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hi I agree he is indeed a diffcult man to pin down i do beleive they were brothers though.
i also wonder if he was as old as he said he was which has everyone running around looking at wrong dates.
most of the things you said I have heard before hadnt heard about the propoerties he worked on that could be interesting to follow up ,thanks if you find anything let me know.
Here is something that alady sent me who thought she may be related see what you think

Elizabeth arrived per the Atlas I (1) 1802 as Eliza DONNELLY or DANIEL (probably a married or de facto name, maiden name CALLAHAN) and formed a relationship with William CLARK per Rolla 1803 soon after his arrival and was given a further colonial sentence of life under that name, both being sent to NI. I have evidence that others suffered such a fate. He was then transferred again to PD and she followed shortly afterwards. I presume that daughter Juliana is his. Then by a man known as PEVES (possibly the military guy Samuel who may well have come to VDL or perhaps she filled in some time in PJ herself) she has a James around 1810. Then she had William by some further as yet unidentified man, before settling down with COUGHLAN. Of course maybe she returned to CLARKE to have William since after all, that child has the same name literally as the CLARKE senior that I am postulating she was with. James PEVES may have known his father, whilst the younger William possibly no!
t, so hence the use of PEVES by James and CLARKE by William is at least reasonable. It is not an uncommon scenario for the times. Of course the children are generally described as part of the COUGHLAN household but for formal occasions like marriage take on their “proper” names”.

Incidentally, both James Peves/Clark and William Clark not only had families with similar names, but each named their first daughter, you guessed it, Elizabeth. Circumstantial but interesting!

What is interesting in all of this is that I can find absolutely no real trace of Juliana, Honoria or Ann/Eleanora CLARKE or COUGHLAN to help with the discussion one way or the other. However, a marriage of Nora COCHREAN in 1830 in PD to John WILLIAMS in 1830 might be relevant, since an Honorah Williams dies Launceston 1853 aged 38, which makes for a nice fit.

Furthermore, I can find no death for John Coughlan either.

However, we do have a death of an Elizabeth COUGHLIN that fits nicely in Morven in 1850 aged 80. So far, so good.

There is no further record of William at least as COUGHLAN unless of course he is the William CLARKE that Tas is looking for. Do I hear him cheering already?

But then it all comes unstuck because there are two, not one but two, deaths of James COUGHLANS in 1873 (Longford) and 1880 (Morven) aged 60 and 73 respectively which puts their birth dates back at 1813 and 1807 which if ether of these is the son of James and Elizabeth CLARKE/COUGHLAN just ruins my theory about him being James PEVES. First you build ‘em up and then you knock ‘em down.

Also, who on earth is the James CALLAGHAN who marries a Mary GAINGELL in Hobart in 1848!! (readers may have forgotten by now that James PEVES/CLARK had married Alice GANGELL, but this does not appear to be either her sister who died in Vic in 1904 under her married name of BASS, nor even her widowed mother, who died 1870 as GANGELL aged 77.

Otherwise its not really too bad as far solutions go. I’m not saying this is 100% correct or 100% certain, but there is no way you would ever find this stuff looking for CLARK alone, unless you know the whole story. Besides, what did happen to this family if I’m not on the right track?

At least here we have two boys James and William of about the right age, born in PD, to a mother who is ostensibly known as CLARK in her convict incarnation, but who is married to a COUGHLAN and who for whatever reasons has chosen to give her name as CALLAHAN when she baptises the boys before marrying COUGHLAN. Sure, it doesn’t explain where PEVES fits in. But there is at least a “suitable” candidate in the miliary man Samuel PEEVERS. It’s certainly worthy of closer scrutiny. So it’s now back to the family researchers to complete the loose ends, but please let me know how you get on.

So, does any one have any thoughts? Is any one still awake out there LOL?

Regards

Garry

Hi I am one of James family and you are right hard man to find ,maybe of interest to you that on Trove found an interview with James and he said he had vegetable garden where walch and sons are today so if he was telling the truth it would place him in Hobart.
Also had alady contact me regarding being related to James though a sister but havent researched that yet.
I was thinking maybe Anorfolk Isalnder but havent had time to follow up