William Barnard Clarke (1806–1865), sometimes mis-written Bernard, was an English architect, cartographer, archaeological writer and art collector, numismatist and literary translator.H. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 3rd edition (1997), p.252. He was the founding president of the Architectural Society of London, 1831, and supervised the restoration of the Eleanor Cross at Waltham Cross in 1831–1832. Producing a celebrated series of maps or plans of European and Russian cities, and taking a strong interest in the discoveries at Pompeii, he travelled much in Europe and from the 1840s had his home and collections in the Grand Duchy of Baden. In 1865 he published an English translation of Goethe's Faust. He was an elder brother of the artist Harriet Ludlow Clarke,; and a brother-in-law of Henry Bellenden Ker.
Family
William was born in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire in 1806, one of the eldest of several children of Edward Clarke of Cheshunt and his wife Sarah (née Linnell).P.W Nash, N. Savage, G. Beasley, J. Meriton & A. Shell (comp.), Early Printed Books, 1478–1840: Catalogue of the British Architectural Library Early Imprints Collection, Vol. 5: Indices, Supplement, Appendices, Addenda and Corrigenda (K.G. Saur Verlag, Munich 2003), p. 2486, etc, at nos. 654, 2294–95, and Addendum to no. 3795, citing the research of Marilyn Handley of Australia. The name "William Barnard" seems to have been given in homage to a cousin of that name, shipwright of Deptford, from whom Edward Clarke received a substantial legacy in 1805.Will of William Barnard, Ship Builder of Deptford, Kent (P.C.C. 1805, Nelson quire). At William's admission to St Paul's School, London at the age of 10 in 1817, his father was described as a Solicitor of Great Ormond Street in London.R.B. Gardiner (ed.), The Admissions Registers of St Paul's School, from 1748–1876 (George Bell and Sons, London 1884), p. 256 (Internet Archive). His elder sister Elizabeth Ann (born 1803)St Mary, Ealing, Parish registers (baptisms), 4 May 1803. married the legal reformer Henry Bellenden Ker in 1823,'Elizabeth Bellenden Ker sketchbook, 1830–1858', Penn Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library – Manuscripts. MS Coll. 825 (Franklin). See Westminster, St Marylebone, Parish registers (marriages), 17 November 1823. but the connection was earlier: Elizabeth's brother Edward John Bellenden Clarke was christened with his sister Harriet Ludlow Clarke in October 1816, as of Great Ormond Street.St Andrew Holborn, Register 1815–1817 (baptisms), 14 October 1816.
William's nearer brother, Frederick Christian Clarke (born Cheshunt c. 1807), was admitted attorney at the King's Bench assigned to Edward Clarke (their father), both of 9, Chapel Street, Bedford Row (in St Andrew, Holborn) in Michaelmas 1836.'Attorneys to be Admitted, Michaelmas Term 1836', The Legal Observer, Or, Journal of Jurisprudence, Volume 12 (Richards & Co., London 1836), p. 85 (Google). At much the same time Frederick became a Fellow of the Geological Society of London.Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, Vol. 2 (1837), no. 49, p. 468 (Google). During the 1840s their practice, in partnership with John Richards, appears at this address as "Richards, Clarke & Clarke",The Post Office London Directory, 1843, pp. 130-31, 344 (Google). and there Edward, Frederick (solicitor), and William B. Clarke (architect) had their business premises in 1860.London Royal Blue Book for 1860, p. 311. In 1861 it was also the home of Frederick and his large family, while father Edward, aged 92, was still living at Waltham Cross (Census).
William Barnard Clarke (of this parish) married Charlotte Brooks (of St George's, Bloomsbury) at St Andrew Holborn, London, by banns on 1 July 1830, witnessed by William Brooks.St Andrew Holborn, Parish Register (marriages), sub anno. See also 'Births, Marriages and Deaths', The Spectator, 10 July 1830. In 1833–35, as Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, he was resident at Upper Seymour Street, Euston Square.'List of Fellows', Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, V (1833), p. 429; VIII (1835), p. 317 (Google). The death of Charlotte Clarke, wife of Mr. W.B. Clarke, Architect, is recorded for 30 March 1839, as of Albany Street, Regent's Park, where it is stated that she was the daughter of Major-General W. Brooks of the Honourable East India Company's service.'Deaths. Clarke, Mrs. Charlotte', in The Court and Ladies' Magazine, Monthly Critic and Museum, Volume 14 (United Series, Vol. III) (Dobbs & Co., London 1839), p. 554 (Google). Her burial took place on 9 April 1839 at Camden St Pancras parish church, as of Albany Street, where her age is given as 35. Major-General Brooks, who died in England on 30 October 1838, was Military Auditor General and Chief Engineer at the Bombay Presidency, India.'Editor's Preface', in Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, Vol. I (Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London 1819, reprinted with Preface 1877), p. x (Google).
Architect
Clarke is said to have spent a long period in Rome during his youth, pursuing architectural studies,M. Kollofrath, 'Aus der Geschichte der Freiburger Sammlungen', in Einwohnerbuch der Stadt Freiburg im Breisgau (Adressbuchverlag Rombach & Co. GMBH., Freiburg im Breisgau 1954), front matter, pp. 12-24, at p. 16 pdf p. 14 (in German). and visited and studied the remains at Pompeii. At its formation in 1831 Clarke became President of the Architectural Society of London, a predecessor organization to the Royal Institute of British Architects, with which it merged in 1842.'Introduction', in Kalendar of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 101st Session, November 1934-October 1935 (London 1934), p. 15 (Internet Archive), 'Historical Sketch'. While in Pompeii he made the friendship of the Swiss architect Melchior Berri, brother-in-law of the art historian Jacob Burckhardt, and through this connection Berri became an Honorary Member of the Society and of the Institute.G. Germann, 'Melchior Berris, Rathausentwurf für Bern (1833)', Sect I: Der Architekt, Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde Vol. 69 (1969), pp. 240-51 e-periodica.ch download, at p. 244 (pdf p. 6).
