Abel, Clarke

Description

1808 Apprenticed to Mr Priest, surgeon at Harleston (Norfolk). (22)
1812 Joined Stebbing Revans Junior in partnership in Haleswoth, Suffolk. (4)
May 1815 'Surgeon, apothecary, dealer and chapman' declared bankrupt in Halesworth. (4)
Dec. 1815 Declared a dividend of 10s in the £1. (4)
Joined Amherst's Expedition to China as naturalist and Senior Medical Officer. (24)
8 Feb. 1816 Sailed from Spithead. The two other medical men on the voyage - Dr James Lynn, Physician, and Zachariah Poole, the surgical apprentice, - both came from Suffolk.
The expedition was a failure. Lord Amherst was refused access to the Emperor and the expedition was forced to retreat. Abel became very ill and did not recover for many weeks. (24)
On their return their ship struck a reef at the entrance to the Straits of Gaspar and became a total wreck. Most of Abel's Natural History Collection was lost. (23)
Abel wrote an account of it Narrative of a Journey in the Interior of China 1816-1817 (Longman Hurst Rees Orme & Brown, London 1818).
Member of the Geological Society & Asiatic Society.
When Lord Amherst was appointed Governor General of India, Abel became his personal physician. It was while he was in attendance on the Governor General that he contracted a fever from which he died at Cawnpore on 24 Oct. 1826. (23)

Married Martha Poole 5 September 1810. She died 6 Mar.1860. (4)

Dictionary of National Biography seems to be in error - giving his d.o.b. as 1780 and quoting Lord MacCartney's mission to China in 1793. (D.vZ)

References
(4) Ipswich Journal or Weekly Mercury. Weekly local newspaper published from 1720-a few issues missing.
(22) Scott J B, An Englishman at home and abroad 1792-1828. Extracts from his diaries edited by Ethel Mann, London, 1930.
(23) Abel, Clarke, Obituary, Gentleman's Magazine , vol 97, pt 2, p644, 1827.
(24) Abel, Clarke, Narrative of a Journey in the Interior of China and a voyage to and from that country 1816-1817. London, 1818.