Evidence for
Anthony Jacques Cheeper (visible 1837-1877 and 1910-1918)
and
Anthony Clarke (visible 1877-1904)
Being The Same Person

There is no incontrovertible proof that Anthony Jacques Cheeper was the same person as Anthony Clarke.

But there's very substantial circumstantial evidence. Not least is that, in the space of 4 days in September 1877, one Anthony ceases to be at a particular address, with a wife and 2 children, and a nominally different Anthony appears in his place.

In greater detail, here's the evidence:

• Anthony Jacques Cheeper is evident in the records 14 times from his birth in 1837-73, and 3 times from 1910 until his death in 1916, but not once for the 33 years between 1877 and 1910:
  • entries 1837-73 include:
    • his birth in 1837;
    • his marriage in 1858 to Catherine Spilsbury;
    • the birth of 10 children by her, 1859-1877;
    • the birth of Harold, by Mary Wanless, in 1873;
    • a census entry in 1841;
  • entries 1910-16 include:
    • the birth of Donald Anthony Cheeper, by Amy Clark, in 1910;
    • Donald's death in 1911;
    • his own death in 1918.
• Anthony Clarke does not exist in the records before 1877 (at 40) nor, of his own volition, after 1904 (at 67). (His ex-wives and children did make reference to him in documents after 1904). In particular, there appears to be neither a birth or death entry for a person of that name and age. Yet there are 30 entries in the period 1877-1904, which is the period complementary to that in which Anthony Jacques Cheeper is evident in the records. Those entries are as follows:
  • the birth of 2 children by Mary Wanless;
  • Mary's death certificate in 1882;
  • his marriage to Emma Terry in 1882;
  • the births of 4 children by Emma Terry;
  • the births of 10 children by Kate Davidge;
  • the marriages of 2 Wanless and 7 Davidge children;
  • in the Censuses of 1881, 1891 and 1901;
• Mary Wanless bore a child to Anthony Jacques Cheeper (Harold, out of wedlock, in September 1873, registered as Wanless, and indexed as both Wanless and Cheeper but not Clarke). But, throughout his life, including on his own marriage certificate in 1893, that child called himself Clarke, and his death certificate carries that name as well;
• Mary Wanless then bore two children to Anthony Clarke (in September 1877 and June 1879). These latter two were called Clarke, as was she; but there is no evidence of a marriage certificate. That leads to the inference that both husband and wife used the device of adopting the same surname, Clarke, in order to convey the impression of being married;
• both Anthony Jacques Cheeper and Anthony Clarke consistently used the first name Anthony (with one known exception, on one of two census forms completed in 1891 in the names Anthony and Robert);
• both Anthony Jacques Cheeper and Anthony Clarke:
  • most commonly disclosed their profession as commercial traveller;
  • declared on their marriage certificates that their father was Anthony;
• Anthony Jacques Cheeper's father was a ribbon manufacturer (according to Pigot's Commercial Directory of 1839, and his own marriage certificate). Anthony Clarke once declared his father to be a ribbon-maker (on his marriage certificate to Emma F. Terry);
• although Anthony Clarke never appears to have himself used the second given name Jacques in any formal documents, it is used on three occasions by one of his wives and two of his children, over a 20-year spread:
  • on the birth certificates of Eva in 1886 and Leslie in 1889, where his wife Emma was the informant. Emma named the father as Anthony Jacques Clarke;
  • on the marriage certificate of Stanley, his second son by Mary Wanless, in 1901. Stanley nominated his father's name as Anthony Jakes Clarke;
  • on Emma Terry's death certificate in 1906, their daughter, Gertrude, gave his name as Anthony Jacques Clarke.

We're missing a lot of information; and we'd love to know more!

This a page within Roger Clarke's Family Web-Site

Contact: Roger Clarke and/or Anne Kratzmann

Created: 19 October 2005; Last Amended: 5 January 2006