James Clarke ( 27 May 1798 – 23 September 1861) was an English antiquary, archaeologist, shopkeeper, and amateur poet. He published numerous minor articles on the antiquities of his home county,

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, and a volume of

doggerel Doggerel, or doggrel, is poetry that is irregular in rhythm and in rhyme, often deliberately for burlesque or comic effect. Alternatively, it can mean verse which has a monotonous rhythm, easy rhyme, and cheap or trivial meaning. The word is de ...

verse.

Biography

James Clarke was born to William Clarke and his wife, Mary Cook, in Bedingfield,

. He was baptised on 27 May 1798. His first occupation was as a grocer and

draper Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period ...

in Suffolk, his shop established opposite the gates of Easton Park, the residence of the dukes of Hamilton, and near Wickham Market. On 12 April 1821, he married Jane Louisa Clamp, ''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Clonmel. Together, they had four children - three sons and a daughter - between 1826 and 1844. Clarke was a keen antiquary, particularly for those antiquities of his local area. In 1847, he became an associate of the

British Archaeological Association The British Archaeological Association (BAA) was founded in 1843 and aims to inspire, support and disseminate high quality research in the fields of Western archaeology, art and architecture, primarily of the mediaeval period, through lectures, co ...

(BAA), which, the BAA stated in their obituary of Clarke, "proved a great source of improvement and enjoyment" for him. Clarke made many communications to the association's journal, predominately concerning his own finds, which the BAA referred to as "numerous, if ..not of any great importance". The BAA lists 29 communications between 1849 and 1861, among them are reports of: a 12/13th-century brass plate, coins from English kings ranging from

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after t ...

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

(including

Roman coins Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum#Numismatics, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction during the Roman Republic, Republic, in the third century BC, through Roman Empire, Imperial ...

and those of

Alexander III of Scotland Alexander III (; Modern Gaelic: ; 4 September 1241 – 19 March 1286) was King of Alba (Scotland) from 1249 until his death. He concluded the Treaty of Perth, by which Scotland acquired sovereignty over the Western Isles and the Isle of Man. ...

), a Roman burial vault at Rosas Pit, various seals and rings, architectural remains, and - in his last communication - a denarius of

Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV (1175 – 19 May 1218) was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1209 until his death in 1218. Otto spent most of his early life in England and France. He was a follower of his uncle Richard the Lionheart, who made him Count of Poitou in 1196 ...

. Clarke's closest partner in his antiquarian studies was Edward Dunthorne (1792–1853), a fellow grocer in nearby Dennington and antiquary. Clarke was also an amateur poet, publishing an antiquarian-inspired collection of 115 four-line stanzas, in his ''The Suffolk antiquary; containing a brief sketch of the sites of ancient castles, abbeys, priories … also notices of ancient coins and other antiquities found in the county … concluding with a petition for calling in all defaced coins, and other changes to quiet the public mind'' (1849). This collection of self-declared "doggerel rhyme" includes tangential fragments of antiquarian and topographical information on Suffolk, and tributes to fellow antiquaries of the county, including David Elisha Davy and W. S. Fitch. Clarke health "had been failing for some time", according to the BAA, before he died on 23 September 1862 at Easton, at the age of 63, having published his last communication to the BAA a year earlier. His wife survived him and he was buried at Church of All Saints, Easton, where his gravestone was engraved with a final stanza of his "doggerel rhyme". His will was probated at £1500.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, James 1798 births 1861 deaths 19th-century English poets 19th-century English antiquarians 19th-century British archaeologists English archaeologists English male poets People from Suffolk Coastal (district)