Clark Chandler

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Clark was the third of four children born to John and Dorothy (Paine) Chandler in Worcester, MA. He and his twin brother Gardner were born on December 1, 1743. Sadly, Gardner died only two weeks later on December 16. In 1745 his mother died a week after giving birth to his sister Elizabeth, leaving his grieving father to take care of three very young children, the oldest, John, being only three. In 1746 his father married Mary Church. They would go on to have twelve children.

John Chandler was one of the wealthiest and most prominent men in Worcester County before the Revolutionary War, and held many public offices. He served as the Town Treasurer of Worcester from 1753-1760, and Town Clerk from 1764-1768. For the County he was the County Treasurer, County Sheriff, and Judge of Probate. The Chandler residence was on Main Street directly across from the meeting house, and was the grandest in Worcester. During the Seven Years' War he served as a Colonel, and marched to the relief of Fort William Henry. His townsmen described his as being cheerful, hospitable, industrious, fair, and enterprising, and alternately called him "Judge Chandler" or "Colonel Chandler".

Clark and his siblings grew up with wealth, privilege, and education thanks to their father. It was expected that the boys would follow in his footsteps and remain at the top of the social ladder in Worcester, and that the girls would marry well to create and maintain connections for the family. Clark's first job was as a Clerk of Probate for Worcester County with his step-brother Timothy Paine. In 1768 Clark took over as the Town Clerk of Worcester from his father. Like much of New England, Worcester in the decade before the Revolutionary War was a hotbed of political activity and discourse. Worcester was particularly vocal against the British Government. The Chandler family chose to stay loyal to King George.

In June 1774 the Loyalists in the town wrote an oath to the King in protest to the burgeoning Patriot movement and signed their names into the town record. Angered, the Whigs forced Clark Chandler to not only strike the words from the records but to dip his fingers in ink and smear them across the page to completely blot out the Loyalists' oath. In early 1775 many Massachusetts Loyalists, Clark among them, attempted to flee to Halifax, NS, but he was apparently unsuccessful and returned to Worcester a few months later. For his actions he sat in the Worcester gaol until he agreed to pay the town £1000 and move in with relatives in Lancaster, MA. Clark became ill while there and was subsequently allowed to go to Boston "for his health." His younger brothers Francis and Benjamin were going to join him there, but drowned in a pond in the southern part of Worcester before they could do so. For whatever reason Clark and his brother Nathaniel chose not to go with relatives to live in New Brunswick or with their father to London when they left Boston with the British troops in 1776. Nathaniel was the Captain of a Loyalist militia during the War. Clark chose to stay out of it.

After the Revolution Clark returned to Worcester and opened a store on the corner of Main and Front Streets, an occupation much less prestigious than the one he had had before the War. His townsmen thought he was a little eccentric: he was "rather undersized and wore bright red small-clothes; was odd and singular in appearance, which often provoked the jeers and jokes of those around him, but which he was apt to repay with compound interest." He was a charter member of the Morning Star Lodge of Masons when they formed in 1793. Clark never married, and died in Worcester on June 1, 1804. His brother Nathaniel had died in 1801 at the house of their sister Mary.

Clark and Nathaniel Chandler were originally buried in the Mechanics Street Burial Ground, but were moved along with other burials to Hope Cemetery in 1878 so that the land on Mechanics Street could be built upon.