Author: Clason, Isaac Starr
Biography:
CLASON, Isaac Starr (1797-1835: ancestry.com)
Born in New York on 13 May 1797 and baptised at the Dutch Reformed Church on 5 July, he was the son of Catherine (Mathewman) Clason and Isaac Clason (d 1815), a wealthy merchant. He was well educated and inherited a fortune, which he wasted "in a course of prodigal living" (Duyckinck). He became an actor, playing Shakespearean roles in New York without much success. His marriage of 5 Feb. 1819 to Mary Sarah Holman, a fellow actor, appears to have been childless and it is not clear what happened to her. He taught school in Baltimore MD for a time but left without notice and went to London about 1832. There he is reported to have spent £18,000 in two years; his name appears among insolvent debtors in 1834. Reduced to poverty, he sealed up the room in Mitre Court in which he and his mistress lodged, lit a charcoal fire, and died with her of the fumes on 17 Mar. 1835. (ancestry.com 14 Aug. 2025; findmypast.com 14 Aug. 2025; Morning Chronicle 8 Apr. 1834; Northampton Mercury 21 Mar. 1835; Baltimore Patriot 15 Apr. 1835; Duyckinck; Appleton) HJ