Robert Snodgrass and his brother-in-law David Mitchell arrived Harare (then Salisbury) in 1891 as transport riders and were granted a 2400-hectare estate due east of the settlement at the Kopje.

Within five years their property interests were substantial. As well as the Hatfield Estate, Snodgrass and Mitchell owned among other things, the (Old) Cecil Hotel - now the Parliament Building, Harare.