James Clark

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Denis Pember on 24th April 2022

James Clark is really quite difficult to research because of his frequent change of names. However, on 6th April 1785, James Clark (otherwise Hosier) was indicted for the theft of a gold watch. There was evidently a lot of pushing and shoving on the sidewalk, near the Mansion House, and Clark evidently took advantage of this and took the watch from a man who had stopped. He claimed that he was the one who had been robbed but this claim was rejected, and he was found guilty. James Clark had served his apprenticeship as a butcher in St James market and had for five years been a partner in a butchering business with his sister. This was after he returned from naval service. He told the court that he had been in the naval action with John Paul Jones in 1779, had been wounded and showed a pension card, signed by the Lord Mayor. The muster book for HMS ‘Serapis’ does show an entry for James Clark, aged 24. He was marked ‘unserviceable’ (possibly wounded) on 6th May 1780. None of this was to his advantage in any way. He was sentenced to transportation and sent to the ‘Ceres’ hulk on 5th April 1785. He was then embarked aboard the ‘Scarborough’ on 27th February 1787. At Sydney Cave, (as Charles Clark) he was the witness to two trials in 1789. Then he was sent (again as James Clark), by ‘Sirius’ to Norfolk Island on 4th March 1790. In Mollie Gillen’s book ‘The Founders’, on page Ref 70: In the entry for James Clark/Hosier she states…– “On 4th March 1790 he was sent (as James Clark) by ‘Sirius’ to Norfolk Island. There at 1st July 1791 he supported himself and three other persons on a Sydney Town lot with 30 rods of timber felled and sharing a sow supplied by the lieutenant governor with Susannah Huffnell and her daughter Elizabeth.” It is my belief that he and Susannah formed a relationship and had three children. However this is somewhat disputed by Gillen’s entry for Susannah Huffnell on page Ref 182: …“At 5th February 1791, she and her daughter shared a nine month sow with James Clark (not the First Fleeter). It produced a litter of three in May, making them independent for meat. A daughter, Sarah, was born on 18th July 1795, a daughter Frances had been born in 1793.” In Raymond North’s book; ‘Norfolk Island’: There are details of the children. Huffnell, Frances (Baker); born NI 11/01/1792, child of a marine or ex-marine. Died, date unknown. Huffnell, Frances (Baker); born NI 29/07/1793, child of a marine or ex-marine, departed NI -/02/1805. Huffnell, Sarah (Baker); born NI 18/07/1795, child of a marine or ex-marine, NO details of departure from Norfolk Island or death. North also has an entry for James: Clark, James (Hosier, John) Scarborough. Arrived NI 17/03/1790. Departed NI -/10/1796. During the latter part of his stay at Norfolk, James was living with Mary Lammermon (Convict, ‘Lady Juliana’, 1789). When he left Norfolk Island, he was listed as Charles Clark, settler, with a wife and no children. Leaving a property of 50 acres, with 24 cleared, a thatched log house and 4 outbuildings valued at £10. They left 26th December 1807, via ‘Porpoise’ to Van Diemen’s Land. This was not a happy venture, since the burial of his wife was registered 9th July 1808 at Hobart. In the 1811 Muster (Ref 1075 page 24) he is listed at Hobart, as Charles Clarke. In the 1828 Census (Ref C1283 page 90) he is listed. Clarke, Charles, 62, Scarborough, 1788, 7, Servant to Elizabeth Peisley. Parramatta.