Thomas Clarkson - ESCHOL PARK

Eschol Park House
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    The name itself has biblical origins, the promised land of Eschol -- a place of vineyards.
    On 9 & 10 August 1822, by way of a direct sale, Thomas Clarkson sold to Daniel Cooper, all his Bunburry Curran lands for the sum of £1,500.
    The document states that;
    Later Catherine would vehemently deny being a party to this or any other negotiation and would charge that Daniel Cooper, fraudulently duped Thomas into signing the document, whilst the latter was in a state of intoxication.(67).
    In 1828, Cooper sold the land in two parts to Jemima Matchim Jenkins -- one, a portion of 984 acres for £2,500 and the other a portion of 395 acres for £750.(68)
    Jemima, whose maiden name was Pitt could claim to be a cousin of Lord Nelson. She married Austin Forrest, Esquire, of Richmond Hill and after his death she became Mrs Robert Jenkins at a ceremony at St Johns Church, Parramatta on 22 March 1813.(69) Robert Jenkins was a Sydney merchant who later became a member of the board of the newly formed Bank of NSW.(70) Their son Robert Pitt Jenkins was born in Sydney on Australia Day 1814.(71) Robert Jenkins Snr, died in September 1822 and Jemima carried on the affairs of the family and managed the vast properties she acquired in her own right until her death in 1842.(72)
    The property she purchased from Cooper became her home almost immediately. Jemima signed the contract of sale on 26 June and by August, the Sydney Gazette advised that she had retired to her country estate "namely Eagle Vale, at Campbelltown." Her former residence in O'Connell Street being taken up by Dr Gibson. (Jemima also had land in the Kiama or Five islands area.)(73)
In 1887 the property at Eagle Vale, now known as Eschol Park, was brought under the Real Property Act and it is here that we find the successive owners.(74)
It included the original grants of;
Samuel Pullen (or Pulling) 50 acres
Sarah Byrne        Part of - which constituted an access road
Samuel Pugh            Ditto   
Owen Lenegan        30 acres
John Johnson            40 acres
William Wilson          Part of his 200 acres
Mark Millington        50 acres
Thomas Clarkson       100 acres
John Lee                    Part of 40 acres
Francis Cox                Part of 50 acres
Samuel Croft (Craft)    35 acres
Thomas Prentice          50 acres
John Yates                   80 acres
George Berry               Part of 35 acres
    Jemima Jenkins is believed to have died in her house in Eagle Vale in 1842.(75) She apparently left no Will. (A notation on the papers pertaining to the estate indicate a search for her Will was carried out but none was located.)(76) It would then appear that trustees were appointed to administer the estate, namely John Hubert Plunkett and William Warren Jenkins, and the power of selling or letting the estate was theirs. All proceeds were to be invested and the property held in trust for Robert Pitt Jenkins, Jemima's son, Subsequently John Jenkins brought 500 acres from the trustees for £1,000 and Robert Pitt Jenkins became the owner of the residue, which he purchased for £2,000. Robert later married Maria Louisa Adelaide Plunkett.(77)
    In 1858 Jenkins sold the property to William Fowler, a long time resident of Campbelltown, for £2,500.(78) William and his wife Elizabeth (formerly Warby) had been married at Saint Peter's Church, Campbelltown on 31 March 1840.(79) They established a vineyard on the land and added a stone and brick winery, which was built into the hillside on the south side of the house, and they formed a lower reservoir and dam to supply much needed water to the vines. (From the Parish map of the area it would seem that a reservoir was also located on Thomas Clarkson's grant --- 109).
    It was the Fowlers who gave the property the name Eschol Park. William Fowler made a declaration when negotiating the sale of the land on 16 October 1876 to the effect that…(80)
    Fowler was a successful producer of wine, the quality of which earned him a Gold Medal at the Parish Exhibition in 1878.(81)
    In 1859 Fowler bought a little over 2 roods of the land originally granted to Samuel Pugh from William Croft to form a roadway. (Pugh's grant had formerly been sold to William's father Samuel Croft).(82)
    The property next passed to Spencer Samuel Milgate, a hay and corn dealer of Newtown. On 20 October 1876 Milgate paid £7,000 to William Fowler for the estate.(83)
    Two years later, Milgate sold it to John Tangelder  Gorus, a photographer, for £6,400.(84) In 1885 Gorus offered the land up for sale and could boast at the time of having 15 acres of well tended vineyards, and cellars containing nine 700 gallon casks and one 1100 cask.(85) Two years later, when the property was bought under the provisions of the Real Property Act (still in the possession of Gorus) it was valued at £8,000 and covered 606 acres and 18 perches.(86)
    The 1890's saw a disease known as Phylloxora, wipe out the vines in Campbelltown and the old winery fell into disuse.(87) Around this time Gorus converted the breezeway between the cottage and the main house into a single storey, bow fronted addition, which became known as the Victorian Ballroom.(88) At this time also, roads were being constructed into the estate and, between Eagle Road and Eschol Road, 40 acres were subdivided to form housing blocks.(89) (see map)
    In 1901 John T. Gorus, of Eschol Park near Minto, now a civil servant, transferred the property, totaling 540 acres 2 roods and 12 perches (excluding the 40 acres of the subdivision) to Stephen Hewitt, a Gentleman, of Appin.(90)
    After Hewitt's death in 1920 the property passed into the joint ownership of John and Charles William Hewitt.(91) On 25 September 1924 the partnership broke up and the property was divided equally -- Charles taking 272 acres 2 roods comprising the portions on the lower part of the Parish map, leaving John the grants of Millington, Prentice, Yates, and parts of Johnson, Clarkson and Lenegan.(92)
    On 4 May 1926 John Hewitt transferred the property to Vincent and Frank Felix Carroll, who became joint tenants(93) and on 28 February 1927 they transferred to Walter William Bayliss, a tanner from Botany.(94) The property passed to his widow Augusta Fanny Bayliss of Enfield and Gordon Horace Bayliss, a tanner of Strathfield in 1939.(95)
    They sold the estate to Leonard Guest, a grazier of Sydney, on 1 December 1942(96) and he in turn sold out to William Edward Robert John Braithwaite, a farmer of Campbelltown, on 9 February 1948.(97)
    Stanley Claude French bought the property from Braithwaite on 10 March 1951.(98) French was a registered bookmaker residing at Centennial Park and was still the owner of the estate in 1967 when a Certificate of Title was made out in his name.(99)
    In the 1970's the property was owned by the family of George Frederick Thompson, a company director of Minto, but by now the vast property was becoming smaller in size.(100)
    The property was transferred again in 1974 to Mario Peter Francis Auricchio, a dental surgeon, of South Camden and his wife Dianne Ruth. Also in 1974 approval was given for the use of the premises to sell Australian wines. Ten years later, in 1984, approval was given to the Auricchio's for alterations to enable the property to be used for wedding receptions.

