James Ruse

About​

James Ruse (1759–1837) was a First Fleet convict who very quickly became a settler due his farming experience. With the colony struggling to grow enough food, Governor Arthur Phillip gave Ruse land at Rose Hill, near Parramatta, to test whether a settler could successfully support himself through farming. Ruse proved that crops could be grown successfully and became the first person to receive a land grant in New South Wales. He later farmed on the Hawkesbury River, although flooding caused him serious financial difficulties.

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Selected excerpts
November 1790 - The account of Watkin Tench

I next visited a humble adventurer, who is trying his fortune here. James Ruse, convict, was cast for seven years at Bodmin assizes in August 1782. He lay five years in prison and on board the Dunkirk hulk at Plymouth, and then was sent to this country. When his term of punishment expired, in August 1789, he claimed his freedom, and was permitted by the governor, on promising to settle in the country, to take, in December following, an uncleaned piece of ground with an assurance that, if he would cultivate it, it should not be taken from him. Some assistance was given him to fell the timber, and he accordingly began. His present account to me was as follows:

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"I was bred a husbandman, near Launcester in Cornwall. I cleared my land as well as I could, with the help afforded me. The exact limit of what ground I am to have, I do not yet know; but a certain direction has been pointed out to me, ın which I may proceed as fast as I can cultivate. I have now an acre and a half in bearded wheat, half an acre in maize, and a small kitchen garden. On my wheat land I maize, and a small kitchen garden. On my wheat land I sowed three bushels of seed, the produce of this country, broad cast. I expect to reap about twelve or thirteen bushels.

I know nothing of the cultivation of maize, and cannot therefore guess so well at what I am likely to gather. I sowed part of my wheat in May, and part in June. That sown in May has thriven best. My maize I planted in the latter end of August, and the beginning of September. My land I prepared thus: having burnt the fallen timber off the ground, I dug in the ashes, and then hoed it up, never doing more than eight, or perhaps nine, rods in a day; by which means it was not like the government farm, just scratched over, but properly done. Then I clod-moulded it, and dug in the grass and weeds. This I think almost equal to ploughing. I then let it lie as long as I could, exposed to air and sun; and, just before I sowed my seed, turned it all up afresh. When I shall have reaped my crop, I purpose to hoe it again, and harrow it fine, and then sow it with turnip seed, which will mellow and prepare it for next year. My straw I mean to bury in pits, and throw in with it everything which I think will rot and turn to manure. I have no person to help me at present but my wife, whom I married in this country; she is industrious. The governor, for some time, gave me the help of a convict man, but he is taken away. Both my wife and myself receive our provisions regularly at the store, like all other people. My opinion of the soil of my farm is that it 1s middling; neither good or bad. I will be bound to make it do with the aid of manure, but without cattle it will fail.

The greatest check upon me is the dishonesty of the convicts who, in spite of all my vigilance, rob me almost every night."

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March 1791 ~An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Vo 1 (1798), by Colonel David Collins

"...Some time in this month, James Ruse, the first settler in this country, who had been upon his ground about fifteen months, having got in his crop of corn, declared himself desirous of relinquishing his claim to any further provisions from the store, and said that he was able to support himself by the produce of his farm. He had shown himself an industrious man; and the governor, being satisfied that he could do without any further aid from the stores, consented to his proposal, and informed him that he should be forthwith put in possession of an allotment of thirty acres of ground in the situation he then occupied..."

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15 Jun 1827 - SUPREME COURT.—(Yesterday.) - Trove

SUPREME COURT

Bushel v. Rose.

This was an action brought for a trespass. The parties in this case, two very old settlers at Wilberforce...

A number of very old inhabitants of the Colony were called as witnesses, to prove the boundary marks between the plaintiff and defendant's land. One of the witnesses was an old man named Ruse, who in the course of his evidence said, he was the first British subject who landed in New Holland, when Governor Hunter, whom he carried from the ship to the shore, came to it...

