Thomas Clarkson (Upper Canada)

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Thomas Clarkson
Toronto Board of Trade
  • Bank of Toronto
  • Commercial Building and Investment Society
    • Spouses
    • Elizabeth Farnham (d. 1829) 1821-1829
    • Carrie Brunskill m. 1834
    • Sarah Helliwell (d. 1878) m. 1844-1874
    Children16

    Thomas Clarkson, (c. January 26, 1802 – May 4, 1874), was an

    Toronto Board of Trade, president of the Commercial Building and Investment Society,[3] director (alongside William Molson, John A. Macdonald, and James Morton) of the Beacon Fire and Life Insurance Co. of London, the Toronto for Unity Fire Association (of London) with Allan MacNab, Federick Jarvis, and Benjamin Cronyn,[4] and the Bank of Toronto where he additionally served as vice president in 1859.[5]

    Thomas was a highly prominent early Toronto financier, described in a local paper following a June 1858 presentation of

    St Lawrence Hall, "as one of the distinguished patrons, which included such notables as Sir John Beverley Robinson and John A. Macdonald" [6]

    Life and career

    Thomas was born in

    Toronto Board of Trade
    , serving as president from 1852 to 1859. On his retirement from this post, he expressed caution about the problems of trade in Canada under current policies.

    The Exchange Building, raised by Clarkson during his term as president of the Toronto board of trade

    Thomas supported reducing tariffs on trade and campaigned hard for reduced legislation on trade restriction laws, tariffs, and anti-immigration. Alongside other grain merchants, he established the Bank of Toronto and served as director from 1856 to 1858. The economic depression following 1857 saw some of his ventures fail, notably the Toronto and Georgian Bay Canal Company, a venture in which he appeared at the head of the list of incorporators of the company a year earlier and chaired investor meetings in 1854.

    Work in Milwaukee

    Thomas then moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where economic growth proved better prospects. Alongside his sons Benjamin Reid and Robert Guy, Thomas established T Clarkson and Sons, a grain and produce commission business which Robert Guy continued to operate upon Thomas' return to Canada in 1864.

    Return to Canada

    In 1864, with economic prospects in Milwaukee worsening, Thomas became an assignee in bankruptcy for the province and contributed substantially toward early accounting practices in Canada.[7] This company, Clarkson, Hunter and Company, became the foundation for the accounting firm Clarkson Gordon & Co. By 1872, Thomas had suffered a paralytic stroke and was unable to continue operating the grain storage elevator he had purchased in 1869, his work with the Produce Merchants Exchange, nor his assignee business.

    Death and legacy

    Clarkson died in Toronto in 1874 soon after suffering a stroke in 1872. His son,

    Clarkson Gordon to one of the largest accounting firms in Canada until its merger with Ernst & Young in the 1980s. ERC was a pioneer corporate rescues in Canada, eventually convincing the financial institutions who sought his counsel in winding-up to allow him to operate the business as a going concern.[7] ERC was, by 1898, "Charged with the management of three-fourths of the large estates wound up in the Province of Ontario for many past years. [A] life member of Ionic Lodge A.F. & A.M, a member of the Board of Directors of the Credit Foncier Franco-Canadien Loan Co, a director of the Consolidated Land & Investment Co and of Might's Directory Company."[8]

    References

    1. ^ "Biography – CLARKSON, THOMAS – Volume X (1871-1880) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".
    2. ^ Report of the Board of Trade, annual meeting February 1856, Queen's University - University of Toronto Libraries, W.D. Jordan Special Collections and musical library F5012/1856 H4
    3. ^ 100 Years of Banking in Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, p 2
    4. ^ Mights' Greater Toronto City Directory (1856) page 159,
    5. ^ 100 Years of Banking in Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, p 17
    6. ^ "Little, "The Clarkson Gordon Story 1964", pg 7
    7. ^ a b David Mackenzie, Clarkson Gordon Story: 125 years (1989 Clarkson Gordon) 7
    8. ^ A Souvenir: A history of the growth of the Queen City and its Board of Trade, with biographical sketches of the principal members thereof, 1898

    External links

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