Researching William Clarke

Educated locally, Clarke undertook his apprenticeship with Longbridge's Iron Works in Bedlington and at Armstrong, Mitchell & Co. in Newcastle upon Tyne.

In 1864, he set up a small engineering business on the South Shore in the same area as Hawks and Abbots iron foundries. Within a year, he had taken a partner, Abel Chapman and later the two were joined by Charles Parsons to create Clarke Chapman. The firm relocated to St James' Road and within 20 years, was world-famous.

William Clarke played an active part in the affairs of Gateshead and was a JP and a Council member for some years as well as an organiser for the local Volunteer Corps, treasurer of the Children's Hospital and a supporter of the Northern Counties Institute for the Deaf. Clarke was a staunch Methodist and the first Treasurer of the 'New Durham Road Wesleyan Mission Committee' in 1885. He also introduced a number of reading rooms and science classes for Gateshead people. It was said of William that he seldom 'strayed from the banks of the Tyne'. He died unexpectedly at the age of 59.

He was born in Arthur, Ontario, the son of William Clarke and Margaret Dryden. Clarke entered business as a merchant in Palmerston. In 1893, he married S. Johnston. Clarke ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the House of Commons in 1908. He was a Unionist Party member from 1917 to 1921. Clarke was defeated when he ran for reelection in 1921. He died in Palmerston at the age of 71.

Clarke was born in Melbourne, son of William Joseph Sayers Clarke by his marriage with Miss Mary Ann Welsford. William Clarke married Mary Ann Mortimer on 25 June 1862 in Melbourne, later moving to Sydney. Clarke was a Justice of the Peace for the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria.

On 24 November 1880 Clarke was elected member for Orange in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, until being defeated at the general election in January 1889. Clarke was Minister of Justice in the fourth ministry of Sir Henry Parkes, from 20 January 1887 to 10 January 1889. He held important positions in connection with financial institutions in the colonies, and became Managing Director of the London branch of the Standard Bank of Australia. He was one of the New South Wales commissioners for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London in 1886.

Clarke died on in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.

Clarke was born in Somersetshire, England, the second son of William Clarke, of St. Botolph, Aldgate, London, and Sarah nee Turner, of Weston Zoyland, in Somersetshire. His father died, and he was raised by his uncle Health issues (a weak chest and a malformed hip) forced him to immigrate, and he settled in Tasmania in 1840, and subsequently acquired extensive pastoral property in that colony, and in Victoria, South Australia, and New Zealand. Clarke was member for the Southern Province in the Legislative Council.

Clarke married Eliza, daughter of the Reverend George Pyke Dowling, of Puckington, Somerset, and Anne Biggs his wife, of an old and wealthy family of Bristol merchants, and had issue three sons — William John Clarke; Thomas Biggs Clarke, who was endowed with his father's Quorn Hall and Brambletye properties in Tasmania; and Joseph Clarke, who inherited the paternal estates in South Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania.

Known generally as 'Big' Clarke and 'Moneyed' Clarke, he was widely known for his land hunger. He did not engage in agriculture but stuck to the 'raising of sheep' as a 'better paying game'. He introduced the Leicester breed of sheep into Australia. The gold rush further increased his prosperity and meat sales boomed. The money received from his wool clips was lent at high interest to Australian import houses. He made numerous generous large donations to various charities. In time he acquired the reputation of being the richest man in Australia, this being regarded as a consequence of what his obituaries term 'parsimonious habits'. He was such a large man that 8 people were needed to carry him around on a reinforced Eucalypt pine/oak litter.

Clarke died in Essendon, Victoria on 13 January 1874.