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14 May 1870 - THE COMIC HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA. - Trove

James Ruse was parodied in Sydney Punch as being brow-beaten and afraid of his wife, Elizabeth, referred to as "Molly". In the story, Ruse's wife is portrayed as an intimidating woman who dominates her husband. Ruse runs to Governor Phillip's house with his wife chasing him and pleads for protection. The satire gives a ridiculous alternative explanation for an actual event: instead of Ruse giving up government rations because his farming experiment had succeeded and he had become self-sufficient, he supposedly did it because Phillip had saved him from his formidable wife. (Elizabeth was a strong woman who kept the farm going while her husband was at sea. She later held land in her own right.)​​

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19 Jan 1895 - James Ruse, the Pioneer Hawkesbury Farmer. - Trove

The grave of James Ruse, the pioneer Australian farmer, to whom reference was

made in the GAZETTE last week, and who occupied the farm now in possession of the Messrs Hannabus, is located in Campbelltown R.C. Cemetery. The following is an accurate copy of the inscription on his tombstone, and is furnished us by Mr W.C. Pinnock, of Parramatta : Gloria in axcelsis. Secred (e)

To the memrey

of James Ruse who

depated this life

Sept. 5th in the year of

Houre Lord 1837. Natef

of Cornwell, and arived

in this Coleney by the

forst fleet, aged 77.

My mother rereared me tendrly

With me she took much paines

And when I arived in this coelney

I sowd the forst grain and now

With my Hevenly Father I hope

For ever to remain.

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30 Apr 1895 - The First Australian Settler. - Trove

James Ruse was the first man who was given a grant of land in Australia, the area 30 acres, at Parramatta, N S.W. Promised 30th March, 1791, the grant was issued 22nd February, 1792. The Governor was justified in this grant to Ruse. A hut was built- for him ; seeds, implements of agriculture — a hoe — and a small quantity of live stock were provided, with clothes and provisions for twelve months As an incentive to be industrious he was promised the 30 acres as per grant In November, 1790, he had an acre - and a half in "bearded wheat," half an acre in maize,

and a small kitchen garden. He expected 8 bushels per acre. His mode of tillage was to burn off the timber, dig in the ashes, and hoe the ground, about 9 roods a day, properly done ; then he "clod-moulded it, and dug in the grass and weeds. Just before I

sowed my seed I turned it all up afresh."

In February 1791, he was independent and declined to receive any further help — we want more of this true pluck at this time — being able to support himself. The next Christmas Governor Phillip reported, "Ruse had taken a wife, a child was born both of whom he wishes to take off the store." The grantee evidently was a man of grit and an independent spirit. The Governor did not fail to point out the success of this man. Ruse died in 1S37, and was buried in St. John's Churchyard, Campbelltown.

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27 Jun 1896 - Correspondence. - Trove

Correspondence.

Early Colonial Records.

To THE Editor. Sir,-You have frequently referred to James Ruse as the first Australian farmer, and I think you have credited him with being the first Hawkesbury farmer also. Perhaps the following information, which can be considered reliable, will settle the matter, and prove of interest to many of your readers. It is taken from the Historical records of NSW, and appears in a document, being an official letter, dated 29th April, 1794, from Lieutenant Governor Grose to the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, an English Statesman. With this letter he enclosed a plan showing the "First Farms on the Hawkesbury," all of which are numbered. He writes :-" I have settled on the banks of the Hawkesbury 22 Settlers, who seem very much pleased with their farms. They describe the soil as particularly rich, and inform me that whatever they have planted has grown in the greatest luxuriance." The owners of these farms (the first settlers on the Hawkesbury)are described in the plan as follows :

1 Giles Moore

2 Danl. Barnett

3 W. Powson

4 J. Butler

5 T. Sowell

6 J. Rous

7 C. Williams

8 J. Wimbow

9 W. Snailham

10 J. Acres

11 W. Douglass

12 J. Wright

13 J. Feudlow

14 Peter Bond

15 J. Owen

16 E. Cunningham

17 R. Davis

18 J. Roberts

19 Thos. Saunders

20 J. Webb

21 J. Welsted

22 Thos. Caldwell

On the plan the farms of Moore, Barnett. Pawson and Butler are shown as being on the McGrath's Hill side of South Creek; J. Rous's farm was situated at the junction of South Creek and the Hawkesbury River (now Hannabus's farm), and T. Howell's was directly at the rear of this : the other farms shown on the plan all face the Hawkesbury, adjoining No. 6 (Rous's) in rotation, all being situated in what is known as Pitt Reach... In a later dispatch,

dated 31st August, 1794, Lieutenant Governor Grose, writing to the same English statesman, says :-" The settlers placed on the banks of the Hawkesbury, being 70 in number, are doing exceedingly well. The ground they have already in cultivation has

all the appearance of bearing better wheat than has yet been: grown in the colony; I have caused a very good road to be made

from Sydney to the banks of the Hawkesbury, by which we discover that the distance by land is much less than was expected. An officer, who is by no means considered to be particularly' active, undertook for a trifling wager to walk there from Sydney in nine hours, and with great ease to himself performed a journey in eight hours and; two minutes which formerly required an exertion of some days to accomplish."

