Clarendon House

The property known as Clarendon is located at 96 Dight Street, Richmond, New South Wales. Sons of William Cox snr, William jnr and his brother James Cox received this land grant of 200 acres from Gov King in 1804.

William Cox snr was an important figure in the early years of European settlement in the colony of NSW. He was appointed a magistrate in the Hawkesbury in 1810 and accompanied Governor Lachlan Macquarie on his journey around the district when deciding on sites for his five ‘Macquarie’ towns. Cox is also known as the builder of the first road over the Blue Mountains in 1814 following the explorations of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth.

A house existed on the property before 1805 as William jnr assisted in the rescue of his neighbour George William Evans and his wife whose house and land on the lowlands had been swamped by floodwaters. They were taken to the safety of William’s house on higher land.

Cox snr had been away in England for a number of years and on his return in 1810, commenced major improvements to the property at Clarendon. A photograph of the house c.1890 depicted a single storey house and research by the late Professor Ian Jack and based on the 1920s manuscript of architect, artist and author Hardy Wilson judged that the structure would have consisted of about twelve rooms. Sadly by the late 1890s the house was in irretrievable disrepair.

Over the years the property has been owned by several other Hawkesbury notables including the Dight family and Philip Charley. In 1914, the then owner, Charley gave some of the finer architectural features to the National Gallery of Victoria including a portion of the brickwork with window, door, fireplace and cornice.

The adjacent property now known as Clarendon Park at 110 Dight Street, Richmond was built for the government surveyor George William Evans between 1806 and 1810. This large two storey dwelling with a original indented middle section is still existing unlike the Cox property Clarendon House.

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