His grandfather Johan Willem (William) Crolius, a manufacturer of stoneware, is said to have come from Germany to New York, and ran a pottery on Reade Street, near Broadway.

William's son John Crolius acquired property on Reade Street, about one hundred feet (30 m) west of Centre, where the pottery and the family residence were maintained for many years, until Clarkson Crolius removed the works to No.

At the beginning of the War of 1812, he was a major in the Twenty-seventh Regiment of the State Militia, but resigned his commission and received an appointment to the same rank in the regular service.

In 1831, he was the leader of the National Republican Party in New York City.

Their son, State Senator Clarkson Crolius (born 1801), discontinued the manufacture of stoneware in Bayard Street in 1845, and the pottery was afterwards demolished.