supported his petition to Macquarie, in August, 1813, that he be allowed to bring to New South Wales, his wife and two children, still living in England in extremely straitened circumstances.
Macquarie, in turn, wrote to Under-Secretary Goulburn asking him to recommend to Earl Bathurst that they be put on the first available convict ship.
Elizabeth Hannam and her two children, David aged nearly ten and Charlotte aged seven, arrived in Sydney On the “Northampton” on 19th June, 1815.
Just before their reunion, on 9th June, 1815, Reuben Hannam was given a conditional pardon and in August the same year was promoted to be Overseer of the Government Brickworks at Brickfield Hill. He is credited with making the first sandstock bricks in Australia from a mixture of lime, ash and sand.
Over the next few years the family prospered and on 17th August,119, Reuben was given a grant of 100 acres of land at Airds (now Campbelltown). On 28th October 1821, he was granted a free and unconditional pardon and two years later became an Honorary Constable in the District of Campbelltown.
On 21st November, 1825, he was granted a further 100 acres of land on the banks of Wolli Creek near Cook’s River.
At the time of the 1828 Census, Reuben Hannam was living in Bathurst Street, Sydney and later became a substantial landowner in the city. For a number of years he was the licensee of an inn in Castlereagh Street, “The Sign of the Red Cow”.
On 15th November, 1825, Reuben Hannan had also obtained a grant of 60 acres of land adjacent to his Cook’s River property, for his son, David (which was not confirmed until August, 1833).
At St. Peter’s Church, Campbelltown on 17th March 1828, David, now 23 married Mary Masterton aged 17, the first white child born in the district of Airds.
Mary Masterton’s parents were of Protestant Irish stock and had arrived in the Colony in 1800 and 1803 respectively. With his new bride and her twelve year old brother, John, David Hannam set up house on his 60 acre grant, farming and raising pigs, poultry and cattle.
The 1828 Census also revealed that he was being assisted by three assignees, John Atson, James Curtis and James Rede.
In this peaceful rural setting, David and Mary Hannam raised a family of 12 children, 8 girls and 4 boys, the last of whom was born on 6th April, 1857. They ere named Reuben Junior, John, Elizabeth, Mary, Phillis, David Junior, James Australia, Charlotte, Sarah Jane, Catherine, Lydia and Louisa Ruth.
No doubt concerned at the lack of educational facilities for his own family, David Hannam, in 1858, gave half an acre of land from his father’s grant at the junction of today’s Hirst and Edward Streets to the Church of England for the erection of a church-school which, opened early in 1861.
It consisted of a single room 22′ long by 14′ wide built partly of stone and partly of slabs with a galvanised iron roof and an “asphalte” floor to combat the white ants. The first teacher was Mr Charles Kellett who depended entirely for his salary on the fees he collected from his pupils.
The first religious service in the building was held on 24th February 1861 with Rev. A H Bull M.A. incumbent of St. Peter’s Cook’s River, presiding. Some time after 1875 this structure was demolished and replaced by picturesque “Old St. David’s Church” which was sold to Rockdale Council in 1972.
David Hannam became a very prominent figure in the Arncliffe District leading many deputations to the Government for improved roads and educational facilities. He was a personal friend of local politician, John Lucas, whose campaign committees he often headed in the St. George section of the Canterbury Electorate. He was a prime mover in the incorporation of the district into the Municipality of West Botany in January 1871.
He died aged 67 on 5th September, 1872, and was buried in St. Paul’s Anglican Churchyard at Kogarah.
Mary Hannam continued to live on the property until 1878 when large portion of it was resumed for the construction of the Illawarra Railway Line. The remainder was subdivided in 1880 as the Wincanton Estate to give the Municipality Firth, Queen, Belmore, Done, Eden, Charles and Wickham Streets. In 1872, Mary Hannam had sold the site of the original West Botany Council Chambers fronting Rocky Point Road to the Council for 20 pounds.
Her son, David Junior, served for two years, 1872-73, as an alderman of the Council and in April, 1879 was appointed the Council’s first Inspector of Nuisances at a salary of pounds 10.0.0 per annum plus half the fines he collected.
Mary Hannam died at Beaconsfield Street, Bexley aged 82 on 10th August 1894.
David Senior’s sister, Charlotte, married builder, pastoralist and politician., Edward Flood, the illegitimate son of an Irish convict who rose to be one of the wealthiest and most influential men in the Colony. After bearing him 9 children he deserted her for Jane Oatley with whom he lived for years and by whom he fathered another three children, leaving his wife to die in poverty in Newtown on 5th May, 1879.
It is often assumed that the name Arncliffe became associated with the area because the Hannams had originated in that tiny Yorkshire village. The Hannams were, in fact, West Country folk from around the village of Wincanton in Somerset. According to Mrs Mary Hannam who was interviewed by a correspondent of the St. George’s Advocate in 1893, the name was given to the district by Newtown surveyor, William Meadows Brownrigg, a, close personal friend of the Hannams’ neighbour, Alexander Brodie Spark.
This article was first published in the May 1981 edition of our magazine.
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i was very interested to read about david hannam i think i am related to this family as my grandmother on my late mothers side of family was a hannam thanks robert tattersall