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Author: Clark, John

Biography:

CLARK, John (1746-1809: ancestry.co.uk)

He was born on 13 Jan. 1746 at Frome-Selwood, Somerset, the son of John Clark (1702-80), brewer, clothier, mill owner, and shipping merchant. His mother’s name is not known. She may have been the Mary Prior who married John Clark at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, in 1744. Eschewing the brewery trade, he took over his father’s cloth manufacturing business in Trowbridge, expanded it further and  amassed a fortune. At the age of eighteen he underwent a conversion experience and by 1767 he had begun preaching. His Memoirs(1809) are largely a record of his itinerant local preaching. He had strong Methodist sympathies and was on good terms with Baptists. From 1771 he was minister at the Tabernacle Chapel, Trowbridge and developed the Sunday School. He saw no conflict between his business interests and his spiritual concerns. Trade “enables me to preach the gospel without charge . . . [and] to deliver the truth with greater freedom” (Memoirs, 54). He married Catherine Norris on 16 Mar. 1779 at Walcot St. Swithin, Bath.  They had several sons. In 1789 he built Polebarn House, Trowbridge, Grade II listed, where he installed an observatory and an organ to pursue astronomy and music, and modelled the garden on Stourhead, with lake, temple, and gazebo. On his brother Joseph’s death in 1793, he invited his widow and two sons to live at Polebarn House and in 1801 set the sons up in business. He died on 20 May 1809 at Trowbridge and was buried on 29 May at the Tabernacle. His widow survived him and remained at Polebarn House until her death in 1826. (Memoirs of the Late Reverend John Clark, Written by Himself, ed. William Jay [Bath 1810]; ancestry.co.uk 20 Jan. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 20 Jan. 2023; Evangelical Magazine July 1809, 306) AA

 

Other Names:

  • J. Clark
 

Books written (5):

Trowbridge/ London/ Bristol/ Bath: printed for the author by T. Long/ T. Chapman/ W. Bulgin and R. Edwards/ S. Hazard, 1799
Trowbridge/ London/ Bristol/ Bath: printed for the author by T. Long/ T. Chapman/ W. Bulgin and R. Edwards/ S. Hazard, 1799
London: for the author by T. Williams, 1803
London: for the author by T. Williams, 1804
Trowbridge: [no publisher: printed "for the Author" by E. Sweet], 1807