Charles Clarke (died 1750) was an English barrister, judge and politician.

Life

The son of Alured Clarke of

Godmanchester Godmanchester ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. It is separated from Huntingdon, to the north, by the valley of the River Great Ouse. Being on the Roman road network, the town has a lo ...

Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The p ...

, by his second wife Ann, fourth daughter of the Rev. Charles Trimnell, rector of

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, and sister to Bishop Charles Trimnell, he was placed at

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus"), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th century through to the early 19th centur ...

in 1719 under his brother

Alured Clarke Sir Alured Clarke (24 November 1744 – 16 September 1832) was a British Army officer. He took charge of all British troops in Georgia in May 1780 and was then deployed to Philadelphia to supervise the evacuation of British prisoners of ...

, then a fellow of the college. Without taking a degree, he entered Lincoln's Inn in 1717, and was called to the bar in 1723. Clarke built up a good practice as barrister, and rebuilt the family house at Godmanchester. In 1731 he was appointed recorder of

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...

, and in 1739 represented in parliament. In the new parliament of 1741 he was elected for in

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, but in its second session in Hilary term, 1743, became a

baron of the exchequer The Barons of the Exchequer, or ''barones scaccarii'', were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (''inferior'') barons. When Robert Shute was ...

in place of Sir Thomas Abney. At this time he was counsel to the admiralty, and auditor of Greenwich Hospital, where he was succeeded by Heneage Legge. On 17 May 1750 Clarke died of a fever. It was said to have been gaol distemper, caught at the Old Bailey, at the so-called "black sessions" that year. The outbreak caused the deaths of other legal figures, officials and jurymen, and was attributed to the number of prisoners and the crowd present at Captain Clark's trial for killing Captain Innes in a duel. He was buried at Godmanchester.

Family

Clarke married, first, Anne, daughter of Thomas Greene, bishop of Ely, by whom he had a son

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, a British Army general and secondly, Jane, daughter of Major Mullins of Winchester, by whom he had four sons including Sir Alured Clarke, lieutenant-governor of Quebec in 1792; and two daughters. His second wife survived him.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Charles Year of birth missing 1750 deaths English barristers 18th-century English judges Members of Lincoln's Inn Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1734–1741 British MPs 1741–1747 People from Godmanchester