Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/437

  at the association was made in April 1801. For some time previously his health had been failing, and he died on 25 Sept. of that year at the age of sixty-three.



CLARKE, JAMES FERNANDEZ (1812–1876) medical writer, was born at Olney, Buckinghamshire, in 1812. His father and grandfather were prosperous lace merchants. He was much influenced by the non-conformist associations of Olney, and when a schoolboy in London went regularly to hear Edward Irving preach. After one or two brief apprenticeships, in 1828 he was placed under C. Snitch, a general practitioner, in Brydges Street, Covent Garden. Here he managed to get the run of Cadell's library in the Strand, and picked up a large general acquaintance with literature and literary people. In October 1833 he entered as a student at Dermott's Medical School in Gerrard Street, Soho. For a time he acted as Dermott's amanuensis, and afterwards aided Ryan in the short-lived 'London Medical and Surgical Journal.' In 1834 a report by Clarke of a case of Liston's pleased the latter, and led to his introducing him to Wakley, editor of the 'Lancet,' who was then in want of help and engaged Clarke at once. He became a skilled clinical reporter at hospitals, and also was for many years the reporter of numerous medical societies, encountering in both capacities much opposition, but his good judgment kept him out of most of the broils in which the 'Lancet' was involved. For thirty years he was in the service of the 'Lancet,' but at the same time carried on a laborious practice in Gerrard Street, having become a member of the College of Surgeons in 1837. In 1852, 160 members of the medical profession presented him with an inkstand and a service of plate worth 200l. as a testimonial for his literary services to the profession.

Clarke was a very hard worker, a model of punctuality, rarely left town or took a holiday, and lived in the same house for nearly forty years. He had a great fund of anecdote. On ceasing to write for the 'Lancet,' after more than thirty years' service, he published his reminiscences in the 'Medical Times and Gazette.' These were brought out in 1874 as 'Autobiographical Recollections of the Medical Profession.' They give many valuable records of medical men and the state of society in his time, including also numerous anecdotes of literary men and public characters. He died on 6 July 1875



CLARKE, JAMES STANIER (1765?–1834), author, eldest son of the Rev. (1730-1786) [q. v.] and brother of the Rev. [q. v.], was born at Minorca, where his father was at the time chaplain to the governor. Having taken holy orders, he was in 1790 appointed to the rectory of Preston in Sussex. He afterwards, February 1795, entered the royal navy as a chaplain; and served, 1796-9, on board the Impetueux in the Channel fleet, under the command of Captain [q. v.], by whom he was introduced to the Prince of Wales. It was the end of his service afloat, for the prince appointed him his domestic chaplain and librarian, a post which he held for many years, during which time he devoted himself assiduously to literary pursuits. His connection with the navy, short as it was, gave a fixed direction to his labours. Already, in 1798, he had published a volume of 'Sermons preached in the Western Squadron during its services off Brest, on board H.M. ship Impetueux' (1798, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1801); and, in conjunction with Mr. J. McArthur, a purser in the navy and secretary to Lord Hood at Toulon, had started the 'Naval Chronicle,' a monthly magazine of naval history and biography, which ran for twenty years, and which, so far as it treats of contemporary events or characters, is of a very high authority. In 1803 he published the first volume, in 4to, of 'The Progress of Maritime Discovery,' a work which did not receive sufficient encouragement, and was not continued. He issued in 1805 'Naufragia, or Historical Memoirs of Shipwrecks' (3 vols. 12mo); and in 1809, in collaboration with Mr. McArthur, the 'Life of Lord Nelson' (2 vols. 4to; 2nd edit. 1840, 3 vols. 8vo). Two copies were printed on vellum and finely bound; one of these was burnt, and the other is now in the British Museum (see Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. viii. 264). It is by this great work that he is most generally known—a work, great not only in size, but in conception, but which loses much of the value it should have had from the lax way in which it is written; official as well as private letters and documents having been garbled to suit the editor's ideas of elegance, and hearsay anecdotes mixed up indiscriminately with more authentic matter. Of this faulty execution Clarke must bear the blame, for it was 