author

Henry William Clarke

A late-Victorian clergyman and church historian, he wrote closely argued books on tithes, church property, and the history of the Church in Wales. His work is especially rooted in archival research and debates about how the medieval church was funded.

1 Audiobook

A history of tithes

A history of tithes

by Henry William Clarke

About the author

Henry William Clarke was a Reverend and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. The title pages of his books identify him as the author of The Past and Present Revenues of the Church of England in Wales and The Public Landed Endowments of the Church in Anglo-Saxon Times, showing a clear long-term interest in church finance, law, and historical institutions.

His best-known surviving work is A History of Tithes, published in a second edition in 1894. In its preface, Clarke presents himself as a careful, argumentative researcher who compared earlier authorities and revisited his own conclusions after further study, especially on the history of tithes in England and Wales.

Although reliable biographical details about his life are hard to confirm from the sources found here, his books suggest a writer deeply engaged with ecclesiastical history and public controversy. Readers interested in church history, legal history, or the economics of religion will find an author focused less on storytelling and more on evidence, debate, and historical detail.