Marshall Waller Clifton FRS (1787 - 1861)

Born 1 Nov 1787 in Alverstoke, Hampshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Elinor Katherine (Bell) Clifton — married 2 Jul 1811 in Saint Mary, Putney ,London, England

Descendants

Died 10 Mar 1861 at age 73 in Upton House, Australind, Western Australia

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Alverstoke, 1787

Biography

Marshall, son of Francis Clifton & Rebekah Katharine, was baptised on 4 January 1788 in Alverstoke, Hampshire, England.^[1]

Marshall Waller Clifton ^[2] (1787-1861), civil servant, colonizer and colonial politician, was born on 1 November 1787 at Alverstoke, Hampshire, England, eldest son of Rev. Francis Clifton and his wife Rebekah Katherine, daughter of Rev. Isaac Moody Bingham, M.A. After education at home, Clifton entered the Admiralty where he was soon promoted secretary to the Victualling Board.
In 1811 he married Elinor, from the Quaker family of Daniel Bell of Wandle House, Wandsworth, uncle of Elizabeth Fry and of Edward, father of Edward Gibbon Wakefield.

Marshall married Elinor Bell on 2 July 1811 in Putney, London, England.^[3]

Parkfield, 1841

Marshall Waller Clifton, he, his wife and daughter, Mary arrived in Western Australia on the Parkfield on March 18, 1841. The Clifton family and most of their 15 children emigrated from London, England. He built Upton House and later bought Brunswick Farm and Rosamel. He finally made his home at Moorland and was made a JP in 1841 The company formed to raise stock and food for the Indian market was the Western Australian Company and Wakefield designed the Australind Settlement. The project was promoted in England to attract settlers with capital and workers they could employ. The DPS lists several books which mention this settlement. The township of Australind was established by Marshall Waller CLIFTON (buried at nearby Mount Claremont cemetery) and the Western Australian Company in 1840-41, only a little over a decade after the establishment of the Swan River Colony.
The newly formed Western Australian Land Company purchased land in the area and surveyed a town site which they named as a combination of Australia and India. There was already a horse breeding station in the area and it was hoped that the horse trade would be the beginning of a continuing trade relationship between Australind and India. The first settlers arrived in 1841 and by the following year over 440 immigrants had settled in the area Marshall Walter Clifton was appointed Chief Commissioner.

The plan was to divide a huge land grant of over 40 000 ha into small farming lots of 40 ha and establish an English style village in the centre of this project. The philosophy behind the plan was similar to that of Edward Gibbon Wakefield who had developed the notion of settlements for ordinary citizens to ease the burden of poverty which characterised so much of English society at this time. In the case of Western Australia the settlement had the added bonus of providing the infant colony with a much needed labour force. The settlement was short-lived and had been abandoned by 1843.
The problems (they are the problems of the whole of the west coast) were a combination of poor sandy soils, no water in summer and too much rain in winter. Clifton's wife has left a graphic description of what the first winter in Australind was like: 'rain falling in torrents all the evening; our tent in a sad state of wet; thunder and lightning soon came on; rain such as no one can imagine ... No future settlers can suffer what we do; for when others come they will find things made for them and our experience available. Friends in England should be made acquainted with the dangers of this Australian coast in this season. A fatal grievance prevails on the point and I feel horrified to think of people blindly coming out at any time of year, to be exposed to such awful weather as this.' Her description of the weather was obviously shared by other members of the colony because it was abandoned soon afterwards.

People – LifeTree

• Edward Gibbon Wakefield (1796 - 1862)

Western Mail Homesteads - History Tree No. 8 :

Wakefield Scheme - History Tree

Research Notes

Refer also 'The Australind Journals of Marshall Waller Clifton 1840-1861', Edited by Phyllis Barnes, JMR Cameron and HA Wallis with Ian Berryman and Andrew Gill, Hesperian Press, Western Australia, 2010, Pages x-xii, for brief family history of Marshall Waller Clifton and marriage to Elinor Bell.

Sources

1. ↑ Baptism: "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975"
   citing Digital film/folder number: 008061863; FHL microfilm: 918899
   FamilySearch Record: JWXF-J4M (accessed 26 December 2023)
   Marshall Waller Clifton baptism on 4 Jan 1788, son of Francis Clifton & Rebekah Katharine, in Alverstoke, Hampshire, England.
2. ↑ A. C. Staples, Clifton, Marshall Waller (1787–1861), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University,
   published first in hardcopy 1969, accessed online 27 November 2019.
3. ↑ Marriage: "England Marriages, 1538–1973"
   citing FHL microfilm: 908518
   FamilySearch Record: NKRW-CX2 (accessed 26 December 2023)
   Marshall Waller Clifton marriage to Elinor Bell on 2 Jul 1811 in Putney, London, England, United Kingdom.

The Peerage.com (M, #656428)

Family of Francis Clifton and Rebekah Katherine Bingham