It will be seen from the above quotation that in the space of a few months the number of settlers had increased by 48, and communication, with Sydney by a good road had been established. Looking over the same records, I find that the James

Ruse you frequently refer to was undoubtedly the first Australian farmer, and must have been a man of independent spirit, to refuse Government assistance. Ruse first settled at Parramatta, entering upon his farm of 80 acres on November 21, 1789, but did not receive his grant officially until March 30, 1791. Ruse afterwards disposed of his farm, and went to the Hawkesbury. It is generally understood that he occupied Hannabus's farm. This is no doubt correct, for his name, in conjunction with another farmer named Williams, frequently

occurs in history, and the latter's farm (No. 7) adjoined the one originally owned by Rous (No. 6), and it is probable that he

parted with it to Ruse.

-Yours, &c., YELDAP. East Melbourne, June 22

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James Ruse senior disappears from NSW records​

Did he sail to Cornwall and return on the Sydney Cove?

What we have: James disappears from the normal NSW record after 1801 and is back by August 1809:

May 1801 — James is associated with an agreement apprenticing his son James junior to Kable & Underwood. After this, the ADB says James' name appears on none of the available settler lists for the decade. Australian Dictionary of Biography

1802: A secondary source says James sold 20 acres in 1802. If the deed required his presence, it could shorten the possible overseas window. 

1806 — Elizabeth is recorded farming independently at the Hawkesbury; James isn't mentioned. Australian Dictionary of Biography

1801–06: Elizabeth's relationship with James Kiss develops; specialist DNA researchers explicitly describe James Ruse as “absent for some time”.

1807 — The vessel Sydney Cove was associated with Kable & Underwood, the firm to which James's son had been apprenticed as a mariner. This ship visited Falmouth (Cornwall) on 11 January 1807 and returned to Port Jackson on 18 June 1807.

1807 - The Sydney Cove left Port Jackson for England in October 1807 with James Underwood aboard. Underwood reached London in May 1808, bought out Simeon Lord's share in the vessel, and then returned to NSW aboard the Sydney Cove, arriving in April 1809.

1809 — James successfully requests land at Bankstown, saying recent Hawkesbury floods had caused him heavy losses. The ADB doesn't give the month, however the floods occurred 23–27 May 1809 and 29 July–early August AFTER the Sydney Cove returned from England.

August 1809 — James is in the Hawkesbury, serving as District Constable and receiving government rations. Convict Records

1809 - Campbelltown City Council says he sold his Pitt Town Bottoms grant in 1809 and obtained the Bankstown grant in 1809, but gives no month or day for either transaction.

January 1810 — James submits a memorial to the colonial government, another firmly identifiable record.

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​From, Hawkesbury Settlement Revealed

"...The Ruses sold their farm (at Parramatta) for only 40 pounds according to the Judge Advocate, and intended to get a ship back to England... Ruse became a labourer again... Collins asserts that 'Williams and Ruse, having got rid of the money' and thus unable to return home to Britain, were forced to seek help from Acting Governor Grose and to each be given a new grant...

The debts of small farmers were high for many reasons, including market forces, and Ruse's debts by 1797 (the first date we have) were higher than many others. This may mean that, apart from the possibility he was gambling, he could have been trading or speculating in goods or spirits. Either way, selling up would have been a way out of debt, giving rise to hopes of leaving, but in reality resulting in an admission that the remainder was not enough to pay for the food provisions required by a ship's captain for passage... Ruse and Williams spend equal care developing their farms equally at Hawkesbury as they had at Parramatta. Neither was convicted of any crime during their days in the colony, and the gambling indictment brough against Ruse in 1797 appears to have been dropped, as no record of conviction survives and later he was allowed to become a constable.

"...(John) Stogdell had been purchasing many other 30 acre farms on the Sydney side of the creek. Less than two months after the acquisition of Stogdell Farm in 1798, James Ruse finalised sale, receiving 300 pounds for Ruse Farm. Situated on the creek directly opposite Bond and Stogdell Farms, this first Hawkesbury enterprise of James Ruse was a particularly strategic acquisition for the Stogdell-Palmer masterplan...

