BENJAMIN CLARK.
Dr. John Clark was the first of a prominent Boston family of that name. He was a gentleman of college education, and a leading physician of that day. He died in 1680, aged 85. Their only son, Hon. Dr. John Clark, of Boston, died in 1690, leaving three sons, John, born 1667, William 1670, Samuel 1677.
Hon. William Clark, Esq. became a wealthy merchant and member of the Governor's Council. His residence was situated in North Square, on the corner of Garden Court and Prince street. This mansion was a monument of human pride, in all colonial Boston there was not its peer, and it was without doubt built to outvie that of Hutchinson's, Clark's wealthy next-door neighbor, whose home was demolished by the mob. The principal feature which distinguished this house, was the rich, elaborate and peculiar decoration of the north parlor, on the right of the entrance hall, which was a rich example of the prevalent style, found in the mansions of wealthy citizens of the colonial period, in and around Boston.
The peculiar decoration consisted of a series of raised panels filling these compartments, reaching from the surbase to the frieze, eleven in all, each embellished with a romantic landscape painted in oil colors, the four panels opposite the windows being further enriched by the emblazoned escutcheons of the Clarks, the Saltonstalls, and other allied families. Beneath the surbase, the panels, as also those of the door, were covered with arabesques. The twelfth painting was a view of the house upon a horizontal panel over the mantel, from which this engraving was made, and beneath this panel inscribed in an oval, was the monogram of the builder, W. C. At the base of the gilded and fluted vault of the buffet was a painted dove. The floor was inlaid with divers woods in multiform patterns. In the center, surrounded by a border, emblazoned in proper colors, was the escutcheon of the Clarks, with its three white swans.
The mere enumeration of the details fails to give an idea of the impression made by this painted and gilded parlor, not an inch of whose surface but had been elaborated by painter, gilder, carver or artist, to which the blazoner had added heraldic emblems; so that, as you looked round these walls, the romantic ruins and castles seemed placed there to suggest, if not to portray, the old homes of a long line of ancestors, and the escutcheons above to confirm the suggestion, thereby enhancing the splendor of the present by the feudal dignity of an august past.
The house is supposed to have been built about 1712-1715, for the land was purchased of Ann Hobby, widow, and several other heirs, December 10, 1711, for £725 current money. If so, Councillor Clark lived many years to enjoy the sumptuousness of his new house and the envy of his neighbors. His death, in 1742, was attributed by some to the loss of forty sail of vessels in the French war. After his death the estate was conveyed to his son-in-law, Deacon Thomas Greenough, for £1,400, old tenor, and was by him sold to Sir Charles Henry Frankland, Bart., for £1,200 sterling. The mansion, afterwards was known as the Frankland House.
There were numerous places in Boston named after Clark. There was Clark's Wharf, afterwards changed to Hancock's, and now known as Lewis; Clark street from Hanover to Commercial, still named, in 1788; Clark Square, now North Square, where the Clark mansion was built, was named in 1708, "The Square living on ye Southly side of the North Meeting House including ye wayes on each side of ye watch-house"; Clark's Corner, 1708, corner of Middle, now Hanover street and Bennet street, Dr. Clark's Corner, 1732; corner of Fish, now North street, and Gallops alley, now Board alley and Clark's Shipyard.
CLARK-FRANKLAND HOUSE.