Date of birth: Summer 1843      Place of birth: Whaplode, Lincolnshire

Father: Henry Clark (1799 Moulton, Lincolnshire – Oct 1844 Whaplode, Lincolnshire), a farmer

Mother: Charlotte Roberts (1807 Whaplode, Lincolnshire – 1875 Kings Lynn, Norfolk)

Spouse(s): Elizabeth Frances Prosser (1846 Gloucester -1909 Cheltenham). Daughter of Charles Prosser (1804 Gloucestershire -1848 Gloucester), a Chemist of Westgate Street, Gloucester & his wife Elizabeth, nee Peach (1805 Painswick -1888 Gloucester)

Date(s) of marriage: 28 April 1870       Place(s) of marriage: St Michaels’s Gloucester

Occupation: 1861 Farm pupil – boarder; Landowner

Lifestory: Henry William Clark was baptised in July 1843, the son of Henry Clark & his wife Charlotte, who married in 1837. They lived in the village of Whaplode Marsh, 1 mile west of Moulton and 4 miles east of Spalding in Lincolnshire until Henry senior died, “an opulent grazier in the prime of life” (Lincolnshire Chronicle 11 Oct 1844), when Henry William was only a year old. In his will dated 1840, Henry senior appointed his wife Charlotte, his brother Samuel Lee Clark and his brother-in-law James Hinckley, the latter both farmers in Moulton, as guardians of any children, leaving funds specifically for their care and education until the age of twenty-one. As the only child, Henry William inherited the entire estate, including properties in Moulton, which in 1884 was valued at £12,000 pounds (worth more than £1.5million in 2020).

In 1848, Henry William’s mother married a friend of her father, Mr John Green, a Wine & Spirit Merchant and moved to Church Street, Spalding, Lincolnshire where their daughter Charlotte Maria Green was born in 1850. The 1851 census shows Henry William, now aged 7 was boarding at a school just across the river from his mother at London Road, Spalding, and in 1861, he was a “Farm pupil” boarding in Aunsby, Lincolnshire, some 20 miles from Spalding.

When Henry William married Elizabeth Frances Prosser in Gloucester April 1870, his occupation was given as Gentleman and his residence as Spalding, Lincolnshire. By that point, his stepfather had retired and together with Henry William’s mother & sister, had moved to Kings Lynn, Norfolk.

In the 1871 census Henry William was listed as a landowner & was living in Brunswick Road, Gloucester with the family of his wife. Later that year Henry William & Elizabeth set up home in Lansdowne, Worcester where their three children were born and where they were later joined by Henry William’s sister Charlotte Maria Green after the deaths of her parents. In 1881, Henry William, Elizabeth & their children moved to Pittville Circus Road, Cheltenham to a substantial house they named Moultondale (now Kingswood).

He and Elizabeth had three children: Henry Douglas Gee Clark, Isabel Charlotte Peach Clark, Katherine Frances Clark

Moved to Pittville from: Worcester in 1881         Moved from Pittville to: The family remained at Moultondale until after the death of Henry William’s wife Elizabeth in 1909 when their “exceedingly well built and very attractive detached double fronted freehold residence with Tennis lawn, kitchen garden and Capital stabling” was put up for auction.

Date of death: 6 May 1905        Place of death: Moultondale, Pittville Circus Road.

Date of burial:1 0 May 1905      Place of burial: “In the new Cemetery” (Bouncers Lane) after a service St Mary’s Church officiated by his son Rev H D Gee Clark, along with his wife Elizabeth.

Notes: Probate 6 March 1935 Gloucester to Rev Henry Douglas Gee Clark, clerk, Arthur Boulton, Gentleman, & Richard Longstaff, Auctioneer, effects valued at £13,244, 5s (c £1.6 million in 2020)

ID: 10147          Contributor(s): Debbie Christopher