to be very Chearful and Merry, by Playing on his Musick for a considerable time, which was a Pair of Organs in his own House, which he took great Delight in,’ and after his father had gone returned to his room, when, between ten and eleven o'clock, his maid-servant heard a pistol go off in his room, and running in found that he had shot himself behind the ear. He died the same day about three o'clock. ‘The Occasion … is variously Discours'd; some will have it that his Sister marrying his Scholar [Charles King], who he fear'd might in time prove a Rival in his Business, threw him into a kind of melancholy Discontent; and others (with something more Reason) impute this Misfortune to a young Married Woman near Pater-Noster-Row, whom he had a more than ordinary respect for, who not returning him such suitable Favours as his former Affections deserv'd, might in a great Measure occasion dismal Effects.’
Very curious discrepancies exist as to the exact date when Clarke shot himself. Burney (followed by Fétis) says the event took place in July 1707; the first edition of Hawkins fixes it as 5 Nov. 1707, in which he has been followed by Mendel, Baptie, and Brown. But Hawkins left a copy of his ‘History,’ in which he had made numerous corrections, and in this the date appears as 1 Dec. 1707, which date is given in the 1853 edition of the work. In the Chapel Royal Cheque Book is an entry, signed by the sub-dean, to the effect that on 5 Nov. 1707 Croft was admitted into the organist's place, ‘now become void by the death of Mr. Jeremiah Clerk,’ and in Barrett's ‘English Church Composers’ (p. 106) is a statement that the books of the vicars-choral of St. Paul's contain an entry to the effect that on ‘November ye first, Mr. Jerry Clarke deceased this life.’ These various accounts seem quite irreconcilable, but the following facts throw some light on the subject: 1. In 1707, 5 Nov. was a Wednesday, and 1 Nov. a Saturday, while 1 Dec. was a Monday. The latter date therefore tallies with the broadsheet account, published (by John Johnson, ‘near Stationers' Hall,’ and therefore close to Clarke's house) within a week of the event, though no entry of the exact date of publication can be found at Stationers' Hall. 2. The burial register of St. Gregory's by St. Paul records the burial of Jeremiah Clarke on 3 Dec. 1707. 3. Administration to his goods was granted by the dean and chapter of St. Paul's to his sister, Ann King, on 15 Dec. 4. The entry in the Chapel Royal Cheque Book was probably not made at the time, and so November might easily have been written instead of December. The order of the entries preceding and following it is this: 28 Jan. 1703, 24 March 1710–11, 25 May 1704, 5 Nov. 1707, 12 June 1708. The entry also is not witnessed. With regard to the quotation from the records at St. Paul's, everything points to its being either a mistake or a misprint. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this article it is impossible to verify the statement, part of the vicars-choral's records being inaccessible.
Clarke holds a distinct position among the Restoration musicians; though not a composer of great strength and vigour, there is a peculiar charm about many of his anthems and songs, a charm which Burney recognised, saying that ‘he was all tenderness.’ His church music still survives, though it is to be feared that much else of his has perished. His death was lamented by Edward Ward (the London Spy), who concludes what was intended to be a pathetic ode with the following lines:—
Let us not therefore wonder at his fall,
Since 'twas not so unnatural
For him who liv'd by Canon to expire by Ball.
[Burney's and Hawkins's Histories of Music; Grove's Dict. of Music, i.; Ward's Works, iv. 211; Cheque Book of the Chapel Royal; Genest's Hist. of the Stage, i. ii.; MS. Catalogue of the Ch. Ch. Collection, Oxford; contemporary newspapers; Registers of St. Gregory's, kindly communicated by the Rev. E. Hoskins; Probate Registry, Somerset House; information and assistance from the Revs. W. Sparrow Simpson and G. W. Lee, Dr. Stainer, and Mr. W. Winn; Athenæum, March–April 1887.]
CLARKE, JOHN, M.D. (1582–1653), physician, whose name is spelt Clerk in the first edition of Glisson's ‘De Rachitide,’ 1650, a work which received his official sanction, was born in 1582 at Brooke Hall, near Wethersfield in Essex, where his family had long been seated. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, and took his first degree in 1603, proceeding M.A. 1608, and M.D. 1615. He was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1622, was treasurer 1643–4, and president from 1645 to 1649, both years included, and while in office carried out a revision of the ‘Pharmacopœia.’ He died 30 April 1653, and his body was escorted by the president and fellows from his house to his tomb, in the church of St. Martin-without-Ludgate. He left a son, and a daughter who married Sir John Micklethwaite, the physician, and whose daughter Ann gave to the College of Physicians the portrait of Clarke which hangs in the reading-room.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, i. 180.]
