William Barnard Clarke

William Barnard Clarke (1806–1865), sometimes mis-written ''Bernard'', was an English architect, cartographer, archaeological writer and art collector, numismatist and literary translator. He was the founding president of the Architectural Society of London, 1831, and supervised the restoration of the Eleanor Cross at Waltham Cross in 1831–1832. Producing a celebrated series of maps or plans of European and Russian cities, and taking a strong interest in the discoveries at Pompeii, he travelled much in Europe and from the 1840s had his home and collections in the Grand Duchy of Baden. In 1865 he published an English translation of Goethe's ''Faust''. He was an elder brother of the artist Harriet Ludlow Clarke, and a brother-in-law of Henry Bellenden Ker.

Family

William was born in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire in 1806, one of the eldest of several children of Edward Clarke of Cheshunt and his wife Sarah (née Linnell). The name "William Barnard" seems to have been given in homage to a cousin of that name, shipwright of Deptford, from whom Edward Clarke received a substantial legacy in 1805. At William's admission to St Paul's School, London at the age of 10 in 1817, his father was described as a Solicitor of Great Ormond Street in London. His elder sister Elizabeth Ann (born 1803) married the legal reformer Henry Bellenden Ker in 1823, but the connection was earlier: Elizabeth's brother Edward John Bellenden Clarke was christened with his sister Harriet Ludlow Clarke in October 1816, as of Great Ormond Street.

William's nearer brother, Frederick Christian Clarke (born Cheshunt c. 1807), was admitted attorney at the King's Bench assigned to Edward Clarke (their father), both of 9, Chapel Street, Bedford Row (in St Andrew, Holborn) in Michaelmas 1836. At much the same time Frederick became a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. During the 1840s their practice, in partnership with John Richards, appears at this address as "Richards, Clarke & Clarke", and there Edward, Frederick (solicitor), and William B. Clarke (architect) had their business premises in 1860. In 1861 it was also the home of Frederick and his large family, while father Edward, aged 92, was still living at Waltham Cross (Census).

William Barnard Clarke (of this parish) married Charlotte Brooks (of St George's, Bloomsbury) at St Andrew Holborn, London, by banns on 1 July 1830, witnessed by William Brooks. In 1833–35, as Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, he was resident at Upper Seymour Street, Euston Square. The death of Charlotte Clarke, wife of Mr. W.B. Clarke, Architect, is recorded for 30 March 1839, as of Albany Street, Regent's Park, where it is stated that she was the daughter of Major-General W. Brooks of the Honourable East India Company's service. Her burial took place on 9 April 1839 at Camden St Pancras parish church, as of Albany Street, where her age is given as 35. Major-General Brooks, who died in England on 30 October 1838, was Military Auditor General and Chief Engineer at the Bombay Presidency, India.

Architect

Clarke is said to have spent a long period in Rome during his youth, pursuing architectural studies, and visited and studied the remains at Pompeii. At its formation in 1831 Clarke became President of the Architectural Society of London, a predecessor organization to the Royal Institute of British Architects, with which it merged in 1842. While in Pompeii he made the friendship of the Swiss architect Melchior Berri, brother-in-law of the art historian Jacob Burckhardt, and through this connection Berri became an Honorary Member of the Society and of the Institute.

Clarke's 1831 proposal for the ''Botanical and Ornamental Garden to be formed on Primrose Hill'', was exhibited at the 64th Royal Academy Exhibition in 1832, and was made to promote the scheme to the subscribers. In 1832 he received the thanks of the Royal Astronomical Society, for whom he had executed an engraving of the head of Isaac Newton, to embellish the Society's Diplomas for their Associates.

;Waltham Cross
In 1831–34 Clarke promoted and supervised the restoration of the 13th-century Eleanor Cross in Waltham Cross, offering his services without remuneration, under a committee to which Edward Clarke, Esq., was Secretary. He submitted a "Geometrical Elevation" of his proposed restoration to the President of the Society of Antiquaries of London in order to enlist the Society's approval and support. A "preview" appreciation is given in the ''Gentleman's Magazine'' for 1832, which refers to the posture of the sculpted figures, and problems of interpretation relating to the completion of the pinnacle or spire of the cross.

The restoration, which was funded by subscription, was approved for its sympathetic treatment of the Gothic monument. On 17 May 1834 a notable company gathered at the Falcon Inn in Waltham (part of which had been demolished improve the environs of the Cross), to commemorate the result. This meeting was chaired by William Harrison, K.C., and addressed by the elderly Sir Abraham Hume (accompanied by his grandson the Viscount Alford), by Richard Taylor for the Society of Antiquaries of London, and by Sir Richard Westmacott for the Royal Academy. Clarke was especially commended, and he and the Architectural Society were toasted: he replied, explaining the purposes of that Society, and describing how he had first surveyed the cross ten years previously.

;Continuing presidency
In 1836 Thomas Larkins Walker, introducing the first part of the third, posthumous volume of Augustus Pugin's work ''Examples of Gothic Architecture'', dedicated it to the officers of the Architectural Society, headed by William Barnard Clarke, F.R.A.S., as President. He continued as President until 1837–38, when he resigned on the grounds that he was visiting the continent for a prolonged period.

