Henry Clarke was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n businessman and politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 in the New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 Legislative Assembly

New South Wales Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

.

Clarke was born in Maghera, County Londonderry

County Londonderry

The place name Derry is an anglicisation of the old Irish Daire meaning oak-grove or oak-wood. As with the city, its name is subject to the Derry/Londonderry name dispute, with the form Derry preferred by nationalists and Londonderry preferred by unionists...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, he emigrated to New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 in 1841 and he farmed for a while at Broulee

Broulee, New South Wales

Broulee is a town on the south coast of New South Wales between Batemans Bay and Moruya. In 2006, the town had a population of 1,292 people. Just off the beach is a Broulee Island, currently joined to the mainland, but in past years the connecting spit has been covered by water, at times a very ...

. He returned to Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 and married Jane Rayner in 1847 and they eventually had eleven children. He and Robert Gee established a successful shipping agency and owned three ships operating between Sydney and Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 by 1861. In the early 1860s, he lived for a period at Bergalia station near Moruya

Moruya, New South Wales

Moruya is a small regional centre in New South Wales, Australia, situated on the Moruya River, approximately 300 kilometers south of Sydney. At the 2006 census, Moruya had a population of 10,278 people. The town relies predominantly on agriculture, aquaculture, and tourism...

, but returned to Sydney in 1865 and worked at his agency until 1894.

Parliamentary career

In 1860, he contested the seat of Eden

Electoral district of Eden

Eden was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales from 1859 to 1894, including the town of Eden. From 1880 to 1894 it elected two members, with voters casting two votes and the first two candidates being elected...

 and lost to Daniel Egan

Daniel Egan

Daniel Egan was an Australian politician. Egan served as Mayor of Sydney in 1853 and was also a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly....

. In 1869 he re-contested Eden and won. He held the seat continually until he was beaten 1894 by William Wood

William Wood (Australian politician)

William Herbert Wood was an Australian politician.Born at Wallhollow, Victoria, to storekeeper Henry Gibson Wood, he attended schools in Victoria and Sydney before completing his secondary education at Sydney Grammar School and studying law at the University of Sydney. He entered his father's...

 and then after a gap of 13 months won a by-election for Bega, which he held until 1904. He was briefly Postmaster General in early 1889. He was noted as a hard-working parliamentarian.

Clarke died in Randwick

Randwick, New South Wales

Randwick is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Randwick is located 6 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Randwick...

. On his eightieth birthday he had claimed to have two hundred grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.