Jacobson Family

Nison (Nissen) Jacobson, born in about 1793, was a segar (cigar and cigarettes) manufacturer. In 1817 he was convicted of forgery in London.1 He arrived in Hobart Town on the Lady Castlereagh in 1818, was assigned to Mrs AWH Humphrey, wife of the police magistrate, and received his conditional pardon in 1828.2

In 1824 Nison married Hannah Athorn (c 1802–83) who had arrived from England with her free settler family in 1823. The nine known children of Nison and Hannah were born between 1827 and 1846, mainly in the New Norfolk district.3 Nison was a farmer on properties around New Norfolk, Bagdad and Macquarie Plains, and died at Orielton in 1857. He was buried at St George's Church, Sorell, where the register recorded him as 'A Russian'. Hannah also died at Sorell.4 Their many descendants have mainly lived in the Bream Creek-Dunalley area, where several were farmers.

Leonie Mickleborough

Footnotes:
1. AOT CSO 1/562/12465, pp 207–8.
2.AOT CON 31/23; HRA III, vii p. 265 Huskisson to Arthur 28 April 1828 CP as 'Nissen').
3. AOT RDG 36 Hobart 735/1824; Hamilton Anglican Church baptism registers; AOT NS Baptism registers for St David's Hobart, St Matthew's New Norfolk, St Mark's Pontville.
4. AOT St George's Church burial registers; AOT RGD Sorell 710/1857, 841/1883.