Matthew Clarkson

Matthew Clarkson (October 17, 1758 – April 25, 1825) was a colonial soldier and politician. Clarkson Street in Greenwich Village and the town of Clarkson in Western New York were both named after him.

Early life Clarkson was born on October 17, 1758, at his father's residence on Whitehall Street in New York City in the Province of New York in what was then British America. the English born Puritan clergyman whose sermons included "The Doctrine of Justification is Dangerously Corrupted by the Roman Church."

Career At the age of 17, he entered the Army to serve in the Revolutionary War, first on Long Island, subsequently under Benedict Arnold.

After the war, Clarkson was commissioned brigadier general of militia of Kings and Queens Counties in June 1786 and Major General of the Southern District of New York in March 1798. For a time, he was engaged in merchant business with John Vanderbilt under the company Vanderbilt & Clarkson. The firm was later closed and he worked with his brother at the firm S. & L. Clarkson & Co. He was also a member of the commission to build a new prison 1796-1797 and President of the New York (City) Hospital (1799).

In 1802, Clarkson was the Federalist Party candidate for U.S. Senator from New York but was defeated by DeWitt Clinton. He was President of the Bank of New York from 1804, succeeding Herman LeRoy, and serving until his death in 1825. He was succeeded by Charles Wilkes.

Philanthropy Clarkson was one of the first trustees of New York's earliest savings bank established to serve laborers and the poor, The Bank for Savings in the City of New-York. His son-in-law Peter Augustus Jay was one of the bank's founders.

Personal life

On May 24, 1785, Clarkson was married to Mary Rutherfurd (1761–1786), the daughter of Walter Rutherfurd and Catherine (née Alexander) Rutherfurd and the sister of U.S. Senator John Rutherfurd. Together they had eight children, including:

Elizabeth Clarkson (1793–1820), Catherine Rutherfurd Clarkson (1794–1861), who married Jonathan Goodhue, son of U.S. Senator Benjamin Goodhue. David Clarkson (1795–1867), who was President of the New York Stock Exchange, from 1837 to 1851, who married his cousin, Elizabeth Streatfield Clarkson, in 1822. who married Catherine Elizabeth Clarkson in 1821. the rest of his interest was placed in trust for his children.

Descendants Through his eldest daughter Mary, he was the grandfather of: John Clarkson Jay (1808–1891), a physician and noted conchologist, Catherine Helena Jay (1815–1889), who married Henry Augustus DuBois (1808–1884), in 1835. who married Henry Evelyn Pierrepont (1808–1888), in 1841, who married another of his grandchildren, Matthew Clarkson (1823–1913), the son of David Clarkson, in 1852.