Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/411

  accompaniments, which appeared before he settled in Birmingham. He also published a second set of eight songs, a set of harpsichord sonatas, with accompaniments for two violins and a violoncello, two glees for three voices (in 1791), a set of ten songs with orchestral accompaniments (in 1799), a set of eight songs and four canzonets, and a series of instructions for singers. His works show him to have been a clever musician; he was much patronised by Lord Dudley and Ward.

 CLARK, JOHN (1688–1736), writing-master, son of John Clark, a sea captain who was drowned in his own ship on the Goodwin Sands, entered Merchant Taylors' School on 10 March 1696–7, and was subsequently apprenticed to one Snow, a writing-master, under whom he became a proficient in the art of penmanship, which by his treatises on the subject he did much to simplify. He published: 1. ‘The Penman's Diversion in the usual hands of Great Britain in a free and natural manner,’ 1708. 2. ‘Writing improved, or Penmanship made easy in its useful and ornamental parts, with various examples in all the hands,’ 1712, 2nd ed. 1714. 3. ‘Lectures on Accounts, or Bookkeeping after the Italian Method by double entry of debtor and creditor,’ 1732. He died in 1736, and was buried at Hillingdon, near Uxbridge.

 CLARK, JOHN, M.D. (1744–1805), medical philanthropist, was born in 1744 at Roxburgh. He studied divinity at Edinburgh, but afterwards turned to medicine. In 1768 he obtained the appointment of surgeon's mate in the East India Company's service. He retired from it about 1775, and settled in practice near Newcastle, having previously graduated M.D. at St. Andrews. He became well known for his active interest in schemes for the benefit of the sick poor. He was the founder of the Newcastle Dispensary; he recommended reforms in the management of the infirmary, and he called attention to the need of hospitals for infectious diseases, both in that town and elsewhere. He died at Bath on 15 April 1805. Apart from his labours as a medical philanthropist, his credit rests on the two following works, which contain a good many valuable facts and principles to climatology and epidemiology: ‘Observations on Fevers, and on the Scarlet Fever with Ulcerated Sore Throat at Newcastle in 1778,’ Lond. 1780; ‘Observations on the Diseases in Long Voyages to Hot Countries, particularly the East Indies,’ 2 vols. Lond. 1792. His minor writings are ‘Letter upon the Influenza,’ ‘Account of a Plan for Newcastle Infirmary,’ and various papers on institutions for infectious diseases in Newcastle and other populous towns. His son William (1788–1869) is noticed below.

 CLARK, JOHN (d. 1807), Gaelic scholar, was a land and tithe agent. He published what purports to be a collection of translations of highland poems under the title, ‘Works of the Caledonian Bards,’ Edinburgh, 1778, 8vo, and ‘An Answer to Mr. Shaw's Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Works of Ossian,’ Edinburgh, 1781, 8vo. Clark reported on the state of agriculture in Brecknock, Radnor, and Hereford for the board of agriculture, each report being published separately in 1794 under the title of ‘General View of Agriculture,’ &c., 4to. He also wrote a treatise on ‘The Nature and Value of Leasehold Property,’ which appeared posthumously in 1808. He died at Pembroke in 1807. He was a fellow of the Edinburgh Society of Antiquaries.

 CLARK, JOHN, comedian (d. 1879). [See ]

CLARK, JOSEPH (d. 1696?), posturemaster, of Pall Mall, although a well-grown man, and inclining to stoutness, was enabled to contort his body in such a manner as to represent almost any kind of deformity and dislocation. The ‘Guardian’ (No. 102) speaks of him as having been ‘the plague of all the tailors about town,’ for he would be measured in one posture, which he changed for another when his clothes were brought home. He even imposed upon the famous surgeon, James Moleyns or Mullins, to whom he applied as a pretended patient. He dislocated the vertebræ of his back and other parts of his body in so frightful a fashion that Moleyns was shocked at the sight, and would not so much as attempt his cure. Among other freaks he often passed as a begging cripple with persons in whose company he had been but a few minutes before. Upon such occasions he would not only twist his limbs out of shape, but entirely alter the expression of his face. His powers of facial contortion are said to