Thomas Clarkson Jnr.

    The first child born in the colony of NSW to Thomas and Catherine Clarkson, arrived on 13 January 1810(1) at a time when Lachlan Macquarie had just been installed as Governor. He was baptised Thomas Clarkson at St Phillips Church, Sydney, with the other youngsters of the family, on 2 June 1816.(2)
    At the corner of Phillip & Hunter Streets, Lawrence Hynes Halloran, (a convict) had established the Sydney Grammar School - housed in the premises originally built and owned by our Thomas Clarkson known as No 54 Phillip St. This was founded by the free settlers and military.
    On Friday 25 June 1824, exams were scheduled at the school and the Sydney Gazette ran a report on the awards won by various students who had excelled with their results. Among the list of names appears; (3) -- "and the silver pen was adjudged to Master Thomas Clarkson, for superior penmanship".
    This is more than likely young Thomas, son of our Thomas Clarkson as Thomas Ormonde Clarkson (son of Thomas Clarkson II) had not been born and our Thomas Jnr. would have been around 14 years of age. (We noticed that Robert Jenkins was listed as a classmate).
    Thomas Jnr. was to be apprenticed to Ralph Mansfield the first editor of the Sydney Herald and worked there as a compositor (type setter) for 5 years. He was reputedly employed at the Australian for 2 years as well.(4)
    At Scot's Church, Sydney, on 26 December 1830, he married Maria Fielder, the eldest daughter of William and Mary Ann Fielder. The witnesses at the wedding were Margaret Fairbough and William Dalton (perhaps Maria's uncle).(5)
    The couple lived in Hunter Street with Thomas' mother, Catherine and his younger siblings, Mountford, and Mary. In 1832, Thomas complained that they were all dependant on his salary as compositor for their existence and he applied to the Supreme Court for a citation against his mother and Thomas Rowley, to show where the assets of his father's Will were being directed. He stated that Catherine and Thomas were appropriating the proceeds to their own gains. Citation was granted.(6)
    From No 7 Hunter St, in May 1831, Thomas Clarkson petitioned Governor Darling for a grant of land to which he was entitled as a native born youth. It was denied him.(7)
    Between 1831 and 1836 four children were born to Thomas and Maria, the third, Mary Ann, died, leaving three sons, namely; Thomas William, Mountford Fielder and John Kingsley.(8)
    Catherine Clarkson, had, in 1827, conveyed the ownership of the Woodman (Inn) and the brewery to her son, Thomas.(9) In 1831, just after his marriage she sold him all the household goods therein for £51 sterling.(10) Six months later, the spirit licence that Catherine had conveyed to Mountford was sold to Thomas for £5 by Thomas' brother.(11)    Image of Publican's Licence
    In 1839 Thomas Clarkson was gaoled for the assault and
attempted rape of Mary Ann Neale in the Domain. (12) His family were left in the care of his aged mother (Catherine Clarkson) but when she died in November 1839 they were on their own until in 1840 the Woodman was sold. (13)
    Since Thomas Clarkson is not listed in the census-of 1841, we assume that he was still in custody.
    In the years 1844-1845 Thomas Clarkson was resident in South Head Road, presumably with his family.(14) A directory of 1851 does not show his name.(15)
    What happened to the family in the years between 1845 and 1853 is a mystery but we have established the sad fact that in 1853, Maria Clarkson died a pauper in the Benevolent Asylum and was buried at Camperdown.(16) The boys by then would have been aged between 22 years and 17 years.
    Maria's father, William Fielder was born in the colony on 16 January 1795.(17) He was the son of William (Jack the gardener) Fielder and his wife Sarah. In 1789, William Snr, was convicted, with 2 accomplices, of robbing William Frost on Edgewere Road near London. He was sentenced to death but this was commuted and he was transported to NSW on the "Scarborough" in 1790 to serve out a life sentence.(18)
    Sarah, his wife followed in the "Neptune", as a free settler, and on arrival it would seem that William may have been assigned to her. The couple settled in the Rocks at Cambridge Street.(19) William's skills as a gardener were evident when in 1810, he advertised his house for sale, "planted with every vegetable and 103 choice orange, lemon and other fruit trees".(20) William was pardoned in March 1810(21) and died in 1812.(22) Sarah, his wife predeceased him, dying in 1810.(23)
    William had two sons, William and Robert. Robert became a sailor and in 1813, was charged with deserting from the "Samarang",(24) (the same ship in which the crew who vandalised Thomas Clarkson's house in 1813 sailed).
    Young William Fielder, Robert's brother, was apprenticed to G. Blaxcell as a ship-wright.(25)
    Maria's mother, Mary Ann Fielder, was the daughter of Richard and Sarah Dalton.(26) She had come free to the colony on the "Experiment" in 1805 with her parents.(27) The Daltons lived at Richmond until Richard became Deputy gaoler of Sydney. At a later stage they both went on to be Master and Matron of the Benevolent Asylum.(28)
    Richard Dalton died in 1833 and his wife the preceding year.(29)
    Mary Ann Dalton married William Fielder on 3 October 1814 at St Phillips Church Sydney. They lived in the house in Cambridge Street and had 9 children of whom Maria was the eldest. In 1830, the same year Maria married Thomas Clarkson Jnr, Mary Ann Fielder/Dalton died as did her last child Charlotte, born that same year.(30)
    Thomas Clarkson Jnr, died in Queensland on 4 March 1884.
Image - Thomas Clarkson Jnr Pedigree Chart

 Page last updated -  7 July  2006