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Marshall Clifton
Wikipedia:
Marshall Waller Clifton (1 November 1787 – 10 April 1861) was an English civil servant, coloniser and politician.
... In 1840 the Western Australian Land Company was formed in London with the purpose of promoting a large land settlement scheme in the Colony of Western Australia. This was planned by a group of influential men including William Hutt, M.P (brother of John Hutt, Governor of Western Australia from 1838 to 1846) and Edward Gibbon Wakefield, upon whose principles of colonisation the company was founded. Marshall Waller Clifton was appointed Chief Commissioner and his son, Robert Williams Clifton (1817–1897) was appointed secretary to Waller.
The name of the settlement, Australind, a contraction of Australia and India, was chosen as it was hoped to establish trade between the two countries.
Waller and his family and the first settlers of the Australind region sailed to Australind on the barque "Parkfield" in October 1840, arriving at Port Leschenault (Bunbury) on 18 March 1841. In 1841 Waller was also appointed a Magistrate and Justice of the Peace. However approval for the settlement was not finalised until 6 April 1842, and after this Waller was given an allotment of land at 15 Clifton Rd, which he named "Alverstoke" and on which the original house still stands today.
The Western Australian Land Company collapsed in 1843, finally ceasing all operations in Western Australia within 3 years and the settlers were left to fend for themselves.
Waller's children all became prominent members of society in Bunbury, Australind and Brunswick, occupying many important positions such as Resident Magistrate (Pearce), Inspector of Water Police (George, who later returned to England and became Governor of Dartmoor Prison), member of the Town Trust (Pearce), Collector of Customs at Fremantle (Worsley). At one time, the Under Secretary for Lands, the Under Treasurer and the Surveyor General were all grandsons of Waller's. In 1897 about twenty of Waller's grandchildren held senior offices in the Western Australian public service.
Erickson:
CLIFTON, Marshal WaIler, b. 1.11.1787 (England), d. 10.4.1861 (Australind), son of Rev. Francis & Rebecca (nee Bingham), arr. 18.3.1841 per Parkfield with family & staff as the Chief Commissioner of the West Australian Co. to found a settlement at Australind. Two eldest children did not come to W.A. George followed later. m. 2.7.1811 (London) Elinor BELL b. 1792 (England) d. 19.2.1866 (Picton), dtr. of Daniel & Elinor (nee Turner). Chd. Francis b. 1812 d. 1892, WaIler b. 1813. Louisa b. 1814 d. 1880, William Pearce b. 1816 d. 1885, Robert Williams b. 1817 d. 1897, Joseph Bingham b. 1819 d. infancy, Elinor Katherine b. 1820 d. 1904, Mary b. 1822 d. 1893, George b. 1823 d. 1913 (England), Gervase b. 1825, Charles Hippuff b. 1827 d. 1890, Lucy b. 1829 d. 1906, Leonard Wors1ey b. 1830 d. 1895, Rachel Catherine b. 1833 d. 1852, Caroline b. 1835 d. 1883. The proposed settlement failed, he built "Upton House" & bt. "Brunswick Farm" & "Rosamel". Later made his home at "Moorland". JP 1841. Non-official MLC - agitated for Responsible Govt., elected Fellow Royal Society. C/E. Wife Quaker.
References and Links
Barker, Anthony J. & Maxine Laurie 1992, Excellent Connections: A History of Bunbury, Western Australia 1836-1900, City of Bunbury.
Cameron, J. M. R. & Phyllis A. Barnes eds 2017 , The Australind Journals of Marshall Waller Clifton Chief Commissioner for the Western Australian Company, Hesperian Press.
Chase, Mrs E. 1927, 'Early days at Australind', Early Days, vol. 1, part 1: 45-54.
Clifton, E. 1927, 'The founding of Australind', Early Days, vol. 1, part 1: 38-45.
Staples, A. C. 1965, 'Marshall Waller Clifton', Early Days, vol. 6, part 4.
See also my page for the Clifton family, with more information about M. W. Clifton.
Wikipedia page.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 27 October, 2020 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/cliftonmarshall.html (it was last updated on 13 October, 2023), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.