Ann Everett and Elizabeth Perry/Parry

Ann Everett had been convicted in 1787 for a large theft of household linen, clothing and other smaller objects. She was transported for seven years. For a similar crime, Elizabeth Perry received the same sentence in that year. It was sharing life on board the Lady Juliana in the Second Fleet which began their life-long friendship. In July 1790, Ann married James Richards, and just six weeks later Elizabeth married James Ruse, both First Fleeters.

The two James were already well-acquainted from their voyage to the colony in 1787 aboard the Scarborough.

It was probably their common Cornish backgrounds that drew them together. The Richards followed the Ruses to Mulgrave Place, sometime between April and August

1794. Their farm was located quite close to Ruse Farm in the main reaches of settlement, but on the other bank of the river. It mattered little as small craft became plentiful.

Details are sketchy, but it would seem that James Ruse, having sold both his Hawkesbury grants, and losing a North Richmond purchase, tried his hand as a member of a colonial sealing crew around 1806. Some have suggested that the sailor was his son James, but it is probably the father, for the muster records of 1806 point strongly to this (NB further research indicates this mariner was indeed James and Elizabeth's son James, who was indented as an apprentice mariner at the age of eight). 

In one instance they refer to assigned convict, Cornelius Teague, as being indented to Elizabeth Ruse. Other entries in the name of Elizabeth (as Rouse) show her alone running a purchased Hawkesbury farm with the children.

But she was not without assistance, and contrary to some conjecture she had probably not parted from James. Her fifteen acres were purchased from their friends the Richards sometime after 1802, like the remainder of the Richards farm which had been bought by Charles Daily.

In 1806 this northern-bank Ruse land was still cultivated by their three labourers whilst Elizabeth was actually living at that time 'with' the Richards on the five acres Richards rented from Thomas Eather beside Rickabys Creek.

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09 Sep 1899 - HISTORY OF PARRAMATTA AND DISTRICT. - Trove

(Articles published in Victorian-era newspapers are useful for them being within living memory of the children of First Fleeters, furnishing more personal details. Conversely, memories can also prove faulty.)

HISTORY OF PARRAMATTA AND DISTRICT.

WRITTEN FOR "THE ARGUS" BY H. W. H. HUNTINGTON.

No. VII.

The First Australian Harvest Reaped at Parramatta in December 1789

In the course of the month of December, 1789, the first harvest reaped in Australia was got in from the fields in our township. It produced upwards of two hundred bushels of wheat, sixty bushels of barley, a small quantity of flax, Indian corn, and some oats, all of which was preserved for seed. The Governor's farm at Sydney had been sown only with barley, and it returned scarcely 25 bushels. At this time the

people were living on starvation allowance, the ration of provisions hitherto issued having been reduced in November to two-thirds of the full allowance. Luckily the district grew an abundance of vegetables,

and wild game and kangaroos were plentiful, otherwise the settlers would have been left in a famished condition, and the people unable to work. On Christmas Day, 1789, Superintendent Dodd sent to Sydney a boat-load of vegetables.

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09 Sep 1899 - James Ruse our First Settler in 1789 - Trove

In July, 1789, several convicts signified that their respective terms of transportation had expired, and desired to be restored to the privileges of freemen. The Governor told them that by some unaccountable oversight the documents, giving all information of their sentences, were left in England by the masters of the ships which brought them to the colony. This was by no means satisfactory, and the Governor ordered affidavits to be prepared as to their statements, but he ordained they must work until he heard from England. Among the petitioners was one, James Ruse...

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09 Sep 1899 - Ruse's Farm Described and Occupied in November, 1789. - Trove

On the 21st November, 1789, James Ruse took possession of his hut and on and a half acre farm, together with the tools and implements necessary for cultivating the ground, with a proportion of grain to sow it, and a small quantity of live stock to begin with. He was to receive twelve months' ration from the public store, but it was not a ration that bore any proportion to the labour which his situation required. Nevertheless, he resolved to be industrious and to surmouny every difficulty that might beset his path.

The Governor named the farm, "Experiment Farm," and promised Ruse to increase it to thirty acres if he behaved well.

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09 Sep 1899 - The Exact Locality of Ruse's Farm in our Town. - Trove

Incidentally, it may be stated that on the 21st February, 1791, Ruse refused to

receive any more support from the public store, as he found he could live on the

produce of his farm. On March 30th, 1891, the Governor increased the farm to 30 acres, with a promise of a grant as soon as Ruse's conviction papers arrived.

