As a young man he worked as music dealer's assistant in Edinburgh and led the singing of psalms in St George's Church in Glasgow.
[1] Clarke emigrated to Canada in 1835,[2] taking a job as the organist for St. James Cathedral in York (Toronto).
[2] Clarke received his bachelor's degree in music from the Kings College (later University of Toronto) in 1846.
He was a composer of choral music; a collection of his songs about the Canadian landscape, Lays of the Maple Leaf, was published in 1853 by A.
[7][8] Clarke taught organ and piano; one of his pupils was his son Hugh, who became a professor of music at the University of Pennsylvania.