Catherine Clarkson - SWEET VICTORY
Catherine, threatened with eviction, would not go
peacefully, and if
James Holt thought she was giving up, he was mistaken.
The matter of the deed of title (or the grant) was
still to be settled.
In April the Surveyor finally reached Hunter Street
to measure up the
property. This was duly done and the ownership of "Cooper and Levey
(late Clarksons)" was noted on the document and dated 29 April 1834.(70)
Description
of an allotment of land lying and situate in the Parish of
St Phillip (sic.) in the town of Sydney and County of Cumberland, the
property of Cooper and Levey.
Bounded on the North by the South
side of Hunter Street ninety links,--
on the West by the East side of Elizabeth Street, four chains and three
links -on the South by the premises of Archibald McKellup bearing
Easterly one chain eighteen links -- on the East by the premises of
Bigge and McKellup, being lines bearing Northerly one chain forty
links, making a Total of one chain seventy five links -- on the North
again by a Westerly line of fifty six links -- on the East again by a
Northerly line of one chain and sixteen links -- on the South again by
an Easterly line of twenty links. The three latter lines bounding the
Premises of the aforesaid McKellup and finally on the East by a
Northerly line of eighty eight links (bounding Shaughenessy's premises)
to the commencing North East corner in Hunter Street.
Contents Fifty Six Square Perches.
P.L. Bevin
Surveyor
29 April 18j4
Late Clarksons Premises.
The Parish was rightfully St James.
Who was the rightful owner of the Woodman?
The dispute was to be rekindled in the Court of Claims.
James Holt submitted his claim in a memorial recorded as No 395, dated
3 May 1834.(71) On 5 May, opposing memorials were received from four
opponents.
1st Catherine Clarkson, Widow,
Elizabeth St, Sydney.
2nd ditto
3rd Mountford Clarkson, Cabinetmaker, Castlereagh St, Sydney
4th Esther Bigge, Widow, Phillip St, Sydney.
Catherine and Mountford were claiming that the
portion at the rear of
the brewery was not part of the original land and was not included in
the mortgage. In all, they were dividing the property into two claims --
One, the portions Catherine had purchased from Parks
and Mary Bigge.
Two, the portion Mountford claimed as his, at the rear of this.
The memorial of Mountford Clarkson claimed ownership
of the land,
through the gift of it, in 1812 from his Godparents, Richard Harding
and his Wife. The land had since remained in the hands of his mother as
the natural guardian and trustee.(72)
Harding was reputed to have bought the land from
William Smith in
November 1812. (William Smith, as previously mentioned, received the
portion from his night of "carousing" with Stubbs, while Esther
Spencer/Stubbs was absent).
In 1813. Richard Harding and his wife, supposedly
left for Europe, and
in remembrance of them, they bequeathed the land to their Godson,
Mountford. The land at that time was regarded as being worth very
little.(73)
Richard Harding was acknowledged as being young
Mountford's godfather
by various witnesses brought forward.
Abraham Bateman, a Sawyer of Phillip Street,
confirmed this evidence as
did another witness, George Davey, who claimed to be present at the
sale of Mrs (Mother) Stubbs' land to Harding. Thomas Evans, a pensioner
in Pitt St, also swore to the stated evidence given by the others in
Mountford's favour.(74)
Catherine was to lodge two claims, numbered 535 and
536; one for the
land she had purchased from John Parks and which she had enclosed,
herself, with the permission of Governor Bligh, and the other for the
land she had purchased from Mary Bigge in 1814. (see sketch of
property). In this claim she refuted all claims that she had joined
with Thomas in the mortgage to Daniel Cooper and she thereby refused to
acknowledge the inclusion of her land in that same mortgage.(75)
…Daniel
Cooper, merchant, who prevailed upon him (Thomas Clarkson)
about 10 August 1822, to execute a mortgage for a sum of money
pretended to be due .... and in which mortgage. he the said Daniel
Cooper had caused the said land to he included, but your memorialist
(Catherine) never joined in such mortgage, and never signed any deed or
did any act to divest herself of the title to the said land.