Early in 1792 the indents of the first fleeters arrived, and in February, 1792, Ruse received the first grant of land made in Australia. In this historic deed, dated 22nd February, 1789, Ruse's "Experiment Farm" is described as lying on the south of the Barrack ponds at Parramatta, the said 30 acres to be held by him, the said James Ruse, his heirs and assigns free from all fees, taxes, quit rents, and other acknowledgements, for the space of ten years from the date of these presents."

The Governor signed the grant in the presence of Lieutenant Johnstone, Commissary John Palmer, Doctor John White, the principal surgeon, and Captain David Collins, the Governor's secretary, all of whom affixed their signatures to the grant deed. The exact locality of the grant is within the town of Parramatta, and it extends from Clay Cliff Creek, near Hassall-street, down to Crown-street, near Beckett's or Duck Creek. It fronts nearly the whole length of Harris-street, and takes in Alice, Weston and Crown-streets, and is but a short distance from the Harris Park station. It has long been in the possession of the Harris family, and the homestead is now occupied by Mr. Ritchie. In July, 1792, Governor Phillip pardoned Elizabeth Perry, who arrived in 1790, as Ruse had married her, which, with her own prudent conduct and Ruse's industry, had won the certificates of pardon and many indulgences from their being the first settlers.

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23 Sep 1899 - Romantic Adventures of James Ruse, our First Settler. - Trove

On 25th February, 1791, James Ruse notified the Governor that he was able to maintain himself, without any support from the store. According to a confession by Ruse, he was cast for seven years at Bodmin Assizes on the 29th July, 1782. He lay five years in prison and on board the Dunkirk hulk at Plymouth, and then was sent to this country, when his term of punishment expired in July, 1789. He then claimed his freedom, and on 21st November, 1789, was granted 30 acres in the heart of our town. He was bred a husbandman in Launceston, in Cornwall.

His first acre was sown on the margin of Clay Cliff Creek with bearded wheat, and he also had half-an-acre in maize and a vegetable garden. He reaped eight bushels of wheat to the acre. With his wife and child he occupied a comfortable brick house and had four breeding sows and 30 fowls in March, 1791. In May, 1791, the Governor ordered the storekeeper to furnish him with 20 pounds of salt provisions, as he was reported to be starving. Ruse assured the Governor he had no need of his bounty, as he had a bag of flour, a quantity of Indian corn, and some stores. Owing to the failure of his crop in 1793, Ruse sold his "Experiment Farm" to Dr. John Harris, who built a cottage on it, which he called "Experiment Cottage." Ruse's original grant deed is in the possession of a resident of Parramatta. A certified copy of it is in the Land Titles Office and it has a conveyance of the land to Dr. Harris endorsed on the back of the deed. In 1794 Ruse was granted a thirty-acre farm on the east side of the Hawkesbury River, which, after many years' cultivation he sold and finally, in the twenties, settled on some land in the Liverpool district. On September 5th, 1837, Ruse died at Campbelltown, and was buried in St. John's Churchyard in that town. Here is a copy of the quaint epitaph (with all its bad spelling) on his tombstone.

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS.

Sacred to the Memory of

JAMES RUSE,

Who departed this life Spt. 5,

in the yeare of houre Lord, 1837.

Nativ of Cornwall,

and arived in this coloney by the fourst fleet.

Aged 77.

My mother reread me tenderly,

With me she took much paines,

And when I arived in this coloney

I sowed the forst grain and now

With my hevenly Father

I hope for ever to remain.​

 

27 May 1908 - THE FIRST FLEET. - Trove

​THE FIRST FLEET - Inscription on a tomb stone quoted by Mary Salmon in an interesting illustrated article in the 'Town and Country Journal' on Campbelltown in days gone by.

'To the Memory of James Ruse, who Departed this Life Sept. S. 1n the year of Houre Lord, '1837, Natef of Cornwall, and arrived in this colony by the First Fleet, aged 77. My mother Reread me Tenderly, with 'me she

Took much Paines, and when I arrived in this coloney 1 sowd the forest grain, and now with my Hevenly Father I hope For Ever to Remain.'

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25 May 1912 - "JAMES RUSE." - Trove

...The earliest, history of the New South Wales settlement records that on more than one 'occasion serious 'shortage of food existed, and famine threatened all. from the Governor to the humblest.

