The Clarkes of Graiguenoe Park

Please note that this booklet was published in 1976. It contains the original text and no attempt has been made to bring the information up-to-date.

A.R.M.C.

The Clarkes of Graiguenoe Park

By Ralph L Clarke and Vernon Clarke

Chapter 1
The House, The Lineage of Charles Clarke and his family. The end of Graiguenoe Park and the move to England
In 1908 the house was attacked by a mob after which the family and those employed on the estate were boycotted by the local shopkeepers.  In 1920 the local police barracks were blown up and on 31 March 1923 the house itself was burnt down.
Chapter 2
Reverend Marshal Clarke’s family and the families of Vincent, Roe and Humphreys
Revd Marshal (1755-1833) had a family of twenty-one, eleven of whom were to grow up comprising one solicitor, three unmarried soldiers, two landowners, one parson and four married women. Ten children died young including Catherine who died in 1800 and is buried at Cashel Cathedral
Chapter 3
Robert Clarke’s family and the families of Hemphill, Swifte, O’Brien, Maunsell and Butler Kearney
John Hemphill and Barbara had two sons and three daughters. Their great granddaughter, Constance Lloyd, married Oscar Wilde;
Chapter 4
Mark Clarke’s family and the families of Going, Litton, Oliver and Dobbs
Rider Haggard’s book ‘Swallow’ has a dedication to Col. Sir Marshal Clarke. The author was closely associated with him and makes a number of references to him in his book ‘Cetawayo and his White Neighbours’ published in 1882. He lost an arm in early life and would never talk about it. The family believed it had been bitten off by a lion.
Chapter 5
The Revd Marshal Clarke’s three soldier sons and their sisters
John Clarke (1787-1854) was a wild youth who quarrelled with his father and enlisted in the local regiment which happened to be the 45th Foot, going with them to the Peninsula in 1806. He soon won a commission as cornet in the 5th Dragoon guards and fought in every action throughout the war. He was wounded, caught yellow fever, was captured and escaped, and earned twelve campaign clasps.
Chapter 6
The families of Bland, Bowen, Butler, Guthrie and Lenox-Conyngham
The attackers arrived at 2 am, dismounted, banged on the front door and started firing at the room where they saw the light. The defenders in the unlit windows then fired at spots from which the attacker's flashes came and succeeded in killing the leader. The firing stopped and the attackers withdrew dragging away their leader's body in a sack.
Chapter 7
The families of Pearson, Grey, Pennant, Curtis, Falconer, Eccles and Hallz
Edward Grey inherited the baronetcy, from his grandfather, when he was 20 and he became Liberal MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1885 when he was 23. He was Foreign Minister from 1905 until 1916 when he was created Viscount and retired from public life owing to failing eyesight.
Chapter 8
The families of Cross and Carlton
The firm later became Carlton, Walker and Watson. James first met his partner George Walker when the latter was an illiterate butcher's boy who asked him for help in reading an address to which he had to deliver meat. James taught the boy to read and write and then took him on as an office boy. He became a partner within ten years.
Chapter 9
The Clarke descendants and their associated families
James Whitehead of Little Bolton had three sons, one of which, Robert, invented the Whitehead torpedo which he sold to the British Navy, settled in Fiume and became a Baron of the Austrian Empire. Restrained by British security he had to invent a different torpedo for the Germans called the Schwarzkopf, guarded just as jealously. His children married into such families as Kinsky, Hoyas, and Trapp; his grandchildren were featured in 'The Sound of Music'.
The Surname index
Index of surnames associated with the Clarkes