CLARKE, Charles (c.1702-50), of Godmanchester, Hunts.

Clarke, a wealthy lawyer, was returned for Huntingdonshire at a contested by-election in 1739, when his friend, Lord Lymington described him as ‘a good Whig, a hearty well wisher to the royal family’.Lymington to Malton, 30 Oct. 1739, Fitzwilliam mss; see HUNTINGDONSHIRE. He supported the Government, voting with them on the place bill in 1740. He was unsuccessful for Huntingdonshire in 1741, standing as Lord Sandwich’s nominee, but came in at Whitchurch in 1743, on the Wallop interest. In the same year he was made a judge of the Exchequer, an office for which he had applied to Lord Chancellor Hardwicke on 31 Oct. 1741, writing,

I have practised many years in the court of the Exchequer, and have had a good deal of experience upon the circuit ... in zeal, fidelity and affection to the King and his Government ... I will yield to none.Add. 35586, f.408.

In 1747 he was referred to by Lord Sandwich as ‘Baron Clarke, who is informed of all my election intrigues, and is the only person that is capable of giving you a true insight into the affairs of our county’.Sandwich to Pelham, 23 May (N.S.) 1747, Newcastle (Clumber) mss. He died 17 May 1750 of a fever contracted at the ‘black sessions’ of the Old Bailey.