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 have been equally extraordinary. Clark was dead before 1697; Evelyn, in his ‘Numismata,' published in that year, mentions him as ‘our late Proteus Clark' (p. 277). A year later a brief account of him was communicated to the Royal Society (Phil. Trans. xx. 262). He is the subject of two drawings, by ‘Old’ Laroon, in Tempest's ‘Cryes and Habits of London,’ 1688.

 CLARK, RICHARD (1739–1831), city chamberlain, was born in the parish of St. Botolph-without-Aldgate in March 1789. He was admitted an attorney, and obtained a considerable practice in his profession. In 1776 he was elected the alderman of the Broad Street ward on the resignation of Alderman Hopkins, and in the following year served the office of sheriff. At the bye election in September 1781, occasioned by the death of Alderman Hayley, he contested the vacant seat for the city but was defeated by Sir Watkin Lewes, the lord mayor, by 2,685 to 2,387. In 1784 Clark was elected lord mayor, and on 19 May 1785 was appointed president of Christ’s Hospital. On the death of Wilkes he was elected chamberlain of London, 2 Jan. 1798. In the same year he resigned his posts of alderman and president of Christ's Hospital, and was appointed president of Bridewell.

He was fond of mixing in literary society, and in 1785 was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. At the age of fifteen he was introduced by Sir John Hawkins to to Dr. Johnson, whose suppers at the Mitre Tavern in Fleet Street he used frequently to attend. He was also a member of the Essex Head Club, for which he had been proposed by Johnson himself. In 1776 Clarke married Margaret, the daughter of John Pistor, a woollendraper in Aldersgate, by whom he left two sons. In 1774 he purchased the Porch House in Guildford Street, Chertsey, famous as the last residence of Cowley the poet. Here Clark lived during the latter days of his life. He died at Chertsey on 16 Jan. 1831, in his ninety-second year, having held the post of chamberlain for thirty-three years. His bust, executed by Sievier in 1829, and his portrait, painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence are in the possession of the corporation at Guildhall.

 CLARK, RICHARD (1780–1856), musician, was born at Datchet on 5 April 1781. He came of a musical family, for his mother was a daughter of John Sale the elder, a lay clerk of St. Georges Chapel, Windsor, when Clark was admitted at an early age as chorister, under Dr. Aylward. He also sang at Eton College, under Stephen Heather. In 1802, on the death of his grandfather, Clark succeeded him as lay clerk at St. George's Chapel and Eton College, both of which appointments he held until 1811. In 1805 was appointed secretary of the Glee Club, and about the same period occasionally acted as deputy at the Chapel Royal for Bartleman; at St. Paul's for his uncle J. Sale; and at Westminster for his uncle, J. B. Sale. On 3 July 1814 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Musicians. On 1 Oct. 1820 Clark was appointed a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, in the place of Joseph Corfe. He also acted as deputy-organist for J. Stafford Smith. In 1827 he became a vicar choral of St. Paul's Cathedral and in the following year a lay clerk at Westminster Abbey.

In 1814 Clark published a collection of poetry selected from the glees and catches sung at the Catch Club and other similar meetings. In the preface to this book was an account of the national anthem, in which the authorship was attributed to Henry Carey (d. 1743) [q. v.] A second edition appeared in 1824, in which this account was omitted, as two years previously Clark had started the still undecided controversy as to the authorship of 'God save the King' by publishing a pamphlet upon the subject, in which he attributed it—with more power of invention than critical acumen—to the Elizabethan composer, John Bull [q. v.] Although the untrustworthiness of Clark’s statements and the worthlessness of his criticisms have been repeatedly exposed, the erroneous idea which he was the first to circulate is still accepted in some quarters, probably owing to the lucky coincidence by which the alleged composer of the English national anthem a name so closely associated with Englishmen. Not content with this display of his powers of antiquarian research, in 1836 Clark brought out another remarkable work, ‘Reminiscences of Handel,’ in which he proved (to his own satisfaction) that the air known as ‘The Harmonious Blacksmith’ must have been sung by a blacksmith at Cannons, near Edgware, of the name of Powell, and overheard by Handel. He showed his faith in this discovery by setting up memorials to Powell,