on two historical events: Governor Macquarie's General Offer stating requirements for the size and materials of new dwellings in the five Macquarie towns made 15 December 1810, and the reputed visit of Reverend Samuel Leigh to 'old Tom Rose's home' in 1817. In his report on Rose Cottage in 1982, Alan Roberts, Field and Research Officer for the Royal Australian Historical Society, concluded that this evidence for the date of the cottage is questionable, neither proving nor disproving the claim that Rose Cottage was built in the period 1811-1817. Roberts points out that Rose Cottage is not in full compliance with Macquarie's promulgation of 1810, and no source for Rev. Leigh's reference to 'old Tom Rose's home' was found. Additionally, this reference does not necessarily indicate Rose Cottage, merely whichever house Thomas Rose Senior was occupying at the time. The question of which members of the family occupied Rose Cottage is also open to speculation. Thomas Rose's land at Laurel Farm was rented to one J. Armstrong in the 1821 Return of Land in Wilberforce. Although he owned the farm at Rose Cottage between 1809 and 1850, Joshua Rose was listed in the 1828 Census as a resident of Lower Portland head. An 1818 surveyor's field book makes reference to 'Rose's hut' at that location, which indicates that Joshua had built a dwelling on his Portland head holding by this time. The muster records of 1818, 1819, 1821 and 1822 do not provide conclusive evidence as to which member of the family was farming the land. The 1841 census records both Joshua and Thomas II as residents of Wilberforce. In 1850, Joshua transferred the subject land to his brother, Thomas II, in an unregistered dealing recited in a 1913 conveyance. Joshua retained a small strip of land bordering the subject land to the southwest, which remained in the Rose family until 1955. In 1854, Thomas II composed his will, leaving Rose Cottage as ell as Laurel Farm to his son Charles: I devised All that parcel of land containing 14 acres more or less part of Mackay's Grant situate at Wilberforce aforesaid with the buildings thereon now in my own occupation. Also all that parcel of land containing 15 acres more or less part of Laurell's [sic] Grant situate at Wilberforce aforesaid now in my own occupation unto and to the use of the said Charles Rose his heirs and