George J. F. Clarke
He was a central figure in organizing a local government in the area between the St. Marys and St. Johns rivers, which brought a workable peace to that tumultuous section during the final years of Spanish rule.
[7][8] Clarke published his opinions on a wide array of subjects in the provincial newspaper, the East Florida Herald, including experimental agriculture, fruit tree cultivation, diet and health, archeology, and the white man's relations with the Indians.
Clarke was born a British colonial subject in St. Augustine, naturalized as a Spanish citizen, and died an American[9] by the terms of the Adams-Onis Treaty, which ceded the Floridas to the United States.
Young George was well-trained in business, his mother having apprenticed him at age twelve to the British trading firm of Panton, Leslie & Company,[10] which dealt with the Indians of Florida and those in the neighboring Spanish-claimed territory.
They lived there for a few years, but as their mercantile and timber interests expanded, with new opportunities for great profits to be made at the free port of Fernandina, they moved their families[17] and slaves in 1808 to the booming community at the north end of Amelia Island.
[29] After the East Florida revolution of 1812, Fernandina was occupied by US troops and the Spanish citizenry fled; some, including Clarke, suffered damage to their homes and businesses in their absence.
That same year Fernandina was declared a free port; it began to ship great quantities of Florida cotton and lumber, and became a resort for the smuggling business and contraband slave trade.
The unsightly and unsanitary condition of Fernandina disturbed Governor White, and on May 10, 1811, two days after Clarke's appointment as surveyor general, he instructed him to plat the town so that the streets were properly aligned and the lots were uniform.
[37] General George Mathews, ensconced at Point Peter on the St. Marys in Georgia, ordered Colonel Lodowick Ashley to send a flag to Lopez,[38] commandant of the fort and Amelia Island, and demand his surrender.
[38] American forces held Amelia Island "in trust for Spain" until the following spring, and shut off Fernandina harbor to foreign vessels in an attempt to throttle the port's infamous smuggling.
The colonial administration in Florida had been unstable since the retrocession, due partly to events in Europe—the Napoleonic invasion of the Iberian peninsula, and the revolutionary convulsions in Spain[41][42] following the restoration of the Bourbons to the Spanish throne.
The three commissioners met forty "people of the main" at Mill's ferry on the St. Marys and arranged for a general meeting of the men of the region to be convened at Waterman's Bluff in three weeks.
[41] Governor Coppinger approved these proceedings and offered Clarke an appointment to superintend jurisdiction of the division,[46] which he accepted on condition that it be confined to Upper and Lower St. Marys, omitting Amelia Island.
He later wrote that in the five years of his tenure in this office there had been only one appeal and one complaint to the authorities in St. Augustine, but admitted that his administration was assisted by "Lynch's Law" implemented by the more respectable citizens.
[41] As Capitan of the "Northern Division" and Lieutenant of the Urban Militia of East Florida, Clarke was of great service to the province during the MacGregor and Aury interlude, and was the prime mover in keeping his section loyal to the Spanish Crown.
[48] Under orders of Governor Coppinger, Clarke reconnoitered Fernandina in August and September 1817, reporting on the status of the enemy's personnel, vulnerabilities of the fortifications, the number and kind of vessels in the harbor, rumors of expected reinforcements, and their intention to seize slaves from neighboring plantations to repair the fort.
[49] In his report of September 1, Clarke related the departure of MacGregor and submitted a plan for the disposition of Spanish troops to attack the enemy forces still remaining in Fernandina.
[52] When the United States took possession of the Floridas in 1821 – and surely could have used men of Clarke's experience and stature to ease the transition from Spanish to American rule – his services were not called upon.
From 1823 to 1825, he was, however, frequently required to appear as a witness[53] before the Board of Commissioners for East Florida, appointed to examine and pass judgement on the land claims of former Spanish subjects.
Clarke wrote a series of articles for the St. Augustine newspaper and its successor, the East Florida Herald, which appeared regularly from 1823 to 1832, describing the results of his horticultural observations and experiments.
In a letter dated August 10, 1830, he described the careful picking and handling of the oranges grown by Jesse Fish[58] at his El Vergel plantation on Anastasia island[58][59] and shipped safely to London, where they had found favor for their sweetness.
[63] The letter was written at St. Marys, July 1, 1822, and treated of the Florida Indians—their ethnic characteristics, social customs, language, personal appearance, medicinal use of native plants, spiritual beliefs, burial methods, practice of slavery, treatment of enemies, and of the chief Secoffee (Cowkeeper) and his son King Payne.