Some of his addresses to the Society survive, and in the sixth, of 1836–37, he protests the insufficiency of his years and taste for the important role they have conferred upon him. In his address for the session 1837–38, delivered 7 November 1837, in which he welcomed the new reign (of Queen Victoria) and looked forward to an age of public welfare in which the Fine Arts and Architecture should flourish, he opened in a similar way:

"Gentlemen – Having been elected for the eighth time your President, the duty of opening our present Session devolves upon me. I could have wished that the honour of the Presidentship of the Architectural Society had been bestowed upon some other individual better able, by his learning, talent, and genius, to fill this high and important office, rather than so humble and unknown a person as myself."

;''Gallery of British Artists''
Clarke was the general author of an Art folio series in 26 parts, ''The Modern Gallery of British Artists'', each part containing three engravings by reputable engravers, after paintings by living artists. Each engraving carries some pages of descriptive letterpress. Taking its name from the Gallery of the Royal Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street (established 1823–24), the series was published by Charles Tilt and printed by Richard Taylor in London in 1836. A view by Clarke of the restored Waltham Cross appeared in the middle of Volume I. By 1838 it consisted of 77 plates, and was advertised in an "Improved Edition" complete in two volumes, with the option of early impression proofs on India paper for an additional charge. Here the general authorship of W.B. Clarke (as President of the Architectural Society) is plainly stated.

Cartographer

Clarke was an active member of, and contributor to, the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, founded in 1826. The political, intellectual and social context of this Society is richly described in the Memoirs of the publisher Charles Knight, who considered Clarke's kinsman Henry Bellenden Ker to be "the most fertile in projects of any member" of the Society's Committee. (The Royal Society, to which Ker was admitted Fellow in 1819, dispensed with his company in 1831.)

Among Clarke's first productions at their behest, of 1830, was a Celestial Atlas, a set of six maps of the stars, deriving and combining information from a range of scientifically-informed sources. These were produced by the Society under the direction of Sir John Lubbock, and won admiring praise both for their excellence of execution, and for their availability at a moderate price, supporting the Society's aims of dissemination. An accomplished artist-draftsman and cartographer, Clarke now devoted the best part of a decade to the production of a series of maps of European cities. Although they were not fully original surveys, he often travelled to verify points in question, and illustrated them with architectural views and cameos which were usually arranged along the foot of each sheet.

Clarke's ''Plan of Ancient Rome'', with architectural views, was engraved by J. and C. Walker and published under the superintendence of the Society in 1830, and had a companion ''Plan of Modern Rome''. Under the same auspices his plan of Warsaw (engraved by T. E. Nicholson) is dated 1831, his Milan and Frankfurt am Main 1832, his Berlin, and his Turin, with three views, 1833 (both engraved by J. Henshall); his Paris and St Petersburg are of 1834. His London, Florence, Genoa, Venice and Amsterdam (engraved by Benjamin Rees Davies, 1789–1872) are dated 1835, his Moscow 1836, and his Naples, with architectural view (engraved by T. Bradley) is of 1838. His Scandinavian efforts include Copenhagen, with a panorama (J. Henshall), dated 1837, and Stockholm (1838). Clarke's plans and maps, of which he produced many, are still admired and collected.

To 1836 belongs the modest ''Guide to Hayling'' (1836), an account of Hayling Island in Hampshire as an early tourist resort, which is "embellished with wood engravings from sketches by W.B. Clarke, architect" (engraved by J. Jackson). It is not clear that Clarke was responsible for anything more than the sketches, though the view of the "Billiard-room, Cosmorama and Reading-room" (facing p. 32) is like the architectural elevations on his city plans.

Pompeii, and Italian travels

Clarke prepared and assembled the materials for a richly-illustrated two-volume work about the buildings and artefacts excavated at Pompeii, for Charles Knight's ''Library of Entertaining Knowledge'', which appeared first in 1831–1832 for Baldwin and Craddock and was republished in 1836. This went into two German editions of 1834–35 and 1836 through Bäumgärtners Buchhandlung of Leipzig.

In around 1840, about the time of his first wife's death, William Barnard Clarke's attributed maps and drawings for the Society for Diffusion of Useful Knowledge come to an end (though many were republished during the 1840s until the Society was wound up in 1848). That his travels now took him to Italy is suggested by a paper by W.B. Clarke ''On the Arch of Augustus at Rimini and the Gate of Augustus at Fano'' (an architectural study suggesting different phases of construction), which appeared in 1841 in the Journal of the Rome Corresponding Archaeological Institute.

Clarke is said to have devoted a second lengthy stay in Italy, in Rome, Florence and Naples, where he built up his collection of paintings and sculptures, together with a great number of valuable coins and medals. He made further travels in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and in various parts of Germany in pursuit of new additions. An important part of his collections was acquired at Pompeii when excavations were proceeding. His two-volume work on Pompeii, admired by professionals, was reissued in a revised form in London in 1846, declaring that it was "chiefly from the MS journals and drawings of William Clarke, Esq., architect": the woodcuts are as in the earlier work. The title also appears as ''Pompeii: Its Destruction and Rediscovery'' in 1847.

The Harveys of Thorpe

In March 1838 Augustus John Harvey was (by his mother Mary Anne Julia Harvey, on the oath of William Barnard Clarke) articled and assigned to Clarke's brother Frederick as Attorney and, as of Eaton Square, passed successfully through his Hilary term

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