The first Clarke arrived in Australia from Ireland in 1836 on the ship "Bardarster". He was Thomas Clarke and had been born in County Meath in 1804. He joined the 40th Regiment of Foot and rose to the rank of sergeant. He spent most of his military career serving in the Ionian Protectorate, which was the Greek islands in the Adriatic (principally Corfu) which the British ruled for several decades after the Napoleonic Wars.
He married Ellen Walsh at Buttevant in County Cork in 1830. Ellen was born in County Cork in 1811
Leaving the army in 1840 he emigrated to the colony of New South Wales and resolved upon a farming career.
He first settled at Dungog and then moved to the Kempsey region of northern NSW in 1867. He had ten children by his wife, Ellen. Thomas Clarke died in 1882. Ellen died in 1891.
With so many children it is only natural that there are an large number of descendants (counted at 3,600 in 1985). These can be seen by clicking the GEDCOM reference at the bottom of this page.
Francis Clarke is probably the most illustrious of the members of this branch. He was the great grandfather of the author of this site and the son of Thomas Clarke. Born in 1854 on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, he trained as a surveyor and was a pioneer in the Northern Territory, the vast unexplored central northern part of the continent. Conditions were extremely primitive with camels driven by Afghans being the main form of communication.
Later, in the 1880's, Francis Clarke ventured into politics becoming the mayor of North Sydney. He also became the member in the NSW Colonial parliament for the seat of Hastings-Macleay that encompassed the area around Kempsey where his family came from. He was elected several times, including unopposed election on some occasions.
His role in Australia's Federation movement is largely unsung. Edmund Barton, a leading Federalist could not obtain a seat in parliament to serve as a platform to participate in the Constitutional conferences that took place in the late 1890's. Francis Clarke stood down from his safe seat to offer this to Barton. The rest is history. Australia became a new nation in 1901 and Edmund Barton was the first prime minister. Francis Clarke was a member of the first parliament as member for Cowper (which encompassed the Hastings-Macleay area). He lost the seat at the second Federal election. Later he was a member of the Royal Commission on the future of the Northern Territory, by virtue of his long experience of this isolated place.
He had six children. His wife May McCarthy died in 1903 and he thus had the added burden to his political career of looking after a large family alone. Shown above is a studio photo of the six children, probably dating from around 1908. Rather eerily, the father and the deceased mother were pasted into the photo.
He died in 1939.
Click here for GEDCOM files on the Clarke family