The STEEL family first arrived in TASMANIA when MICHAEL STEEL arrived in HOBART TOWN with his sister JANE & two servants on the SAILING SHIP HEKRYER 26 SEPTEMBER 1823.

MICHAEL took up a Government grant in the MACQUARIE DISTRICT lower CLYDE RIVER, called AT SORELL and farmed there.
JANE STEEL, his sister, married Mr COOK, and lived in HOBART till her death.

MICHAEL returned to England & married MARTHA MOORE, and had two daughters, MARTHA & ANNIE, & returned to Van Diemen’s Land to settle near HOBART, but after some years he returned with his family to settle permanently in England.

MICHAEL’s brother, WILLIAM, who had a disappointment in love, was a bachelor & sailed to Van Diemen’s Land after his father’s death, about 1830. He took up land from the Government at FALMOUTH, known as THOMPSON VILLA now known as ENSSTONE PARK.

In addition to his farming pursuits it was his intention to build a flour mill in the area & had arranged for the machinery etc. to be shipped from HOBART TOWN to the nearest port to FALMOUTH, being then ANSONG BAY.

He was on the ship, which was wrecked at the entrance to the bay & drowned 1834.

In his will, he left his property to his brother JOSEPH’s eldest son, MICHAEL.

MICHAEL had arrived in HOBART TOWN about 1832 at age 21 & lived with his uncle Michael & Aunt JANE COOK till he was 24. THOMPSON VILLA had been leased to HENRY COWELL from Deal, Kent, & later MICHAEL STEEL occupied THOMPSON VILLA for some time, during which he married MARIA CHARLOTTE COWELL, daughter of HENRY COWELL, who then lived at GLENWOOD HOUSE.

A family of 7 daughters, LOUISA, ELEANOR, ( Nell ), KITTY, MARIAN, CONSTANCE, EMMA, MARIA, & 2 sons, WILL & JO, some born at THOMPSON VILLA & some at MARIPOSA, which property & also GLENCOE were purchased by MICHAEL STEEL.

When MICHAEL’s family moved to live in MARIPOSA, THOMPSON VILLA was leased to his brother JOEL in 1865, who lived there & built the present large brick Georgian house, known as ENSSTONE PARK, at cost of £1740.

JOHN STEEL married Emma Cowell’s sister, Fanny Cowell, third daughter of Henry Cowell, in 1864, & his son LESLIE JOHN STEEL subsequently leased the same property from MICHAEL STEEL’S family estate, & later purchased it in 1916 for £7500 ( name was changed later to ENGSTONE PARK )