GENGEOII Susannah CLARKE, possible wife of Robert BYRD, as POSSIBLE maternal link to George Rogers CLARK by Douglas Tucker FEB 1997 [In his letter with this and other reports on CLARKS, Doug stresses these should be considered as "works in progress" only. As in other things, any comments I make will be within brackets; content is Doug's work while all typos are mine. LSS] I recall a suggestion that the George Rogers Clark / Christopher Clark relationship might come from the maternal side rather. If this is the case, the link would almost certainly have to have been Susannah CLARKE who some have reported married Robert BYRD of the Westover Byrds. By some accounts, their daughter Mary Byrd married George EASTHAM. George and Mary's daughter, Rachel Eas tham, married John ROGERS and so forth. (Yes, I know there are other suggested lineages for GRC, but my goal is to define this alternative to see if it has any bearing on my greater interest which is to pin down Christopher's lineage.) There is documentation in the form of a 1666 will that this Susan- nah Clarke was the sister of Thomas CLARKE, originally of Thirploe, (Thyrplow, Thirplow) Cambridgeshire. (Some of the dates previously cited for this Susannah's birth, marriage etc. are suspect. She was probably born between 1634 and 1640 and probably married Robert BYRD before 1660. This is consistent with other dates for later generations of this family.) This particular CLARKE family is easily traced back to Sir Thomas CLARKE, knight, of Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Others have already done so and have apparently introduced a Michael CLARK into the equation as a brother of Thomas and Susannah. (Wishful thinking I suppose.) I thought it might be worthwhile examining the names of the males in this particular CLARK family. Others may have more complete information but I do not see a pattern that suggests this Clark family is closely aligned with Christopher's ancestors. The names I found in a quick search of the IGI are listed on the next page. All the names are from parish registers (not from individual submissions). Thirploe was a tiny place, with a population of less than 200 persons in 1700. 1. Sir Thomas Clarke, knight, bc.1527 of Stevenage, Hertfordshire Thomas George William 1553 others Sir Thomas Clarke had a brother, George Clarke c1526, who lived at Fincher's End, Stevenage, Herts. George had children named: Philip 1540 Mary 1542 George 1552 John Esq 1554-1604 m. Edith Cole of Bargeshaft, Suffolk Thomas 1556 William 1562 m. Cicely William and Cicely CLARKE had children named: George 1561 m. Elizabeth Bristow John 1563 Agnes 1565 George and Elizabeth Bristow CLARKE had children named: William 1593 m. Frances Bristow George 1594 m. Grace Boyde of Walken, Herts. Nicholas 1595 Robert 1587 [(sic) probably 1597 LSS] Francis 1598 Elizabeth 1599 Ann} 1600 Mary} 1600 John 1604 Grace 1616 George and Grace Bodye CLARKE had three children: Edward 1617 Daniel 1619 Ellen 1621 m. Thomas Plomer Now, back to the known son of Sir Thomas CLARKE of Stevenage. 2. William CLARKE b. 1553 m. Margaret WALKER of Fowlmere 1570, resided at Thirploe, Cambridgeshire * John 1572-1623 m. Sybil FERRAR 1601 Agnes 1576 Susan 1577 William c1579 Katheryn c1581 m. Sir Francis Harber Thomas c1583 m. Susan Collis 3. John CLARKE b. 1572 m. Sybil Ferrar 18 APR 1601, resided at Thriploe, Cambridgeshire. This is a candidate for John "The Navigator" of Mayflower notoriety. I also believe that John and Katherine Clarke Hiliard (or Hilliard) and their extended family emigrated to VA after the end of the English Civil War and resided initially in Isle of Wight Co. with a branch migrating to NC in early 18th century. William 1601-1639 m. Mary Sell 1631 * Edward 1603-1665 George 1605 Katherine 1607 m. 1st. Thomas WILSON 2nd. John HILLIARD 4. Edward CLARKE b. 1603. Reported to be a colonial merchant. Given the names and birth dates of the children that lived in Vir- ginia, my guess is that there were older children who lived else where or who had predeceased the Thomas listed below. Thomas c1634-1670 Susannah m. Robert BYRD Mary may have been the spinster Mary CLARK who was a ward of the church in late 1600s I don't know if there is any support for Edward CLARKE having had a son named Michaell, but there is no evidence in this extended family of any sons named Michael or Christopher and only one in stance of a Francis. Thomas, Edward, George, John and William seem to be the multi-generational names of this particular CLARK family. Of course there may have been other branches of the family that used different first names. Still, I have seen noth ing other than geographic location that suggests that this Clark famly had anything to do with "our" CLARKs. I do think the dates shown above for Edward Clarke are more ac curate than those offered by Lorand Johnson. The fact that records show him as a "colonial merchant" seems to add substance to the idea that he was the Edward Clarke who was a shareholder in The Virginia Company. I should also point out that Katheryn Clarke Harber appears to have been a great aunt of Thomas Clarke of NKC. His aunt, Katherine (his father's younger sister), married a WILSON and then John HILLIARD. I also believe I have seen John Hilliard's name in early VA records and the Hilliard name is common in early NC records. [They are also found in Maryland. LSS] [I planned to add here info that came in after my last report on the general's line; however, I think it might be more confusing and is best left until later. There's nothing really new and most, if not all, relates to the general's siblings and their lines. I might remind you of the WILSON / ROGERS marriages in Ann Roger's line. However, no one to my knowledge has found the "definitive" ROGERS line prior to marriage of John Clark and Ann Rogers. It gets real "murky" as does that CLARK line. The mul tiple "Giles Rogers" may be the problem. Molly Daniel posted a three-part message to the CLARK list serve citing sources for information on the general's line. Several of these are in the Filson Club History Quarterlies. There are also letters by family members circa 1880s in the Draper Manuscripts Collection. Lyman Draper planned a biography of the general but never got around to completing it. LSS]