Rice Owen Clark

Rice Owen Clark (1816 – 16 June 1896) was an English settler in New Zealand, establishing a brickworks at Hobsonville that was the origin of Crown Lynn and Ceramco.

[4] He ran a church school in Wellington, but it was destroyed by earthquake and he subsequently moved to Auckland.

It was there that he set up a prosperous business making drain pipes, bricks and tiles for the increasing number of settlers.

[7] When he was 33 years old, Clark was tried at the Wellington Supreme Court for bigamy, but he was found not guilty.

[11] His great-grandson, Tom Clark, inherited the business setting up a ceramics company which eventually became known as Crown Lynn Potteries Ltd.