When young, he worked with his brother in Edinburgh, as carpenters for a brewery.
[82] Emigrated to NZ in 1857.
[41]Engineer. Buried in Lot 19, Block 29 of the Southern Cemetery, Dunedin, the same plot as his wife. The cemetery records say that he was an Engineer, died 28 Aug 1904. Resident of Nisson? St. Lived in Otago 46 years.
I have a copy of his F98 form (from 1898 I think) in which he provided some details about himself. I saw the original in the Otago Settlers Museum (thanks to Bob Matthews at the Settlers Museum, who provided much of this information). In this F98 he says he came to NZ on the “George Canning” in 1857. Further, it says:
“Born about 1837 at Edinburgh - married Janet Peddie (daughter of James Peddie N.S. Stirling - married at Dunedin in 1860. Wife, 2 (?) sons and 2 daughters living, 2 daughters married, 4 G children. Was Chief Engineer of P.S. Geelong, Captain Boyce, and other Steamers.” The ship list for the “George Canning”, arrival into Dunedin in 1857, has a Mr. Clarke on board.
However, the Southern Cemetery burial record says that he was born between 1833 and 1834. I don’t know which to believe.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ourstuff/ElectoralDunedin1862.htm shows him on the Dunedin Electoral Roll in 1862.
A copy of the Electoral Roll from 1865-66 (in the Otago Settlers Museum) gives his address as 1 Hanover St.
In the Otago Witness of 2 October, 1875, Adam Sprott Clark was a bankrupt (in court on 27 September), and his case was set to stand over. Clearly, he didn’t do all that well. Same in the Otago Witness of 14 August, 1875, he was declared a bankrupt.
In the Otago Witness of 14 September, 1904, a notice was put in that Adam Sprott Clark (70) had died. Doesn’t give the exact date, but this supports a birth date of between 1833 and 1834, in agreement with the burial record.
I now (2008) have a copy of his death certificate, which gives the date of death as August 28, 1904. Place of residence; 61 Union St. Cause of death: Senile gangrene (1 week) and heart failure. (Sounds like it could have been almost anything.) His father’s name was given as Adam Clark, Builder, and mother’s name was listed as unknown. Born in Leith, Scotland. Five surviving children (2 males, 40, 37, 3 females, 34, 26, 23).
For many years this is all I knew about Adam Sprott Clark. However, in 2009 Clark Saunders, another descendant of the same Clark family, wrote to me with a great deal of information about the family which he had collected when younger. This is reproduced verbatim in the card of Adam Sprott’s G-grandfather, John. This has let me fill out many of the details of Adam Sprott’s genealogy. For example, his middle name comes from his grandfather’s wife clearly.
From Clark Saunders
[82]:
“And back to your g-g-grandfather, ASC. Here is all I knew (or thought I knew) of him up to about a month ago: My Grandfather James Clark (ASC's nephew) thought that he had married a woman from Stirling (which he did) but thought her name was Stewart and that they had married prior to their emigration. Unless this was a marriage previous to his marriage to Janet Peddie (which seems unlikely), my grandfather must have been wrong about that. However, he did recall his father (ASC's brother, George) often describing the scene at Leith (the port of Edinburgh) when the settlers embarked for their long journey, dressed (he said) in blue uniforms. I had noted that it was a Church of Scotland scheme, but of course it would have been Free Church of Scotland; I assume Port Chalmers was named for the Free Church leader, Thomas Chalmers. I believe that the share of the property in Pathhead that fell to ASC after the deaths of his father and step-mother was the workshop. George, who had inherited the 2-storey house next door sold it to the Heritable Securities Investment Association who, in turn sold it to a Dr. Archibald Craig in 1878. After a protracted correspondence between Edinburgh and Dunedin, ASC sold the workshop building to Dr. Craig on 22nd October, 1885 for 85 pounds sterling. I hope that helped him stay out of bankruptcy court!”
Janet was the second daughter of James Peddie Esq. At the time of her death, she had five living children. Christina was the eldest.
[41]Buried in the Southern Cemetery, Dunedin, Lot 19, Block 29. The cemetery record says: Died Sept 26, 1900, aged 62 years, of Dropsy. Resident of Union St. Born Stirling. Lived in Otago 41 years. This agrees with the arrival date of the Gloucester, at the end of 1858.
[41]A George Peddie is buried in the same plot and is almost certainly her elder brother. He was only 4 years older than Janet. George died Sept 14, 1863 of Dropsey. Aged 29. Draper. Resident of Dunedin. Born Scotland. Lived 5 years in Otago.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~nzbound/nzbound/gloucester.htm says that the “Gloucester”, arrived in Port Chalmer Dec 28 from London had, as passenger, Peddie, G. and Janet. This has to be the same George Peddie that is buried with Janet and her husband, Adam Sprott Clark. The Peddies came out as Second Cabin passengers, not Steerage, so they must have had a bit more money. This squares with the description of Janet’s father as a writer, Esq.
Janet married Adam Sprott on 26 April, 1861. The record is in the Otago Daily Times BDM, as reproduced on
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~nzbound/nzbound/otago_bdm1861.htmMay 4th, 1861
At Maclaggan-street, Dunedin, on the 26th ult., by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Burns, Mr Adam S. Clark, to Janet, second daughter of James Peddie, Esq., Writer, Stirling.
The Marriage Certificate says the marriage occurred “In the dwelling house of James Feddie, McLagan Street, Dunedin.” Clearly James Peddie is meant, and this confirms that the James Peddie, 8 years older than Janet, was her older brother.
According to her death certificate, she died of Bright’s Disease of Kidney - 6 years (i.e., chronic nephritis), Uroemie [sic] Coma - 48 Hours. (What the transcriber meant is Uroemic, or Uremic, coma.)