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 to Leicester were given in connection with the two Charters of Queen Elizabeth, and the grants of land therein contained. James Thompson, in his History of the town, does not give Clarke his due credit in regard to the first charter, the obtaining of which he attributes solely to "the influence at Court possessed by the Earl of Huntingdon, and the active exertions of Mr. Parkins, the Recorder, and of Richard Archer (who was a bailiff and collector, and therefore knew all the particulars relating to the property belonging to the Duchy of Lancaster in Leicester)." But the Recorder and Archer had the assistance of Thomas Clarke, who was appointed to act with them, and he accompanied them on their journeys to York and London, in 1586 and 1587, when the business relating to the reconstruction of the borough was discussed and carried through. He also had a hand in the second charter, which was granted in the year of his second Mayoralty.

The wife of the enterprising landlord of the Blue Boar, whose maiden name was Agnes Davy, and who was married to Thomas Clarke at St. Martin's Church in August, 1567, was not always, it appears, as discreet as her husband, and led him, towards the end of his career, into an undignified imbroglio. In the year 1597, she went one day to the house of Joan Cradock to collect the rent. Mrs. Cradock told her, apparently in good faith, that she did not know to whom she ought to pay the rent, whether to the Queen or to Mrs. Clarke, the house having been previously, one may assume, Crown property. Thereupon Mrs. Clarke is said to have spoken disrespectfully of the Queen. This episode came in time to the persistently pricked-up ears of George Belgrave. This busybody happened to have been engaged as Magistrate in a case in which the husband of Joan Cradock was accused of theft, and Cradock told him what Mrs. Clarke had said, and persuaded him that the Clarkes had persecuted him ever since and driven him out of Leicester. Belgrave then wrote to Clarke, declaring that Mrs. Cradock's accusation against Mrs. Clarke ought to be investigated. On receiving this letter, Clarke seems to have gone to Mrs. Cradock's house. "It is told me," he said, "that Mistress Clarke should 195