Clarke's 1831 proposal for the Botanical and Ornamental Garden to be formed on Primrose Hill,W.B. Clarke, 'View of the Botanical & Ornamental Garden, to be formed on Primrose Hill' (Lithograph), British Museum ref. 1880,0911.947 (British Museum Image Gallery). was exhibited at the 64th Royal Academy Exhibition in 1832,The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, MDCCCXXXII. The Sixty-Fourth (R.A., London 1832), p. 44, no. 1043 (Google). and was made to promote the scheme to the subscribers.J.C. Loudon (ed.), 'Domestic Notices:- England', The Gardener's Magazine and Register of Rural and Domestic Improvement, VIII, p. 470; IX (London 1833), p. 463 (Google). M.L. Simo, Loudon and the Landscape: From Country Seat to Metropolis, 1783–1843 (Yale University Press, New York/London 1989), pp. 163-64. In 1832 he received the thanks of the Royal Astronomical Society, for whom he had executed an engraving of the head of Isaac Newton, to embellish the Society's Diplomas for their Associates.'Report of the Council to the 12th Annual General Meeting, 10 February 1832', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. II: January 1831 to February 1833 (Priestley and Weale, London 1833), no. 10, p. 61 (Google).
Waltham Cross In 1831–34 Clarke promoted and supervised the restoration of the 13th-century Eleanor Cross in Waltham Cross, offering his services without remuneration, under a committee to which Edward Clarke, Esq., was Secretary.Ephemeral Notice, 29 October 1831, at Google; P.C. Standing, Memorials of Old Hertfordshire (Bemrose and Sons Limited, London 1905), pp. 70-71 (Internet Archive); The Gallery of Modern British Artists: Consisting of a Series of Engravings (Simpkin and Marshall, London 1834), pp. 28-29 (Google). He submitted a "Geometrical Elevation" of his proposed restoration to the President of the Society of Antiquaries of London in order to enlist the Society's approval and support.'A Geometrical Elevation of Waltham Cross (1831), Royal Collections, ref. RCIN 701557 (Royal Collection Trust). A "preview" appreciation is given in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1832, which refers to the posture of the sculpted figures, and problems of interpretation relating to the completion of the pinnacle or spire of the cross.A.J.K., 'Waltham Cross', Gentleman's Magazine, CII (152, Vol. 25 of New Series), (J.B. Nichols and Son, London 1832), Part 2, pp. 105-08 and full page engraving (Google).
The restoration, which was funded by subscription, was approved for its sympathetic treatment of the Gothic monument.'Waltham Cross. W.B. Clarke, Architect', in The Gallery of Modern British Artists (Fisher, Son, and Co., London 1835), Vol. 1, pp. 26-29 and Plate (Google). On 17 May 1834 a notable company gathered at the Falcon Inn in Waltham (part of which had been demolished improve the environs of the Cross), to commemorate the result. This meeting was chaired by William Harrison, K.C., and addressed by the elderly Sir Abraham Hume (accompanied by his grandson the Viscount Alford), by Richard Taylor for the Society of Antiquaries of London, and by Sir Richard Westmacott for the Royal Academy. Clarke was especially commended, and he and the Architectural Society were toasted: he replied, explaining the purposes of that Society, and describing how he had first surveyed the cross ten years previously.'Waltham Cross', The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 155, New Series Vol. I: 1834 (William Pickering/John Bowyer Nichols and Son, London 1834), pp. 636-37 (Google).
Continuing presidency In 1836 Thomas Larkins Walker, introducing the first part of the third, posthumous volume of Augustus Pugin's work Examples of Gothic Architecture, dedicated it to the officers of the Architectural Society, headed by William Barnard Clarke, F.R.A.S., as President.A. Pugin and T.L. Walker, The History and Antiquities of the Vicars' Close, Wells (Examples of Gothic Architecture: Selected from Various Ancient Edifices in England, Vol. III) (Author, London 1836), p. iv (Google). He continued as President until 1837–38, when he resigned on the grounds that he was visiting the continent for a prolonged period.W.B. Sarsfield Taylor, The Origin, Progress, and Present Condition of the Fine Arts in Great Britain and Ireland, 2 vols (Whittaker & Co., London 1841), II, pp. 344-45 (Google).
Some of his addresses to the Society survive, and in the sixth, of 1836–37, he protests the insufficiency of his years and taste for the important role they have conferred upon him.'Architectural Society' (sixth address), Loudon's Architectural Magazine, Vol. IV: 1837 (Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, London 1837), pp. 92-93 (Google). In his address for the session 1837–38, delivered 7 November 1837, in which he welcomed the new reign (of Queen Victoria) and looked forward to an age of public welfare in which the Fine Arts and Architecture should flourish, he opened in a similar way: "Gentlemen – Having been elected for the eighth time your President, the duty of opening our present Session devolves upon me. I could have wished that the honour of the Presidentship of the Architectural Society had been bestowed upon some other individual better able, by his learning, talent, and genius, to fill this high and important office, rather than so humble and unknown a person as myself."'Architectural Society, 37, Lincoln's Inn Fields', The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal, Vol. 1: October 1837-December 1838 (London 1838), p. 53 (Google).
Gallery of British Artists