wife £40, "bedding, chairs, cushions, table, form, stools, half a garnish of vessels (i.e., half a set of table vessels), bason, two candlesticks, carpet cloth, table cloths, towells, tablenapkins, brass pot that hath been used to still aquavite withall, and a kettle." He also gave her £18 10s.; "and I straitly charge her (as she shall answer the same before God) to pay unto one whom she knoweth I have appointed her to pay the same unto." The Will contains the following curious clause:— "All the glass windows in and about my said now dwelling house, and all other windows, all the wainscot, wainscot doors, portal doors, benches, and settles, and the locks and keys to the doors, bolts, planchers, racks, and mangers of the stable in and about my said house shall remain as Heirlooms to my said house for ever." James Clarke appointed his wife sole Executrix, and she proved the Will on February 28th, 1599. The Overseers were Mr. Hugh Hunter and William Dethick, the Town Clerk.
Of the two contemporary Thomas Clarkes, the most prominent was the wealthy landlord of the Blue Boar Inn, of whom some account is given elsewhere in this volume. The other, the shoemaker, was a philanthropist who devoted himself to improving the condition of the Leicester poor by securing better facilities for trade and more encouragement to labour. In connection with the Council's scheme for providing work and training by cloth-making, spinning, and jersey-knitting, he obtained from the town in 1592 a Lease for life of the old hospital of St. John, on his undertaking to build thereon a Wool Hall at his own expense. His wife Margaret taught poor children to knit jerseys, and the Town Council lent her money free of interest, to enable her to carry on the work. The useful benevolence of the Clarkes attracted the attention of the Earl of Huntingdon, who wrote a letter to the Mayor of Leicester, expressing his wish that a sum of £40, which his late brother had given for the relief of the poor by setting them to work, should be handed over to Thomas and Margaret Clarke. Thomas Clarke and his wife promised to employ a hundred people, but it does not seem that they ever obtained the money.
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