...This the published official records of New South Wales so abiy compiled by my friend, the late James, Bonwick, FRGS, as archivist in England for the New South Wales Government, fully prove. The enforced resignation, conscious of his failing health., and his departure for England in December 1792, left the colony much the poorer through the close of his very capable and honorable years of administration. Governor Phillip did much to encourage settlement and cultivation of the soil, if only to find occupation for prisoners as their periods of exile expired, and so also, to provide food for the people. It is interesting to note that the subject of this article, James Ruse, was the first settler... (SEE LINK FOR FULL ARTICLE - print not good and needs to be read on the page)

WALTER- M. HITCHCOCK

London April 1912.

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27 Oct 1923 - OLD PARRAMATTA. - Trove

OLD PARRAMATTA.

HISTORY Or SETTLEMENT AT, AND IN THE VICINITY OF PARRAMATTA, FROM 1788 TO 1800, WITH NOTES ON THE PIONEERS.

(By JAS. JERVIS, A.S.T.C.)

'Paper read before the Parramatta Historical Society on October 16th, 1923.

Part II.

JAMES RUSE.

The presence of a party of ten convicts at Rosehlll in November, 1788, has already been mentioned. Amongst the party was

doubtless James Ruse, the first settler.

Frequent references to this man occur in the records of the time. Phillip, in a letter to Lord Grenville, dated 'November 5th, 1791 (His Records, N.S.W., Vol. I.,p. 536) mentions that: "The first settler was a convict, whose time being expired, an hut was built, and one acre and a half of ground cleared for him at Parramatta;.he entered on his farm of thirty acres on: the. 21st November, 1789; and was supported' from the public store until the 25th Felhrnary, 1791; when he declined receivlng any further support, being then able to maintain himself. He has since married, and has a child, both of whom he wishes to take off the public store next Christmas.". Although Ruse was in occupation of his land in November, 1789, no grant was issued until 30th March, 1791. Governor Phillip was uncertaln to what form the grant should take, and he awaited instructlons on this point: hence the delay, in the issue of the grant.

A copy of Ruse's deed is to be found in Vol. II of the "History of New South Wales, from the Records."

Clay Cliff Creek, or the Barrack Ponds, as :it was called in the deed, formed the northern boundary. It is generally believed that the boundary was a line coinciding with the modern Hassal-street, but this Is incorrect. The other boundaries are not difficult to trace they are: 'Good-street on the east; Harris-street on the west, and Brisbane-street on the south.

In the deed; the grant is named "Experiment Farm."

...In March, 1791, Ruse reported that he was able to support himself 'by the produce of. his farm and relinquished his claim to any further provisions from the store. Shortly afterwards it was report-ed to Governor Phillip that Ruse was starvlng, and instructions were given to supply him with food. Ruse stated that the rumor was false, and that he had a sufflcient stock of food.

In December, 1791, Tench again visited Ruse and inspected his farm. He was then livlng in a "comfortable brick house built for him by the Governor." It is imposslble to fix definitely the site of this house, but the writer is of [the] opinion that It was close to the present "Experiment Farm" cottage, which was built by Surgeon Harris some years later. Tench states: "He (Ruse-J.J.T.) has eleven acres and a half In cultivation, and several more which have been cleared by convlcts in their leisure hours, on condltion of receiving the first year's crop.

He means to cultivate little beside maize. Wheat is so much less productive. Of the culture of vineyards and tobacco he is ignorant, and with great good sense he declared that he would not quit the path he knew: for an uncertainty. His livestock consists of four breeding sows, and thirty fowls. He has been takeri from the store (that is, has supplied himself wlth provlsions for some months past, and his wife Is to be taken off at Christmas, at which time, if he. deems himself able to maintain a convlct laborer, one is to be given him."

Towards the end of 1793, Ruse disposed of Experiment Farm to Surgeon John Harris, who had been: granted land on the western boundary of Ruse's farm, for the sum of forty pounds. It was said that Ruse was dissatisfied with his crop, and that he intended to proceed to England. 'Thls intention, however, was not carried into effect, for in the next year he became a Hawkesbury Pioneer. His

grant was at the Junction of South Creek and the Hawkesbury. The South Creek was, in fact, known as Ruse's Creek for some time. The date of the grant was 1st June, 1794, although the land was occupied in January, 1794. Collins mentions the event (p. 213, Whitcombe' and Tombs' edition): -- "January, 1794: Another division of settlers was added to the list of those already established. Williams and Ruse having got rid of the money, which they had respectively received for their farms, were permitted wlth some others, to open ground on the banks of the Hawkesbury, beginning with much spirit and forming to themselves very sanguine hopes of success. At the end of the month they had cleared several acres and were in some forwardness with a few huts. The natives had not given them any interruption. A later grant in. the district was issued by Lt. Governor Paterson, but was surrendered in 1809 for a new grant of 100 acres. The date of the latter grant is.1st January, 1810. The new grant was situated on Salt Pan Creek in the, Bankstown district."

