John Creemer Clarke (30 May 1821 – 11 February 1895) was an English merchant and cloth manufacturer and a Liberal politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

from 1874 to 1885.

Early life

Clarke was the son of Robert Clarke of

St Giles in the Wood St Giles in the Wood is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England. The village lies about 2.5 miles east of the town of Great Torrington, and the parish, which had a population of 566 in 2001 compared with 623 in 1901, ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

and his wife Graciana Creemer, daughter of John Creemer of

Exbourne Exbourne is a village and civil parish in the English county of Devon. The Anglo-Saxon origin of the name is ''Gæces Burn'' - Cuckoo Stream. It occupies a hillside location between the River Okement and the Hole Brook, about 5 miles north of O ...

Devon.

Career

He started work in a drapery business in Bideford before moving to Abingdon from Devon in 1840. He joined the firm of Hyde and Son, clothing manufacturers before it became Hyde, Son and Clarke, and finally Clarke, Sons and Co. The factory in West St Helen Street employed 2,000 people at one stage making it one of the largest clothing manufacturers in the country. He was a Justice of the Peace for

Abingdon-on-Thames Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Thames in the Vale of the White Horse district of Oxfordshire, England. The Historic counties of England, historic county town of Berksh ...

Debrett's House of Commons 1881
/ref> and Mayor of Abingdon-on-Thames in 1869. He was also Chairman of Abingdon Railway Company from 1873. He was one of the initial directors of the Blackpool Railway Company, incorporated on 7 August 1884. At the 1874 general election, Clarke was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Abingdon. He was re-elected in

1880 Events January *January 27 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the incandescent light bulb. Edison filed for a US patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires." gr ...

and he held the seat until he retired from Parliament at the 1885 general election. In 1878 he was one of the four men elected to represent the Oxford District at that year`s Wesleyan Methodist Conference, the first to admit lay representatives.

Other work

Clarke was a philanthropist who gave land and helped fund the building of Trinity Wesleyan Methodist Church often referred to as 'Clarke’s Chapel'. He also funded the building of the Cottage Hospital in Abingdon in 1886. He was on the governing body of

Abingdon School Abingdon School is an independent day and boarding school in Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England. It is the List of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom, twentieth oldest Independent School (UK), independent British school. In May 202 ...

from c.1890 until 1895 and was a Master of Christ's Hospital of Abingdon.

Personal life

Clarke married firstly in 1845 Anna Maria Avis, daughter of John Avis of Minehead Somerset. She died in 1848 and in 1849 he married secondly Elizabeth Joyce, daughter of John Joyce of Timberscombe Somerset. He and his first wife had one child, John Heber Clarke (1846-1898). He and his second wife had three sons and six daughters. His second son predeceased him.The Reading Mercury, 16 February 1895, p.4. The 1861 census shows that he resided at Waste Court, a property that was handed down to his third son Harry Thomas Clarke (a borough magistrate) on his death in 1895. Waste Court is now part of Abingdon School and was renamed Austin House in 2015. Both his eldest son John Heber Clarke and Harry Thomas Clarke were Mayors of Abingdon. His third daughter, Florence Creemer Clarke, married

William Alexander McArthur William Alexander McArthur (1857 – 7 June 1923), was a British Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician and businessman. Biography McArthur was born in Sydney, Colony of New South Wales, the eldest son of Alexander McArthur and his wife Maria ...

(1857-1923) in 1890.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, John Creemer 1820s births 1895 deaths People from Abingdon-on-Thames Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1874–1880 UK MPs 1880–1885 Governors of Abingdon School 19th-century English businesspeople