Percy Clark

Percy Hamilton Clark

File:Percy Clark.jpg
Personal information
Born	August 7, 1873 (1873-08-07) Germantown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	August 12, 1965 (1965-08-13) (aged 92)
Batting style	Right-handed batsman
Bowling style	Right-arm Fast-Medium
International information
National side	United States
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 53 Runs scored 897 Batting average 12.81 100s/50s 0/2 Top score 67 Balls bowled 8353 Wickets 199 Bowling average 21.97 5 wickets in innings 11 10 wickets in match 4 Best bowling 8-91 Catches/stumpings
Source: Cricket Archive

Percy Hamilton Clark (August 7, 1873 – August 12, 1965) was an American cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler. He began playing cricket in 1885 and soon found himself at the top of the game in the USA during the brief "Golden Age" of North American cricket.

Biography

Clark was born on August 7, 1873, in Germantown, Pennsylvania, to Edward White Clark, a member of the Clark banking family, and Mary Todhunter Sill.

Clark played for the USA national team, and took five or more wickets on four occasions in the regular match against Canada, his best being 6/41 in the 1900 game in Manheim. Whilst not known for his batting, he did make two first-class half-centuries. His best was a score of 67, also coming in the 1903 match against Worcestershire where he recorded his best bowling. He often opened the bowling with Bart King when playing for the Philadelphian cricket team and the USA national team. He played 53 first-class matches in all, taking 199 wickets in his career at an average of 21.97, taking 10 wickets in a match four times, and having an innings best of 8/91 against Worcestershire in 1903.

Clark received a bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1892 and, later, a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He and his brother, Joseph Sill Clark, Sr., opened a law practice together at 321 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. His practice centered on the "street railway, electric light, and power businesses" operated by E. W. Clark & Co., his family's financial firm.

Family

He married Elizabeth Williams Roberts (1879–1959), daughter of George Brooke Roberts, the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1904.

In 1908, George Roberts gave the couple some of his land along Belmont Avenue in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. They commissioned a cousin, Clarence C. Zantzinger, to design a mansion, which they named "Willoughby." Household staff included a houseman, cook, scullery maid, waitress, governess, a nurse, chambermaid, two gardeners, a farmer, and a driver. They added a chauffeur's cottage and a barn, which supported a small working farm with seven cows, one horse, and 400 chickens.

Percy and Elizabeth Clark had eight children, including John Clark and Mary Todhunter "Tod" Clark (1907–1999), who in 1930 married the future New York governor and U.S. vice president Nelson Rockefeller.

"Tod" and Nelson had five children: Rodman Rockefeller, Anne Rockefeller, Steven Clark Rockefeller, and twins Michael Clark Rockefeller and Mary Rockefeller. They divorced in 1962, which was considered to have hurt Nelson's 1964 bid to become the GOP's candidate for U.S. president.

Percy Clark died on August 12, 1965.

External links

• List of Canada v USA matches
• Cricket Archive profile
• Profile at CC Morris Cricket Library
• Cricinfo profile
• 1930 photo of Clark posing with John D. Rockefeller at Nelson and Mary's wedding.

• In 1951, the mansion was sold to the Mary J. Drexel Home, a nursing home named for Mary Johanna Drexel (1822–1873), a daughter of Francis Martin Drexel. NYT obituary for Mary's husband, John D. Lankenau, August 31, 1901