CLERKE, Sarah (Grimwade p.318, 348)

[MCB]

The christening record in 1805 for George, the son of George and Sarah Clarke (sic), at St Giles Cripplegate shows his father was a watch case maker but no address.
The christening record in 1809 for George, the son of George and Sarah Clerke, at St Giles, Cripplegate also shows his father as a watch case maker again without an address.
The christening record in January 1813 for Amelia, the daughter of George and Sarah Clerke, at St Giles, Cripplegate shows George as a watch case maker from Banner Square.
Sarah Clerke entered a mark at Goldsmiths Hall in January 1813 as a case maker from 23 Banner Square and another in 1815 from that address. She also entered a mark as a watch case maker from that address in July 1813.
Maker’s marks were entered at Goldsmiths Hall as case makers by both George Clerke and George Clarke but neither used the Banner Square address and there is no marriage record to link these men with Sarah. Suffice to say that she was probably the widow of a watch case maker named George!
In 1815 Sarah Clerke was assessed to Land Tax on property in Banner Street.
Widow Sarah Clerke married William Greely at St Michael Bassishaw in 1816; both were from that parish. William Greely was assessed to Land Tax from 1816-17 on the property in Banner Street previously assessed on Sarah Clerke.
William Greely (Grimwade p.327) entered a maker’s mark at Goldsmiths Hall in December 1815 as a case maker from 23 Banner Street at which point Sarah’s maker’s marks may have become obsolete.
The christening records at St Giles, Cripplegate in 1816 and 1818 for two children of William and Sarah Greely show their address as West Street and their father as a watch case maker.
The marriage record of their first son William Edward at Christ Church and St Leonard Foster Lane in 1838 shows his father as William Edward Greely, watch case maker. The address the son gave was Phoenix Court, Newgate.
The UK Census for 1841 shows a widow named Sarah Greely aged 56 years, now a tassel maker at Phoenix Court and for 1851 in the same business at 11 Angel Court, St Sepulchre.
No further evidence relating clearly to William or Sarah Greely has been found.

[dognose]

An image of the mark of Sarah Clerke that is described only by Grimwade on page 348:



Taken from a watchcase assayed at London in 1813.