Thomas Clarkson (Upper Canada)

Thomas was born in Scotter, Lincolnshire in 1802 to Anglican parents, he emigrated to York, Upper Canada in 1832 following the death of his first wife. He began specialising in goods on commission, specifically grain and was in partnership with Thomas Brunskill of Thornhill in 1845. By the later half of the 1840s, Clarkson participated in several financial ventures in Upper Canada; first serving as president of the Annexation Association, before becoming involved in the newly formed Stock Exchange. He was one of the original founders of the Toronto Board of Trade, serving as president from 1852 to 1859. On his retirement from this post, he expressed caution with the problems of trade in Canada under current policies.

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 which he appeared at the head of the list of incorporators of the company a year earlier and chaired investor meetings in 1854.

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. There, Thomas became an assignee in bankruptcy for the province and contributed substantially toward early accounting practices in Canada.[2] 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 purchased in 1869, his work with the Produce Merchants Exchange, nor his assignee business.

Clarkson died in Toronto soon after in 1874. His son, Edward Roper Curzon Clarkson, would grow Thomas’ trustee and receivership business into Clarkson Gordon & Co to one of the largest accounting firms in Canada until its merger with Ernst & Young in the 1980s. His son 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.[2]

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online