The Hermitage was the first home built in the area by a free European settler, Frenchman Verincourt de Clambe. De Clambe is referred to by many different titles – Chevalier, Colonel, Esquire, Lieutenant and Baron – and regarded as the first white settler in Castle Hill. He left behind a wife and two children in India, where it is believed he served as an officer in the French army before being taken prisoner of war by British soldiers. After going to London ‘on family business’, he was provided with references, credentials and a passage to New South Wales by English officers. De Clambe’s family migrated to Port Louis, Mauritius, unaware of his fate for a decade when the island’s first English post office was established.

De Clambe arrived in Sydney in 1801 and was permitted to select land within the Crown Reserves. He was granted 100 acres in the district of Dundas by Governor King. The grant was situated in the area between Old Castle Hill Road and Old Northern Road. In 1802 he built The Hermitage cottage.

In his papers, author James Vincent says that ‘the nobleman had been planning a castle up on the hill, however its original form had taken the appearance of a common gum log cabin, albeit with a slight French provincial touch, and flavour about it.’ It is interesting to note that the suburb of ‘Castle Hill’ was first referred to in a dispatch by Governor King in 1802; perhaps the name was passed in reference to de Clambe.

De Clambe developed a mixed farm on his land, cultivating vegetables and fruit trees, growing wheat, grazing sheep and Cattle and experimenting with coffee and cotton. His cotton was the first planted in the colony and it is possible he may have succeeded in producing plants of various colours, including the yellow nankeen. He also established grape vines.

The Hermitage was situated near where the Government Barracks housed convicts. De Clambe was assisted by assigned convict labour on his farm and some of the more trustworthy convicts were often housed in one of his barns.

During the convict uprising of March 1804, where between one and two hundred prisoners escaped, de Clambe’s property was raided (he was also robbed by a group of fifteen convict labourers in 1803). De Clambe was not at home at either incident (a rare event and a possible indication he may have been tipped off). Among the items stolen by the convicts was a French gold watch, for which de Clambe posted a public reward in the Sydney Gazette.

De Clambe purchased William Cox’s neighbouring Ramsay farm in Dundas in April 1804. His Castle Hill property was reduced by 14 acres in May for a public road, for which he received an additional 28 acres at its eastern end.

De Clambe died suddenly on 4 June 1804. He was buried on the property in a stone vault, although the exact location of his grave site is not known. The vault was apparently unprotected and uprooted after being raided by thieves some time later.

Following his death the land and the cottage were sold and later reverted to the Crown. John Rogan, a convict freed in 1813 after whom Rogan’s Hill was named, squatted on a part of the land originally owned by de Clambe for several years. A grant of 60 acres, including the cottage, was released to John Duff in 1818. John Rogan later bought part of the Duff grant.

John Duff sold some of the land to Robert Hazard in 1819, and that was subsequently bequeathed to Hannah Walker (wife of Charles Walker proprietor of Red Cow Inn, George St, Parramatta). At the time of the 1841 census, Edward Fuller was listed as residing on the portion of land that included The Hermitage cottage. When Hannah Walker died in 1852 trustees sold her 60 acres of land to Edward Fuller for £100.

Edward Fuller died the following year and his land was bequeathed to his wife Elizabeth Sarah Walker in trust for his two sons Cyrus and Benjamin. Elizabeth Walker married John Black in 1857 and the family divided their time between her property and his in Dural. When John Black died in 1866 Elizabeth Black moved to Parramatta to a home built by her son Cyrus (which later became the home of Sir Henry Parkes).

In 1875 the 60 acres was divided between Cyrus Fuller (west half) and Benjamin Fuller (east half, including The Hermitage cottage). Benjamin Fuller sold his parcel of land in 1876 to John William Forster of Dural for £300. Forster sold it three months later to Robert Greenwood, a Castle Hill farmer, who also quickly sold it for the same price to Edwin Joseph Black, a farmer from Dural.

Edwin (known as Ted) Black operated a coach line between Parramatta and Castle Hill from his property, extending this to Galston in 1888. After mortgaging 30 acres in 1892 he sold the south-eastern half of this, including The Hermitage, in 1893 to George Edward Perry (also a coach proprietor).

In 1904 George Perry sold his 14 acres to George Alexander Muir, a wheelwright from Castle Hill. George Muir used the stables for his smithy. The original part of The Hermitage cottage was encapsulated in another building when the Muir family carried out extensions. The property remained in the possession of his descendants for 96 years until 2000. It became the Council Pound in 1907 but was maintained by the Muirs. Janet Middleton (nee Muir) also established a goat farm on the site around 1970.

The Hermitage was restored in 2001. Several of the original rooms in the building are those built and used by de Clambe, still intact in the centre. During the building’s restoration some of the oldest parts of it were revealed. Gum log slabs built straight onto a dirt floor lie behind the gyprocked walls. Door architraves are very low and many old nails appear to be hand forged.

In front of the building stands a pine tree that also dates back to the early 1800s. Its age has been verified by qualified arborists.

Historian and author Ralph Hawkins believes that this building may even be one of the oldest existing slab dwellings still standing in New South Wales.

The Hermitage was bought by Hills Family Funerals in 2007.

Information obtained from various sources, including ‘The Mysterious Baron of Castle Hill’ by Karlene Dimbrowsky, published May 2004, and documents from the Hills Historical Society.