Collection RS8 - William & John Clark Family Papers

William Clark (1769-1851) arrived in Tasmania in 1824 and settled near Bothwell at Cluny, and later acquired other property on the River Jordan at the Hunting Ground, later called Mauriceton. He had formerly served in the British army, was taken prisoner by the French in 1812. In 1821-1823 he served in South Africa but when his regiment was ordered to India he sold his captaincy to retire to Van Diemen's Land, as his health would not stand an Indian campaign. William Clark and his wife Ann (nee Elphinstone) had five sons and two daughters: Thomas Noble (1793-1853), Jane (1795-1873), Ann (1797-1868), William (1799-1825), George (1801-1827), Charles (1803-1833), John (1807-1852). Four of the sons followed their father into the army. William jr. and his wife Isabella (daughter of Thomas Berdmore) both died of yellow fever in Jamaica in 1825 leaving an infant son, William Sydney, who also died before he could be brought back to his Berdmore grandparents. George died in India at the age of 26 in 1827 and Charles was drowned in October 1833 in the Wreck of the "Lady Munro" on this way from India to join his parents in Tasmania.

John Clark (1807-1853) , the youngest son of William Clark (1769-1851), came with his father to Tasmania and was Keeper of the Bonded Store in Launceston, Coast Waiter and Searcher at George Town and Police Magistrate at Hobart, Launceston, George Town and later Bothwell
He returned to take over the management of Cluny in 1838. He married Jane Oswald Sinclair Eddie in 1839 but had no children. He lived at 'Mauriceton', near Kempton.