Paternal Ancestors

My ancestors with the Surname Clarke are listed below chronologically. The first three were called Stephan and the next two Robert; I have numbered them I, II and III. With regard to places mentioned Diss is a pretty market town in Norfolk England about 120km north east of London and 30kms south of Norwich. Others such as Thelverton, Roydon, Tivetshall, Pulham, Winfarthing and Oakley are within 10kms of Diss.

1. Stephan I Clarke (great x 5 grandfather) of Thelverton was born about 1704 and was married in Roydon to Mary Wells on 26 November 1723. The couple had six children all baptised in Diss; two of the girls must have been twins who died in infancy. Stephan was possibly a son of Thomas Clark and Jane Gissing who married in Thelverton in 1703. Both Stephan and Mary were buried in Diss, Stephan having died in 1780 aged 76 and Mary aged 82 in 1777. Mary Wells was the daughter of George Wells, gentleman and baptised in Diss in 1694.

2. Stephan II Clarke (great x 4 grandfather) was baptised in Diss on 18 September1732. He was subsequently described as a farmer of Tivertshall and married Elizabeth Shaw. They had ten children at least two of whom died in infancy.He was buried in Tivertshall St Mary in 1785 having died aged 55 and leaving a Will in which he bequeathed substantial property including, land, buildings and farm assets to his children.

3. Stephan III Clarke (great x 3 grandfather) was baptised in Pulham on 20 July 1767. He married Susan Cullum on 30 October 1795 and they had six children all baptised in the church Pulham St Mary Magdalene where the baptism and marriage of Stephan III had been celebrated. The burials of both were recorded in this church, Stephan aged 72 on 6 July 1840 and Susan aged 92 on 8 January 1862.

4. Robert I Cullum Clarke (great great grandfather) was baptised in Pulham on 12 June 1803. Lucy Swallow (great great grandmother) daughter of Thomas and Phoebe Swallow was also born in Pullum in 1803 on 11 July. They were both baptised in the local parish church where they were married on the 20th May 1825. Robert I served in the drapery trade and in the 1851 Census he was a commercial traveller living in Norwich with his wife Lucy and children Catherine (18) Joesph (10) Thomas (8) William (4) and Mary (1) all born in Norwich.

5. Robert II Samuel Clarke (great grandfather) was baptised in Winfarthing in 1836 In the 1851 Census he was 14 years old living in the nearby village of Martham on the property of a draper to whom he was apprenticed. Like his father he became a commercial traveller and in 1856 he went to London representing drapery companies in the eastern counties for some 57 years and retiring in 1913, the year the Titanic went down. He married Martha Banks (great grandmother) one year his junior when living in Hackney London in 1858 and by the 1881 Census they had living in their house - four daughters,Catherine (21) Edith (18)( perhaps grandfather's twin sister) Harriet (12) Alice(10) and one other son Edward (14) as well as a domestic servant 18 year old Mary Ingram (18 year old grandfather Thomas must have already left home). By the 1901 Census when Robert II was 65 (and possibly a widower) he was living in Ipswich with a new wife Mary aged 54; no children at home but with a domestic servant Annie Turner aged 22.

6. Thomas Adam Clarke (grandfather) was born in Hackney London in 1863. In 1888 living in Bournemouth he married Agnes Hiscock (grandmother). In 1889 when their first child Reginald(father) was born they were living in Westbourne(nearPortsmouth) in a two-storey building of the type commonly accommodating a combined shop/residence in an attractive arcade of shops reputed to be the first of this kind. Thomas Adam is described as a Master Grocer so supposedly he operated a grocery store on the ground floor and they lived upstairs. They are believed to have had five children, Reginald (father) Cissie (married name Jenner) Gypsy (married name Booth) Thomas (uncle) and Eileen (married name Hogg). The two which sound like nicknames are the only names I remember. Some time after 1889 the family moved to South Africa where at least Eileen was born but back to the UK before 1919.


7. Reginald George Clarke (father) was born in the Westbourne premises referred to above on 16 February 1889. He stayed in South Africa when the rest of the family returned to the UK, was apprenticed and qualified as an electrician.After the outbreak of WWI he enlisted in 1915 as a private, served as a sergeant in Signallers in the German East Africa Campaign (they were using heliographs in those days) and finished as a captain serving in France. In WWII he worked as an electrician on many military facilities particularly in Simonstown when damaged Royal Navy warships called in for repairs.

He married Rose Proud in Cape Townh in 1917 and they had four children, Reginald John (1920) Eileen Georgina (1922) Daphne Beryl (1924) and Cedric Thomas (1931).
Father Reginald died in Cape Town in 1952.

8. Cedric Thomas Clarke was born in Cape Town on 24 July 1931. He went to school at Sea Point Junior and Boys High Schools and then completed two years training at the nautical college General Botha. He worked in clerical positions in commerce and qualified as a Chartered Secretary through study with a correspondence college; became a manager of property companies and finished as a property broker for his own account. He married Pamela Jean McDonald in 1954 and they had three children, Patricia (1955 married name Dongas)Gavin (1957) and Andrew (1962). After retirement the couple moved to Australia to which country their children had emigrated.