Rev. William Clarke

William Clarke was born in Shropshire and educated at Shrewsbury School before attending St. John's College, Cambridge (B.A. 1715; Fellow 1717-25; M.A. 1719). He was afterwards chaplain to the Duke of Newcastle, rector of Buxted, Sussex, and chancellor of the church of Chichester (1770). Clarke married the daughter of William Wotton, author of Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning (1694), a leading participant in the Ancients-Moderns debate. Plagued by debts, Wotton was later forced to reside with his son-in-law. With William Bowyer, Clarke translated Joseph Trapp's Lectures on Poetry into English. There is an extensive biography in John Nichols's Anecdotes (1812-15).

TEXT RECORDS:

1740 ca.An Impromptu on some of the English Poets.

PUBLICATIONS:

Elements of the civil law. 1730.
The connexion of the Roman, Saxon, and English Coins. 1767.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Shrewsbury School
St. John's College Cambridge
Bachelor of Arts
College Fellow
Master of Arts

clergyman
antiquary
essayist

Rev. Edward Clarke
William Hayley
William Wotton

REFERENCE:

DNB; not NCBEL.

Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15) 4:363-81; letters in Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58) 3:549-55; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Rev. William Clarke:

1.	1741  Elizabeth Montagu to Mrs. Donnellan, 1741; Emily J. Climenson, Elizabeth Montagu (1906) 1:91.
2.	1824  George Dyer, in Privileges of the University of Cambridge, Supplement (1824) 2:63.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Rev. William Clarke:

1.	1812  John Nichols, in Literary Anecdotes of the XVIII Century (1812-15) 4:363-64.
2.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 9:421-22.