He served as secretary to Prince George of Denmark, Queen Anne's consort and the Lord High Admiral and Generalissimo of England.

[2] Clarke was returned as Member of Parliament for Winchelsea at the 1702 English general election, coinciding with his office as Joint Secretary of the Admiralty.

[2] Clarke returned to the House of Commons as MP for Oxford University at a by-election on 4 December 1717 following the death of William Whitelock.

[5] His known work is largely confined to Oxford, (Clayton's DNB entry for Clarke offers more detail of his architectural endeavours) and he is known to have designed buildings and also to have collaborated with Nicholas Hawksmoor, amongst others.

Timothy Clayton discusses Clarke's print collection, noting "John Vanburgh, Alexander Pope and George Vertue travelled to Oxford to use his library with its unique collection of notes and drawings by [Inigo] Jones" (Clayton 1992, p. 124).

The library of Worcester College, Oxford houses Clarke's collection of books, MSS, prints and drawings.