Early Life
George Clarke was born in Parramatta, New South Wales, the son of George Clarke, an early missionary to New Zealand who came from Norfolk and arrived at Hobart, Van Diemen's Land in September 1822. Clarke senior then went to Sydney, and while waiting for a ship to New Zealand, took charge of an establishment of Aborigines near Parramatta. The family went on to New Zealand in 1824 and settled at Bay of Islands and farmed at Waimate. In 1832 George Clarke the younger was sent to Hobart and went to R. W. Giblin's school. Returning to New Zealand early in 1837 the boy studied with the Rev. W. Williams, afterwards Bishop of Waiapu. In 1839 he went with Williams to Poverty Bay, still continuing his studies, and there obtained an excellent knowledge of the Māori language, and of the mentality of the Maoris; an invaluable experience that he found of great use a year or two later.
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“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
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