Mary Harris
Of all the children of Thomas Clarkson and
Catherine Rayson, least is known, by us, of the life of their
youngest child, Mary.
Born on 19 September 1818, she was baptised at St
Phillips Church, Sydney, with her cousin, Thomas Rowley Junior, on 2
January 1819.(1)
In 1832 she was still residing with her family in
Hunter Street. Her brother, Thomas, made mention to the fact of her
being there in a letter he wrote to Sir Francis Forbes of the
Supreme Court. (He was complaining that he was supporting both Mary
and her brother Mountford, who were unmarried and living in the same
house as "your petitioner").(2)
In 1839, when her mother died, Mary was left the
portion of land in the town of Goulburn, which her mother had
purchased there.(3) It would seem that she moved to Goulburn to
live, (perhaps with her sister, Ann), as she was a member of the
Goulburn parish when, on 3 February 1840 she married William Harris,
also of the parish of Goulburn, in the St Savior Parish, Argyle, in
the presence of her brother in law, William Simons and Eliza
Marsden.(4)
William Harris, the son of James and Elizabeth,
was born free in the colony on 9 June 1817,(5) and at the time of
his marriage was employed as a Carrier. (This was perhaps in
association with William Simons).
In 1840 their first child, Catherine was born in
Goulburn and at the time her father stated his occupation as
Carrier.(6) By the time Johnson, their second child was born,
William was employed as a brickmaker in Goulburn.(7) They do not
appear in the 1841 census.(8)
On 1 January 1842, William and Mary Harris sold
the allotment of land in Auburn St which Catherine had left to Mary.
By this time there was a "cottage or dwelling house and premises now
erected on the said piece of land". There was no mention of an Inn,
the "Carriers Arms" which was supposedly licenced to Catherine
Clarkson in 1835.(9)
This land, allotment 7 of section 2, was sold to
John Hillas for £320.(10)
The following month, February 1842, the Harris'
bought a block in Bourke Street, Goulburn, from Maurice O'Keefe. It
was number 2 of section 9, just a block away. William built a
cottage on it and in July they sold this land to Edward Bellamy
Kitson for £320.(11)
At St Andrews Presbyterian Church in Sydney in
1847, William and Mary baptised three children, born between 1844
and 1847.(12) Their residence was given as Rushcutter's Bay and this
time William declared himself a Farmer. It would appear that the
Harris family had moved to Sydney not long after selling up in
Goulburn in 1842.
Image - Mary Clarkson/Harris
Pedigree Chart
Page last updated - 7
July 2006