ShopDreamUp AI ArtDreamUp
Deviation Actions
Comments14
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Aenyeth,
Researching the history of Clement Clarke of Daventry, I came across your picture, and marvelled that someone had already found a little more about him than I had, quite without knowing why this information would be important!
Clement Clarke was a musician, in that he composed and had published a book of hymns in about 1840, entitled "The Sacred Minstrel An original set of hymn tunes and pieces, with instrumental accompaniments arranged for the piano forte, organ, &c ". He was also organist in the Parish Church, probably around that time.
He was a tailor and clothier, and unfortunately for him got entangled with someone called John Upton, a civil engineer from Gloucestershire, who, was working on a nearby road scheme. By 1819 Upton had become surveyor for part of the London to Holyhead road running from Stoney Stratford, near Milton Keynes, to Dunchurch, Warwickshire under the overall direction of Thomas Telford who seems to have had a high regard for Upton's engineering skills. However he was accused of having defrauded his employer of £3000, and the day before his trial absconded to Russia, where he continued his profession as an engineer and surveyor. He also defrauded the Daventry Post Office of £300!
Clement Clarke had become his assistant, and received a six-month jail sentence. There's more of John Upton's story on Wikipedia.
Here's hoping, however, that otherwise his life was not unduly affected by such goings on, and that his life of music and the church saw him through troubled times.
Researching the history of Clement Clarke of Daventry, I came across your picture, and marvelled that someone had already found a little more about him than I had, quite without knowing why this information would be important!
Clement Clarke was a musician, in that he composed and had published a book of hymns in about 1840, entitled "The Sacred Minstrel An original set of hymn tunes and pieces, with instrumental accompaniments arranged for the piano forte, organ, &c ". He was also organist in the Parish Church, probably around that time.
He was a tailor and clothier, and unfortunately for him got entangled with someone called John Upton, a civil engineer from Gloucestershire, who, was working on a nearby road scheme. By 1819 Upton had become surveyor for part of the London to Holyhead road running from Stoney Stratford, near Milton Keynes, to Dunchurch, Warwickshire under the overall direction of Thomas Telford who seems to have had a high regard for Upton's engineering skills. However he was accused of having defrauded his employer of £3000, and the day before his trial absconded to Russia, where he continued his profession as an engineer and surveyor. He also defrauded the Daventry Post Office of £300!
Clement Clarke had become his assistant, and received a six-month jail sentence. There's more of John Upton's story on Wikipedia.
Here's hoping, however, that otherwise his life was not unduly affected by such goings on, and that his life of music and the church saw him through troubled times.