Elizabeth Clarke

THE CLARKES & THE HARES {Rev Marshal Clarke & his Wife, Eliza Hare, & her Parents, Venerable Patrick Hare [formerly O'Hehir] & Wife Mary Crozier)

When Edward Long and Mary Clarke were married in 1822, little did they realize that they would save the Longs of Longfield from extinction. Whereas Richard Long II left no known descendants, his brother Edward and wife Mary left numerous progeny who now number more than two thousand. Before we focus on Edward and Mary and their many children, I'd like to share with you what I've learned about Mary's family. Mary Crozier Clarke was born at Abbey House near Tipperary Town in 1804, the third surviving daughter of the Reverend Marshal Clarke by his wife, Elizabeth Hare,1 who was familiarily known as Eliza or Betty Hare.

Betty Hare was born in 1768, the eldest daughter of the Venerable Patrick Hare, by his wife Mary, daughter of John Crozier of Magheradunbar, near Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.2 The Venerable Patrick Hare, born in County Clare in 1736, “was reputed to be a grandson of Turlock O'Hehir, chief of a sept of the O'Briens, who in consequence of adherence to the Stuarts at the Battle of the Boyne, went abroad in 1691, and died in France.”3 “This sharp lesson in Irish politics” caused his wife and family to return to Ireland, become Protestant and anglicize their name to Hare,4 thus permitting them to own property and rejoin the ranks of the landed gentry of Ireland.