ESCHOL PARK HOUSE

The beautiful home known as "ESCHOL PARK HOUSE", was built on the grant which Mark Millington acquired in 1816 and which passed into Thomas Clarkson's hands the very next day. The main house was built circa 1820 and we think it is most certainly the "substantial house"` that Clarkson claims he built there and on which he expended more than £1,500. It was occupied by his daughter, Catherine and her family; the Thomas Rowleys.
    The house is a mixture of styles and was added to, in stages. The rear portion appears to have been built first, even possibly before the grants were given. It had brick foundations and wattle branch rafters and was tied into the main house at a later date. A single storey cottage, attached by a covered walkway to the main house on the south side, was the next stage of growth. It too, is of brick construction and has paned glass windows and was entered by a door leading into it from under the walkway. Today this doorway is at the front of the cottage.
    The house was built using the ashlar method which is apparent on other houses built by Thomas Clarkson. This technique involved the laying of three bricks, side by side, covering them entirely with mortar and outlining it to give the impression of a single block. Above the doorway, an arch with glass panels was included (again in keeping with the style Thomas used). The mortar used in the construction contained shell, used in place of lime, which is thought to have been collected from the Georges River and traces of the shell can be seen in the mortar of the brickwork of the internal fireplaces.
    The building, surrounds and driveway have been classified by the National Trust.
    We feel the house could well have been constructed entirely by Thomas Clarkson (with the exception perhaps of the very old back portion) for the following reasons:-
(1) He was in the area and purchasing land as early as 1815.
(2) He purchased Mark Millington's grant,(upon which the house was later built), the very next day after the grant was given. i.e. 9 October 1816.
(3) At the time of the purchase he was, and indeed had been for some considerable time actively engaged in building large and substantial stone and brick buildings and mills. His own home in Hunter Street, Sydney was, by 1813, a two storey, stone and brick house which boasted pillars with balls, adorning the front entrance.
(4) In 1818 he built what was later known as St James Parsonage, and a comparison of the two buildings shows great similarity in style.
(5) In 1819 the above mentioned Parsonage was valued at £2,000 by Francis Greenway. In a letter written by Thomas Clarkson in 1822, he claimed the house at Eschol Park had cost him upwards of £1,500 some time previously.
    On 8 April 1986, Eschol Park House celebrated a sparkling re-opening as a restaurant and function centre. It has been beautifully restored to its former style by the present owners, Margaret and Arthur Townsend and family. For their efforts they earned themselves an award for re-creating the original appearance, Once again the old house enjoys a period of grandeur.
    This grand display of early colonial history may be the only surviving trace of the numerous buildings and activities of Thomas Clarkson, whose marks in Old Sydney Town were overlooked when his possessions were absorbed into the estates of the bigger names in the colony.
    Eschol Park House is truly a beautiful house, and a credit to its present owners and a fitting memorial to the memory of Thomas Clarkson.

Images

Eschol Park House Sign 1988
Eschol Park House 1860
The House as it Stands Today
Eagle Vale Estate 1858
Airds

 Page last updated -  7 July 2006