Between the surrender of the Hawkesbury grant and the Issue of the Bankstown deed, Ruse decided to leave the colony, and his name appears in the Sydney Gazette for the 7th September 1810, as an intending passenger in the Aurora. This intention was not carried into effect.

The last grant obtained by Ruse was one of 100 acres on 31st. August, 1819, and it adjolned Marsden's and Palfrey's

Farms. Owing to pressure of time, I have not located it, but it is, in all probability west of Riverstone.

Ruse and his wife, who died on 27th May, 1836, aged 67 years, are both buried in St. John's R.C. Cemetery at Campbelltown...

A daughter of Ruse's; named Kennedy, is also buried in the same plot.

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07 Sep 1937 - LETTERS - Trove

​LETTERS

JAMES RUSE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD.

Sir - In answer to the Curator of the Technological Museum, may I ask a little space. The claim that James Ruse sowed the first grain In New South Wales needs some explanation. The words on his tombstone are, "Sowed the first grain, but they do not mean that was done at the Experiment Farm, Parramatta, as is sometimes claimed. Governor Phillip, in February, 1788, chose Farm Cove as the site of the first farm. As no overseers or instructors in the art of farming had been sent with the fleet, he was obliged to place his own personal servant, Henry Edward Dodd, In charge of this farm immediately under his own supervision.

James Ruse was one of the men employed under Dodd, and when the ground was prepared he was given the task of sowing the wheat (Royal Australian Historical Society's Journal, vol. XVII., part II., page 112). The seed had so deteriorated on the long voyage that very little germinated, the same poor result occurring at Norfolk Island. So, as flour and other stores were beginning to run short, Governor Phillip decided to send the Sirius (Captain Hunter) back to the Cape for fresh supplies, also seeds of wheat and Indian corn.

By this time better farming land had been found at Parramatta. The little farm at Farm Cove remained under Governor Phillip's care, and Dodd was put in charge of the men sent to commence work on the second farm. This land proved productive, and when the new seed was sown, and fields of wheat and corn promising a harvest for next year's sowing, it seemed a splendid idea to get individual settlers on the land, so as to relieve pressure on the Government stores.

The feeding of his people was over the most worrying charge all through Governor Phillip's term of office - store ships did not always arrive when expected. James Ruse, as a reward for industry, was the first settler chosen. He was put in possession of land near Parramatta in March, 1789. A hut was built for him, one and a half acres of land cleared, with a promise of more should he succeed. He was given necessary tools, grain for seed for the first year's sowing, two pigs, and six hens, also the assistance of one man, and of course supplied with food from the Government store. Ruse did so well in spite of many drawbacks that he was able to take himself, his wife, and child off the stores in 1791, and on February 22, 1792, was issued to him the first land grant given in Australia "Thirty acres of land, in one lot, to be known by the name of Experiment Farm, at Parramatta" (a copy of this deed can be seen at the Deeds Office, Sydney).

James Ruse lived to prove the high opinion Governor Phillip had of him, and afterwards became one of the first settlers in the Windsor district. Where he used the primitive plough mentioned it would be difficult to say, or at what date. It is placed on record in volume II., page 510, His. Rec. N.S.W., that Captain John Macarthur introduced the first plough to Australia, at Elizabeth Farm, Parramatta, "drawn sometimes by oxen, and at others by horses." While James Ruse remained at Parramatta he was a near neighbour, and doubtless profited by the example set for better and easier tilling of the land than by the use of spade and hoe. We can well be proud of our first settler.

I am, etc.,

MINNIE LEE.

Sydney, Sept. 4.

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The Founders of Australia - By Mollie Gillen

RUSE, James (1759-1837)

James Ruse was sentenced to death on 29 June 1782 at Bodmin, Cornwall, his age given as 27 three years later, for breaking and entering a dwelling house in the small hours and stealing two silver watches and other goods. Reprieved to seven years transportation to Africa, he was sent on 7 December 1783 to the Wood Street Compter in London, where over the next couple of years the keeper, James Kirby, had to administer a good deal of medication (purging salts, bark concoctions, liniment) against conditions in the dank dungeons. Ruse was never on the Dunkirk hulk at Plymouth, which was not established as a prison hulk until June 1784 (contradicts journal of Watkin Tench).

