RECORDS of the CLARKE FAMILY OF NOBLETHORPE HALL, SILKSTONE relating to their colliery...

Assembled from several sources, viz:

1. From Noblethorpe Hall (3 separate deposits of colliery records).

2. From Messrs. Gray, solicitors, of York (extensive deposit of title deeds).

3. From A. O. Elmhirst, solicitor, of Sherburn-in-Elmet (deposit of later legal documents).

Note 1 Some of the later legal documents retained at Mr. Elmhirst's office are also listed here.

Note 2 A small number of early deeds of the Clarkes, when they were wiredrawers in Barnsley in the 17th - 18th centuries, came from the solicitor Richard Perkins to Mr. Elmhirst, when he acquired the business which had belonged to Perkins. These were listed in the Report of the Elmhirst manuscripts, p.85.

(Perkins was the son-in-law of Joseph Clarke).

Family history

The Clarkes were Barnsley wiredrawers in the 17th and 18th centuries. Jonas Clarke, born 1758, son of Joseph Clarke, became an attorney in Barnsley and acquired extensive property in the district, including Noblethorpe (1792). He died in 1822. Joseph, his elder son, also became an attorney and probably inherited the Barnsley property. The second son, Robert Couldwell Clarke, inherited the Noblethorpe estate and worked the Silkstone coal seams under his lands on a considerable scale. The business was carried on by his widow, Sarah Ann Clarke and his son (also Robert Couldwell Clarke). They added considerably to the estate. The last named Robert died in his thirties, leaving an only daughter who married J. S. H. Fullerton of Thrybergh, esq.