Michael Clarkson (pastoralist)

Michael Clarkson
Born	7 June 1804 Bubwith, Yorkshire
Died	April 1871
Spouse(s)	Jane Drummond (7 November 1833 – April 1871)

Michael Clarkson was one of the early settlers in the Swan River Colony and the Avon region of Western Australia.

Clarkson was born on 7 June 1804 in Bubwith, Yorkshire, to Barnard Clarkson and Elizabeth (née Smith). He was the eldest of six children.

In February 1830 Clarkson and his brother James Smith Clarkson arrived at the Swan River on Tranby. They had chartered the brig in association with Joseph Hardey, a farmer and Wesleyan layman and his brother John Wall Hardey. The immigrants, including family members and indentured servants, were all Methodists and well versed in farming practices. They established their farms on 512 acres (207 ha) fronting the Swan River, at what is now known as Maylands, and called it the Peninsula. During this time either Michael or James joined Robert Dale, who was charged by Governor James Stirling to lead a party to explore the country east of the Darling Range. The party left in late 1830, and found and named the Avon River flowing through good pastoral country. The townsites of Beverley, York and Northam were marked out and the land opened for selection. Among the first claimants for land grants were Joseph Hardey and the Clarkson brothers. They called their York grant Wilberforce after William Wilberforce, the English politician and philanthropist who led the movement to abolish slavery.

In January 1833 the brothers were joined by younger brother Charles Foster and their recently widowed father Barnard Clarkson. Later that year on 7 November, Michael married Jane (Jain) Drummond (1831-1905), the eldest daughter of James Drummond the botanist. Two years later the couple went to live at Wilberforce with the father. They had five sons and two daughters, including Deborah Wilberforce (1834), who became the wife of Toodyay's resident magistrate Alfred Durlacher, and Barnard Drummond Clarkson (1836), the future Toodyay member of the Legislative Assembly. Clarkson sold his grant at Wilberforce and returned to Peninsula farm and worked as a commission agent at Guildford. He and Jane were to make many moves during their marriage.

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