Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Engineer and surveyor, of Belturbet, Co. Cavan, and county surveyor for Tyrone, 1834-1838. James Clarke acted as an assistant to the Post Office surveyor, WILLIAM LARKIN WILLIAM LARKIN , in 1813. In 1823 to 1824 he worked under ALEXANDER NIMMO [1]. A ALEXANDER NIMMO [1]. A fter Nimmo's death in 1832, he made himself responsible for the completion of the road from Bridge of Tarmonbarry to Lung Bridge, Co. Roscommon, which had previously been laid out by Nimmo.(1) He was in practice as an engineer and surveyor in Belturbet, Co. Cavan from 1824 or earlier until 1834, latterly in partnership with his brother THOMAS CLARKE. THOMAS CLARKE. (2) On being appointed to the surveyorship of Co. Tyrone on 17 May 1834(3) he moved with his family to Omagh but died on 4 September 1838 after falling from his gig. Thomas Clarke took his place as acting county surveyor until the appointment of JAMES BARRY FARRELL  JAMES BARRY FARRELL the following year. James Clarke's widow, Frances (née Williams) of Belturbet, whom he had married in 1819, survived him until at least 1856, when she left a will dividing her property between her three sons, William, Joseph and James, and her brother-in-law Thomas Clarke.(4)

ICEI: founder member, 1835.(5)

See BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Sarah Bendall, ed., Dictionary of Land Surveyors and Local Map-Makers of Great Britain and Ireland 1530-1850 (2nd edition, 1997), 98,99, and Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 129-130, which gives the fullest account of Clarke's life and career.

(1) First Report of the Irish Board of Works (1833), 8.
(2) A survey of the Ardremullen estate in Co. Meath, by James and Thomas Clarke, Belturbet, 1833, is in the National Library of Ireland (MS 2796) (B.O'D.).
(3) Dublin Evening Post, 20 May 1834.
(4) NLI MSS. 28,821 and 28,822 (B.O'D.).
(9) Photocopy of transcript of minutes of first meeting of Engineers' Society of Ireland, 6 Aug 1835, in IAA, Jones File F73.


Author Title Date Details
Clarke, James Practical directions for laying out and making roads 1818 Dublin: The Farming Society of Ireland, 1818.