Lives in Cricket No 37 - William Clarke

112 Postscript rubicund visage, white whiskers and long hat, and nothing the matter with him but ‘this blessed sciatica, you know, Mr William, God bless the Queen.’ He was nothing if not loyal. Up early in the morning he enjoyed and appreciated nature at its best and he delighted in his profession. Clarke himself had seven children by his first wife, Jane (née Wigley). Frances, baptised at St Nicholas, Nottingham on 3 August 1820, died aged seven and was buried at St Nicholas on 9 December 1827. The two next boys in the family, John, baptised at St Nicholas on 18 August 1823, and William, baptised at St Nicholas on 21 September 1826, both joined the Army and were drafted to India. William appears in three published cricket matches in India in 1847, 1848 and 1851. John Clarke of the 10th (Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot died on a date unknown – his name is on the memorial in Lincoln Cathedral. William Clarke of the 32nd Regiment of Foot died of wounds on 2 August 1857. The eldest, Mary, born in 1818 has not been traced. William Clarke’s third daughter, Matilda, was baptised at St Nicholas on 1 September 1824 and married George Gunn of Normanton-on-the- Wolds at Old Radford Church, Nottingham; Gunn worked at the Flying Horse, Poultry, Nottingham. It would appear there were no children of the marriage. William Clarke’s fourth daughter, Jane, was baptised on 19 October 1828 and married twice, first John Hardy (1831-1859) and second, James Borrington. She is the only one of William Clarke’s children included in the 1841 census for the Trent Bridge Inn. She died on 25 October 1908 in Derby. William Clarke’s fourth daughter, Jane, outlived two husbands; this photograph dates from about 1900, when she was 72.