Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Wikipedia
Sir William Clarke (died 1666) was an English politician. He served as the Secretary at War from 1661 to his death in 1666. He was married to Dorothy Clarke, and they had one son, George Clarke.
Annotations
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”(?1623-1666) One of the new men who rose in the public service — apparently from nothing — during the Civil War: he was Assistant-Secretary to the General Council of the Army 1646, to the Scottish command 1650, and to Monck at the army H.Q. in Scotland 1651-60. He came back to England with Monck at the Restoration and was knighted and made Secretary at War in 1661. He remained Monck’s right-hand man, and was killed on board his ship in 1666. John Rushworth, his senior in the service of the army council, was probably his most important ally before he was attached to Monck.
Like Pepys, he was a man of method: the diary he kept on board ship in the campaign of 1666 has much useful information. Many of his papers now survive at Worcester College, Oxford, and include his well known reports of debates of the army council which reveal the political state of the army in the period leading up to the execution of the King. In taking notes he used a shorthand similar to that used by Pepys.”
L&M Companion