Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/438

  that while McArthur supplied the material, Clarke supplied the literary style. In 1816 he published a 'Life of King James II, from the Stuart MSS. in Carlton House' (2 vols. 4to). The work is valuable on account of its containing portions of the king's autobiography, the original of which is now lost. Otherwise it is a servile attempt to portray James II in heroic colours. It obtained for its author from the prince the title of historiographer to the king. Besides the works already named, he edited Falconer's 'Shipwreck,' with life of the author and notes (1804, 8vo), which ran through several editions, and Lord Clarendon's 'Essays ' (1815, 2 vols. 12mo).

In 1806 he took the degree of LL.B. at Cambridge, and in 1816 the further degree of LL.D. was conferred on him per lit reg. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society, was installed canon of Windsor, 19 May 1821; and was deputy clerk of the closet to the king. He died on 4 Oct. 1834. 

CLARKE, JEREMIAH (1669?–1707), musical composer, is said to have been born in 1669 (though probably the date should be earlier), but nothing is known of his parentage or early history, save that he studied at the Chapel Royal under [q. v.] On leaving the chapel he was for a short time organist of Winchester College, but the dates of his stay there cannot now be ascertained, as no lists of the college organists have been preserved. In 1693 Blow resigned to him the posts of almoner and master of the choristers at St. Paul's, and on 6 June 1699 he was admitted to his year of probation as vicar choral, though he was not fully admitted until 3 Oct. 1705 ‘post annum probationis completum,’ no explanation appearing in the chapter records for the long interval which had elapsed. On 7 July 1700, Clarke and [q. v.] were sworn gentlemen extraordinary of the Chapel Royal, ‘and to succeed as organists according to merit, when any such place shal fall voyd.’ On 25 May 1704 another entry in the Cheque Book records that the two composers were sworn ‘joyntly into an organist's place, vacant by the death of Mr. Francis Pigott.’ Some time previous to these appointments Clarke began a connection with the theatre. He wrote music for D'Urfey's ‘Fond Husband’ (licensed 15 June 1676)—probably for the revival at the Haymarket, 20 June 1707; for Sedley's version of ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (licensed 24 April 1677); ‘Titus Andronicus,’ altered by Ravenscroft (1687); Settle's ‘World in the Moon’ (1697, in collaboration with Daniel Purcell); D'Urfey's ‘Campaigners’ (1698); Peter Motteux's ‘Island Princess’ (1699, in collaboration with Daniel Purcell and Leveridge); D'Urfey's ‘The Bath, or the Western Lass’ (1701); Manning's ‘All for the Better’ (1732); the revival of Howard's ‘Committee’ (1706); and D'Urfey's ‘Wife for any Man,’ a play of which Clarke's songs are the only record, but which was produced between 1704 and 1707. Besides the above, Clarke wrote an ode on the union of the king and parliament, an ode in praise of the Barbadoes, a cantata (‘The Assumption’), and many single songs. He was the original composer of Dryden's ode ‘Alexander's Feast,’ which was produced at Stationers' Hall on 22 Nov. 1697. In 1700 he joined Blow, Piggott, Barrett, and Croft in producing a little volume of ‘Ayres for the Harpsichord or Spinett,’ in which he is styled ‘Organist of St. Paul's Cathedral and Composer of the Musick used in the Theatre Royal.’ According to a note in the ‘Registrum Eleemosynariæ D. Pauli Londinensis’ (1827) he was also music-master to Queen Anne. In 1699 a prize of two hundred guineas was offered for a musical work, but Clarke declined to compete, giving as a reason that the judges were to be noblemen. The story of his end, as told by Hawkins and Burney, is somewhat romantic. They relate that he cherished a hopeless passion for a lady of high position, and, falling into a state of melancholy, resolved to kill himself. While riding near London he went into a field where there was a pond, and tossed up to decide whether he should drown or shoot himself. The coin fell with its edge imbedded in the clay, so Clarke returned to London, where, after a short time, he committed suicide by shooting himself in his house in St. Paul's Churchyard, on the site of the present chapterhouse. Unfortunately, the story of this romantic attachment is contradicted by a contemporary broadsheet which seems to have escaped the notice of his biographers. It is a large single sheet, entitled ‘A Sad and Dismal Account of the Sudden and Untimely Death of Mr. Jeremiah Clark, one of the Queen's Organists, who Shot himself in the Head with a Screw Pistol, at the Golden Cup in St. Paul's-Church-Yard, on Monday Morning last, for the supposed Love of a Young Woman, near Pater-noster-Row.’ The account states how Clarke, a bachelor with a salary of over 300l. a year, about nine o'clock ‘Monday morning last’ was visited by his father and some friends, ‘at which he seem'd