Ruse was born on 9 August 1759, baptised at Lawhitton, near Launceston, Cornwall, on the 26th. His parents were Richard Ruse and Elizabeth Curne... In 1779 James Ruse, aged 19, married Susannah Norcott aged 33. Two children followed: Elizabeth (1779) and Richard (1781)...

When the plan to send convicts to West Africa was in motion early in 1785 Ruse was one of the people sent to the Ceres hulk in the Thames on 19 April in readiness. He was transferred to the Censor hulk on 1 June 1786, and from there was sent to Portsmouth for embarkation on the Scarborough transport on 27 February 1787...

Well aware that his term of transportation was up in July 1789, Ruse asked the governor, Arthur Phillip for a land grant, as he had been bred to farming. Phillip had (inexcusably) been sent to NSW with no information about the convicts, either their trade, if any, or the length of their sentence. He did, however, give Ruse an allotment in November that year at Rose Hill (Parramatta), confirming it when Ruse had shown industrious attention to his work and courage in tacing difficulties. Governor Phillip ordered an acre of ground to be cleared for him and a hut constructed. In November 1790, Watkin Tench visited his farm: Ruse had sown one and a half acres in bearded wheat in May and June and half an acre in maize in August and September and kept a small kitchen garden.

With help in the form of provisions, stock and implements, he was ready by February 1791 to maintain himself and the wife he had married at Parramatta on 5 September 1790 (Elizabeth Parry or Perry, Lady Juliana age given as 21 on 1789 embarkation list). His grant of 30 acres is dated 30 March 1791 and in February the following year the superintendent reported the farm to be “very good".

By December, Tench reported, he had more than eleven acres cultivated, mostly maize, with four sows and thirty fowls.

By August 1793 he had been able to sell 600 bushels of maize to the commissary for £150. Ruse was disillusioned, however, and complained that the quality of the ground was poor. He sold the farm to Surgeon John Harris for £40, hoping to pay his passage back to England. Having spent the money, he then requested another grant, and was given 30 acres in the newly opened area of the Hawkesbury and another grant of 40 acres in June 1791. In 1798, Ruse sold his original 30 acre Hawkesbury grant, by then well developed, for £300.

References to Ruse for the next few years are scanty: a charge of running a gambling school, in court over a debt to Thomas Smith of £165, the purchase, mortgage and sale (in 1802) of 20 acres at the Hawkesbury. Ruse appears to have worked as a seaman for several years, although he may be confused in these records with his son of the same name.

(NB The first reference in the Sydney Gazette to a James Ruse sailing was made in February 1804 on the schooner Endeavour - James junior would have been only 10 years old at the time).

His wife was listed in 1806 as a landholder at the Hawkesbury owning seven hogs and with 15 acres held by purchase supporting herselt, four children and three free men.

After losses from floods in this area, Ruse received a grant of 100 acres at Bankstown in 1809, and ten years later another 100 acres at Riverstone. Both grants were sold to the Reverend Samuel Marsden in 1819 and 1823 respectively.

In 1820 Ruse was reported as having had 130 acres by grant, 75 acres by purchase, with only 45 then held, and he was tenant to W. Baker for 15 acres. Of the 45 acres (at Windsor), 20 were cleared: at this time he had three horses, two cows and seven hogs.

His land holding was to decline even further by 1825 to ten acres around Windsor, with ten hogs.

In 1828 Ruse was listed as an overseer employed by Captain Richard Brooks at Lower Minto, age given then as 68. He cultivated four acres and owned one horse and three cattle.

Ruse's children born in NSW included: Rebecca (1791-1792), James (1793), Elizabeth (1794), Susannah (c1797), Mary (1798) and Ann. His wife died in May 1836. Ruse died on 5 September 1837 following conversion two years earlier to the Roman Catholic faith. He was buried in the Catholic cemetery at Campbelltown. His headstone, believed to have been carved by Ruse himself reads:

"Sacred to the memory of James Ruse who departed this life Sep 5 in the year of Houre Lord 1837. Natef of Cornwell and arived in this coleney by the Forst Fleet, aged 77. My mother reread me tenderley With me she took much paines And when / arived in this coelney I sowd the forst grain and now with my henly father I hope for ever to remain."