Other witnesses listed in Catherine's
defence;
Catherine, wife of Thomas Rowley, near Liverpool, Settler. Sarah Cooke,
wife of Michael Cooke of Lane Cove, Settler. Thomas Evans, upper Pitt
St. Sydney.
Ann Evans, wife of Thomas Evans ditto.
William Hill, Park St. Sydney, Publican.
Mary Hill, wife of William Hill, ditto.
James Connell, Castlereagh St. Sydney.
Michael Joyce, Clarence St. Sydney.
George Davey, George St, dealer.
Memorial number 806 was from Esther Bigge of Phillip
Street. In it she
claimed she had received her land with the authorization of Governor
Hunter in 1797 and had enclosed it with a fence and erected a house on
it. At that time there was no division caused by Elizabeth Street. In
the construction of this street, Bigge had to relinquish a small
portion of her allotment, to accommodate the road.(76)
She confirmed our earlier statement that a small
portion of her land
had been sold off to Smith by the man who was residing with her at the
time, a man named Stubbs, but since he had no authority to sell it as
they were not married, she considered the sale null and void. In 1822
she had married Joseph Bigge who was now deceased(77) and she now went
by the name of Esther Bigge. This was obviously her last chance to
recover the land she claimed had been virtually stolen from her.
James Leek, a carpenter of Castlereagh Street,
claimed he had boarded
with Mrs Stubbs and that he was aware of the clashes that occurred over
Clarkson gaining possession of the land. He claimed Stubbs and Mrs
Stubbs had quarreled over the land, till the day Stubbs died.
William Fleming, who had acted for Thomas Clarkson
in legal matters
over quite a number of years, had been present at three former trials
of law suits over this property and it was only about 7 weeks ago, so
he said, that he'd heard of the claim by Mountford Clarkson to the
land. However, he did recall Catherine Clarkson saying some years
previously that Mountford would one day build a fine house on the land.
He went on to dispute the truth in the evidence given by Abraham
Bateman as he recalled another occasion when Bateman had given evidence
that was suspect.
Lewis Soloman of Liverpool Road stated that when Mrs
Bigge challenged
Clarkson about the purchase of the land, he had told her to see Smith
about it.
Finally the Memorial numbered 395 from James Holt
was tabled and from
that came evidence that the accounts of the affairs of Clarkson and
Cooper, contained in a book located in the office of Mr Norton, (a
solicitor who often acted for Cooper), showed the progressive debts and
payments. (78)
There were 5 or 6 entries
"and
after judgement against Clarkson, the 4 pages relating to this
property are dated, 28 October 1820. 18 December 1822, 23 May 1826 and
9 June 1831".
None of these, it was claimed, was fully satisfied.
(The levy of
£926/3/8 which had irritated Catherine so, had been acknowledged.)
This claim of Holt's went on to state that the
mortgage did indeed
contain both portions of land that were now in dispute; the one
originally bought by Catherine herself and the one claimed by both
Mountford Clarkson and Mrs Bigge.
Having considered the evidence of all sides and
acknowledging that the
dispute between the parties regarding the settlement of the accounts
was not in their power to determine, the Commissioners at the hearing
decided to pronounce;
that
a deed of grant should be made of the whole premises in the names
of Catherine Clarkson, widow and Thomas Rowley of Georges River,
Settler., devisees under the will of Thomas Clarkson, late of Hunter
Street Sydney, Deceased and to their heirs. Dated
28 August
1835(79)
And so it was that Catherine finally won her first
but ultimate battle
in her long hard struggle to retain the only home she'd known since her
arrival in the colony in 1806. Catherine was given the grant to the
land, dated 8 February 1836.(80)
It was official, THE WOODMAN WAS HERS!
Image of Grant
Image of Maps
Page last updated - 7
July 2006