Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/414

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Clark
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Clark

brilliant lecturer, and the most zealous and painstaking of teachers. He had made geography a special study for some years, and in 1849 he published ‘Maps illustrative of the Physical and Political History of the British Empire’ (National Society). Nothing nearly so full had ever been published before. It comprised twelve folio maps, showing physical and geological features, meteorology, political, statistical, and historical facts, the British dominions on a uniform scale, illustrations of the ecclesiastical history, and the present ecclesiastical divisions. The late J. R. Green pronounced the historical maps the best that he knew. Clark from this time to the end of his life continued to publish a handsome series of wall-maps in conjunction with Mr. Stanford and the National Society. He married in 1849 Miss Heath, who like himself had come from the Society of Friends into the church of England. They had one child, a delicate and remarkably clever boy, who outlived his father just long enough to take orders, and to die almost immediately afterwards. In 1850 repeated attacks of dysentery forced Clark to resign his post at St. Mark's. In the spring of 1851 he became principal of the training college at Battersea. During this interval he made a free translation of Professor Guyot's ‘Earth and Man,’ which was published by J. W. Parker & Son. On his appointment to Battersea he found the college in a very low condition, and he raised it to the highest place among all the colleges. His methods were simple. He was a capital organiser. He attached his staff to him, so that to a man they were always loyal. ‘His lectures,’ said his favourite pupil and successor, ‘were always vigorous, clear, logical, and incisive, admirably arranged and illustrated, and enlivened by a free and constant interchange of thought with his class.’ He extended the study of English literature, and took great interest in the theory of teaching. Under his management the college took a high place in the annual government examinations, and produced a large number of excellent schoolmasters.

In 1857 his home happiness was shattered by the sudden death of his wife, but he bravely continued his work. He was highly esteemed by the committee of council on education, and he was much consulted on the subject of ‘codes’ and ‘standards.’ In the exhibition of 1862 he was one of the educational judges. That year he married again, but the continued illness of his boy, and the unsettled state of the students caused by changes in the educational system, began to tell upon his health again, and he therefore accepted the living of Bredwardine, Herefordshire. He had had near upon a thousand students under his tuition during his seventeen years of training college life.

His parochial work was done thoroughly and conscientiously. He went on map drawing, and became a diocesan inspector of schools. In 1868, in conjunction with Mr. (now Sir George) Grove, he compiled the large ‘Bible Atlas’ which was published by the Christian Knowledge Society. He was also one of the writers in the ‘Speaker's Commentary,’ contributing Leviticus, the latter part of Exodus, and Micah. His last illness put a stop to his comment on Habakkuk. He was chosen as one of the Old Testament revisers. In 1871 the Bishop of Hereford presented him to the living of Eaton Bishop. He had for the last three years been subject to painful attacks of illness. He was on a visit to Cosham in Hampshire when the last attack came on. He bore it with great patience, and died on 17 July 1875. He is buried, and his son beside him, in Wymering churchyard.

[Memorials from Journals and Letters of Samuel Clark, M.A., edited by his wife, 1878; personal recollections of the writer.]

W. B.


CLARK, THOMAS, M.D. (d. 1792), seceding minister in Ireland, was a native of Scotland, and a graduate of medicine at Glasgow. Prior to 1745 he was tutor and chaplain in a gentleman's family in Galloway. He joined the Duke of Cumberland's army on the outbreak of the second Jacobite rebellion. In 1748 he was licensed as a preacher by the 'associate presbytery' in Glasgow, and on 27 June 1749 he was sent by that presbytery on a mission to Ulster, he was ordained in 'William McKinley's field,' at Cahans, near Ballybay, co. Monaghan, on 23 July 1751, being the third seceding minister ordained in Ireland. Travelling through various parts of Ulster, he preached with great zeal in opposition to the 'new light' views, then in much vogue among the presbyterians. Killen gives a graphic description of his dark visage, gaunt Hgure, Scottish brogue, and highland bonnet. His objections to the phraseology of the oath of abjuration, and to the usual forms observed in oath taking, led to his being fined in May 1752, after which he retired to Scotland for some months. He resumed his work in Ireland, but was arrested for disloyalty at Newbliss on 23 Jan. 1754, at the instance of Robert Nesbit and William Burgess, presbyterian elders of Ballybay. After a confinement at Monaghan for two months and eleven days, he was released at the next assize, owing to an informality in his committal. Left in peace Clark's influence as a preacher declined,