Clark and Hogg Family History

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Margaret (Margie) Elizabeth Clark
1859 - 1933

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Margaret Elizabeth Clark is the daughter of William Robinson Clark
and his wife Elizabeth Jane Clark (nee Higgins)
 
William Robinson Clark
William Robinson Clark (1829-1912)
Her father
(photo kindly supplied by the
Royal Society of Canada)
She married Alan Summerly Cole, son of Sir Henry Cole, KCB.. in 1879.
 
see Centre for Whistler Studies - Alan Summerly Cole
Alan Summerly Cole was a life long friend of the artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler
see link for pictures of Whistler
 
It was his father Sir Henry Cole, the first director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, who commissioned the First Christmas Card from John Calcott Horsley
The First Card - 1843
Sir Henry Cole and the First Christmas Card
 
Sir Henry Cole - see below
 

 
As reported by an early Lyon family member
One of George Lyon's sisters had married the Rev. Mr. Clark of Deviot (two miles from Inverurie). Her son Rev. Wm. Clark refused two bishoprics including that of Ely. His two daughters had become Roman Catholics at a French School. One was Lady Cole* the other Lady Petre, the latter a very old barony which descends to daughters as well as male heirs it is "Petre of Furnwall". Rev. Wm. Clark was at Wells and later came to Trinity College Toronto. I remember, as a very small child hearing him lecture on, "The Water Babies". He was a very handsome man.
* Alan Summerly Cole, the son of Sir Henry Cole, was an emminent person in his own right but I can find no evidence he was a Sir or Lord [ed].

 
Alan Summerly Cole (1846-1934)
(sometimes spelt Summerley i.e. wedding)

Expert in textiles and embroidery.
Director of Soth kensington Museum, now Victoria and Albert Museum (V & A).

Described as Textile expert, museum official and diarist.

 
Books by Alan Summerly Cole
Embroidery from the South Kensington Museum / edited by Alan S. Cole.
Ornament in European silks; by Alan S. Cole.
Ancient Needlepoint and Pillow Lace. Arundel Society, 1875. 59 pages.
Weaving. Cambridge University Press, 1911. 16 pages.
A renascence of the Irish art of lace-making. London, 1888. Title no: 4.2.328 (1 mf)
Cantor lectures on the art of lace-making. London, 1881. Title no: 4.2.577 (1 mf)
 
Friend of Whistler ( James Abbot McNeill Whistler 1834-1903) and Oscar Wilde

The daughters of William Robinson Clark
He appeared to have (at least) five daughters:-
  • Katherine Elsie Clark, later Hon Mrs Petre and subsequently Lady Hawtrey
  • Margaret Elizabeth Clark, married Alan Summerly Cole, son of Sir Henry Cole, the first director of the (V&A) South Kensington Museum
  • Etheldreda Mary Clark (known as Audrey), later Lady Petre
  • Hylda or Hilda Frances E Clark, married the exploere Henry De Windt
  • Augusta M Clark has now been cnfirmed as the previously missing daughter.

Sir Henry Cole
Penny Post
Sir Henry Cole   Henry Cole is credited with introducing the penny-postage scheme on 5 July 1839.
" The man chosen to implement the scheme was an energetic young civil servant
named Henry Cole who worked in the Records Office."
 
Sir Henry Cole was a prominent innovator in the 1800s. He modernized the British postal system, managed construction of the Albert Hall, arranged for the Great Exhibition in 1851, and oversaw the inauguration of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Most of all, Cole sought to "beautify life," and in his spare time he ran an art shop on Bond Street, specializing in decorative objects for the home. In the summer of 1843, he commissioned Horsley to design an impressive card for that year’s Christmas.
 

Englishman Henry Cole gave birth to the idea of Christmas cards in 1843. Since he was too busy to write a personal holiday greeting, Cole hired well-known London artist John Calcott Horsley to design a card he could send to all his acquaintances. The cards made use of the religious symbolism of Christmas. Panels depicted the virtues of feeding the poor and clothing the naked. Horsley also painted sprigs of holly, the symbol of chastity and ivy, symbolic of a place where God has walked, throughout the design. Still, the card was criticized by temperance groups because it pictured a family with wine glasses raised in a toast. Many believe the controversy aided the popularisation of the Christmas card-sending tradition.

The design was a triptychdesign , i.e. in three sections with the figures on each side
and the family in the centre.
 
First Christmas Card, 1843, designed for Sir Henry Cole
 
Sir Henry Cole - more links
 
Penny Black stamp
In 1839, the British Treasury had announced a competition to design the new stamps, but none of the submissions were considered suitable, and the Treasury chose instead to use a profile of Victoria. The head was engraved by Charles and Fredrick Heath based on a sketch provided by Henry Cole. Cole's sketch was in turn based on the head by William Wyon, that had been done for a medal used to commemorate the visit of Queen Victoria to the City of London in the year she ascended the throne, 1837.
 
Facts about the penny black and post
First stamp
Pre-paid postage previously recipient paid
Used with envelopes
Previously paid per sheet
Copied around the world
UK stamps do not carry country name
Discontinued because difficult to check cancellation
 
and the envelope
In the event when Hill was given a two-year contract to run the new system he and Henry Cole ran a competition for the best way to prepay letters. None of the 2600 entries were good enough, so in the end Hill launched the service in 1840 with an envelope bearing a reproduction of a design created by the artist William Mulready and a stamp bearing an reproduction of the profile of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria. There are also references on the record to covers bearing the Mulready design. To this day, all British stamps bear a profile of the reigning monarch somewhere on the design, and are the only nationality of stamp that do not name their country of origin.
 
Sir Henry Cole - V&A Museum

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