James Stanier Clarke (1766–1834)[1] was an English cleric, naval author and man of letters. He became librarian in 1799 to George, Prince of Wales (later Prince Regent, then George IV).[2]
Clarke in February 1795 entered the Royal Navy as a chaplain; and served, 1796–99, on board HMS Impetueux in the Channel fleet, under the command of captain John Willett Payne, by whom he was introduced to George, Prince of Wales. It was the end of his service afloat, after George appointed him his domestic chaplain and librarian.[4]
From 1815 for a short period Clarke was in contact with Jane Austen about her novel-writing: they were introduced by Austen's friend the surgeon Charles Thomas Haden.[10] Having shown Austen round the library at Carlton House in November, and arranged that George should have Emma dedicated to him, Clarke also made suggestions in correspondence for Austen's future writing. These she mocked in the satirical manuscript Plan of a Novel, according to Hints from Various Quarters, not published in her lifetime.[11]
In 1798, Clarke published a volume of Sermons preached in the Western Squadron during its services off Brest, on board HM ship Impetueux (1798; 2nd edit. 1801). With John McArthur, a purser in the navy and secretary to Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood at Toulon, he started the Naval Chronicle, a monthly magazine of naval history and biography, which ran for twenty years. In 1803 he published the first volume of The Progress of Maritime Discovery, which was not continued. He issued in 1805 Naufragia, or Historical Memoirs of Shipwrecks (3 vols.).[4] Its subtitle "of the Providential Deliverance of Vessels" reflects its traditional content, harking back to James Janeway.[13]
In 1809, with McArthur, Clarke published his major work, The Life of Lord Nelson (2 vols.; 2nd edit. 1840). It mixed official and private letters, and made questionable use of its sources.[4]Robert Southey criticised it destructively in the Quarterly Review, a culmination of his literary feud with Clarke that led also to Southey writing his own Nelson biography.[14]
In 1816, Clarke published a Life of King James II, from the Stuart MSS. in Carlton House (2 vols.). The work contains portions of the king's autobiography, the original of which is now lost;[4] in the Dictionary of National Biography it was considered to be the work of Lewis Innes, where Clarke attributed it to his brother Thomas Innes.[15] A modern scholarly view is that the work was written in two parts by different Jacobite courtiers, the first part (to 1677) being by John Caryll, the second by William Dicconson. David Nairne assisted Caryll.[16][17]
Clarke also edited William Falconer's The Shipwreck, with life of the author and notes (1804), which ran to several editions, and Lord Clarendon's Essays (1815, 2 vols.).[4]
^"A Field Guide to the English Clergy' Butler-Gallie, F p149: London, Oneworld Publications, 2018 ISBN9781786074416
^Mark Antony Lower, The Worthies of Sussex (1865), p. 63: "In fact, Uckfield school enjoyed considerable celebrity. During the mastership of the Robert Gerison, James Stanier Clarke, and his brother Edward Daniel Clarke, the well-known traveller, received their rudimentary education there..."
^Askling, John; Cazenove, Anthony-Charles (1970). "Autobiographical Sketch of Anthony-Charles Cazenove: Political Refugee, Merchant, and Banker, 1775-1852". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 78 (3): 295–307. JSTOR4247580.
^Leary, Lewis (1949). "Joel Barlow and William Hayley: A Correspondence". American Literature. 21 (3): 325–334. doi:10.2307/2921248. JSTOR2921248.
^Clark, J. C. D. (2003). "Providence, Predestination and Progress: Or, Did the Enlightenment Fail?". Albion. 35 (4): 559–589. doi:10.2307/4054295. JSTOR4054295.