Catherine Clarkson - A WILL CONTESTED
It would appear that the Clarksons were still
resident in Hunter Street
during 1832,
That same year. Catherine applied for and was
assigned 1 male
convict to assist her.(46)
On 10 January 1832 Mountford Clarkson signed over
his ownership of the
spirit licence belonging to the "Woodman", to his brother, Thomas.(47)
In April, Thomas Jnr. Printer of Sydney, sent a
petition to the
Honorable Francis Forbes Esquire, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
NSW. 48)
The
Humble petition of Thomas Clarkson of Sydney,
Printer --
Shewith-,
that your petitioner is the eldest
son and heir at
law of Thomas Clarkson, late of
Sydney in the colony of NSW, Brewer, deceased, now Upwards of twenty
one years old,
He went on to state that his father had died…
"leaving
your Petitioner, his eldest son and heir at law, and also
Catherine Clarkson, his widow, and Catherine Clarkson, Sarah Clarkson,
Mountford Clarkson, Ann Clarkson and Mary Clarkson, younger children,
him surviving"
Having named the marriage and respective spouses of
Catherine, Sarah,
Mountford and Ann, he complained that the "other children surviving are
unmarried" (there was one, Mary) "and living in the Same House with
your Petitioner and deriving support therein". (Mary would have been 14
at the time) He mentioned the fact that he had a wife and child solely
dependent upon his wages as Printer for their subsistence.(49)
He also claimed that the terms of his father's Will
were not being
administered correctly, in that the children and legatees had received
neither a distribution of the properties or funds, nor an account of
the assets, and that his mother Catherine and Thomas Rowley had
appropriated all the property and profits referred to in the Will for
their own personal use. The children of Thomas Clarkson Senior had
received no legacy, he claimed, although it was more than eight years
since his father's death. As young Thomas had not seen any of the
proceeds directed to the beneficiaries, he applied for a citation
against his mother and his brother in law to account for "the goods,
chattels, estate and effects of the said Thomas Clarkson deceased". (50)
Judge Dowling granted the citation and as no
information is available
at this point on the outcome, we can only assume that Thomas finally
came to realize he wasn't going to inherit his father's dreams.
His claim to be the eldest son and heir at law
leaves us wondering
whether he was being truthful or whether it suited his purposes to make
just such a statement. If the latter be true, then indeed John must
have been absent from the family for some considerable time.
Page last updated - 7
July 2006