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by John Townsend » Thu Jan 20, 2022 3:36 pm
In The English Morphy? (page 22), Clark(e) is referred to as "a fellow member, an amateur named "J. Clark"". (They were fellow members of the City of London Chess Club.) It would be interesting to learn more about their relationship.
Joseph Clark was a wealthy man, the developer of Emperor's Gate, Kensington. My attention was drawn to that place by Tim Harding's Joseph Henry Blackburne: A Chess Biography (page 213). In the 1871 census, Joseph Clark is to be found in Kentish Town, St. Pancras, a land proprietor, aged 41, born at Farringdon, Berkshire. He had three children born in Australia, so his link with that country was substantial.
It would be useful to find De Vere himself on the 1871 census. The last address that I have for him prior to 1871 was at Clement's Inn in 1867. A little earlier in that decade, R. B. Wormald had the address 5 Clement's Inn and it has occurred to me there may be a link. By 1871, Wormald had moved on to Lambeth.
I wonder if there is an element of truth about the De Vere manuscripts which involves Clark. On page 25 of The English Morphy?, it is remarked that the nearest thing De Vere had to family were his obituarists, all of whom knew him personally. One of these was Macdonnell.