Obituaries Australia

It is indeed with much regret that the Gazette has to record the death at 5 Day-street, Drummoyne (Sydney), of Mrs. Mary Dando. The deceased lady was buried at the Methodist' portion of the Field of Mars cemetery, Ryde, on the 19th March 1930.

Mrs. Dando was a descendant of very old Hawkesbury and Windsor families. In the paternal line, the deceased lady was a descendant of Mr. Thomas Chaseling, who came to New South Wales in the year 1791, at the age of 20 years. As there are three lines or branches of the Chaselings, and quite a number of Thomas Chaselings lie in rest in the Hawkesbury district burial grounds, I wish to point out particularly that Mr. Thomas Chaseling (of 1791) was one of two brothers, originally soldiers or guards at Toongabbie Stockade. The brother was George Chaseling (I.), the original surname being spelled CHESTLAND, and at other times CHASLAND, and other spellings as well, as various newspapers have recorded same from 1803 upwards.

Mr. Thomas Chaseling's (I.) first wife is buried at St. Thomas' cemetery, Sackville, where a stone, is inscribed: —

'Sacred
to the memory of MRS.
'ELIZABETH CHASELING,'
the beloved wife of Thomas
Chaseling, senior,
who departed this life
in the year of our Lord,
October 28th, 1828
Aged 33 years.'

The late Mrs. Mary Dando's great grand father, the pioneer soldier and later a farmer-settler of 1791, Mr. Thomas Chaseling (I), after his wife Elizabeth's death, married secondly, Miss Margaret Rose, and the worthy couple lie on the hillside at St. John's churchyard, Wilberforce. Mr. Thomas Chaseling (I.) died at his residence Pitt Town, near Windsor, on the 27th November, 1847, in his 76th year.

His obituary notice in the S.M. Herald, says:— :'He was greatly, respected by all. He died at 76 years of age, 56 years of which he was a resident of this colony (New South Wales), and leaves a numerous family to lament their loss.'

A gigantic vault tomb at St. John's, Wilberforce, encloses the pioneer, his second wife (nee Rose), his son, Thomas Chaseling (II.), and the latter's wife (nee Miss Eleanor Brown), who came from a very old Hawkesbury family. The inscriptions are very indistinct, but a few years since I deciphered the epitaph.

It says:—

All flesh is as grass; ALL THE glory of man is the flower of grass;
The grass it withereth and the flower thereof falleth away,
But the word of the Lord endureth for ever.

One of the sons of Pioneer Thomas Chaseling was John, born 30th August, 1799, and who at 19 years of age, in the year 1818, married Miss Ann Everingham, one of the daughters of M. J. Everingham (I.) (obit 1817). The latter couple's youngest son (one of 10 children in all), Mr. Joshua Watsford Chaseling, born 1842, was married at Richmond, by the Rev. James A. Nolan on the 24th December, 1864, to Miss Mary Ann Hull, second daughter of William Hull, Esq., of Windsor. Mr. Joshua W. Chaseling and his wife had a family of two sons and three daughters.

The late Mrs. Mary Dando is survived by two brothers—Mr. Ernest. E. Chaseling, of Toronto, Newcastle, an officer of the N.S Wales railway service, with quarters at Tyrrell House Newcastle, and Mr. Wm. John Chaseling (Sydney )–and two sisters, Mrs A. Madden, and Miss H. Chaseling. The writer tenders the Gazette's and his own sincere condolences to Mr. Ernest E. Chaseling and all the other members of Mrs. Dando's family, and relatives at their loss