Sarah Clarke (née Russ)

Sarah Clarke née Russ or Rufs, widow of Edward Clarke (who died in 1826).

1. Edward Clarke (1770-1826), MP for Wootten Bassett 1796-1802 married his second wife Sara Rufs or Russ 18/08/1821. Edward had inherited Hyde estate in Jamaica from his grandfather in 1776 and Swainswick estate in Somerset from his great-uncle in 1777. At the same time, Edward's older brother George Clarke (q.v.) inherited Swainswick estate in Jamaica and Hyde estate in Cheshire.

2. Unsourced online family trees name three children born to this couple: Edward (1822-1845), George Hamnet (1824-1850) and Tanner Owen (1826-1878). The younger two boys were baptised in Swainswick 22/06/1828 and Tanner Owen gives his birthplace in the 1851 census as Whitley, Yorkshire, but no birth records of the children have been found so far. The Edward Clarke given in the claims for Hyde estate was presumably the eldest son.

T71/874 Trelawny claim nos. 35 (Hyde estate) and 36 (Hyde estate).

The George Hyde Clarke family papers, 1705-1937, including accounts of the Hyde and Swanswick estates, are held at Cornell University: http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/ead/htmldocs/RMM02800.html [accessed 07/11/2012].

1. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/clarke-edward-1770-1826 [accessed 07/11/2012]. Vere Langford Oliver, Caribbeana being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies (6 vols., London, Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1910-1919), Vol. 1 p. 375.

2. www.familysearch.org batch no. I08247-9. 1851 census online (record of Tanner Owen Clarke age 25, West India Merchant, at 14 Fulham Place, Paddington, Middlesex.