John Creemer Clarke (1821 – 11 February 1895)[1] was an English merchant and cloth manufacturer and a Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1874 to 1885.
[2] He started work in a drapery business in Bideford before moving to Abingdon from Devon in 1840.
The factory in West St Helen Street employed 2,000 people at one stage making it one of the largest clothing manufacturers in the country.
[6] Clarke was a philanthropist who gave land and helped fund the building of Trinity Church often referred to as 'Clarke’s Chapel'.
[3] The 1861 census shows that he resided at Waste Court, a property that was handed down to his third son Harry Thomas Clarke (a borough magistrate) on his death in 1895.