Henry Tacy Clarke was born at Kerikeri on 14 November 1825, the third child of George and Martha, and named for the Reverend Henry Tacy who had married his parents.
He was educated at the Missionary School and completed his studies at King's School, Parramatta.
Henry's life was shaped by two things his father gave him: the Māori language, and a sense of obligation to get things right between Māori and tauiwi.
He moved to Auckland with his family in 1841 and began working as an interpreter — first informally, then as a permanent member of the Protectorate from January 1844. He accompanied George Junior and British troops to Ōhaeawai in 1845 during the Hone Heke conflict, gathering intelligence, and was wounded in the thigh in one of the engagements there.
He married Sarah Yates Kemp at Waimate on 28 April 1852 — in a joint ceremony with his brother William, who married Sarah's sister Mary Anne Kemp that same day. The two couples, with their Kemp wives, set up households at Prospect, the Clarke family property at Waimate North. Henry farmed there through the 1850s before rejoining the civil service around 1858.
His government career became distinguished. He was appointed Resident Magistrate at Tauranga in 1860 and Civil Commissioner in 1873. In the 1850's he was involved in negotiating transfer of land in Southland to the crown.
He was transferred to Wellington in 1874 as Under-Secretary of the Native Department — the most senior Māori affairs role in the public service — and later became a Judge of the Native Land Court, succeeding his father.
Sarah died at Kerikeri on 11 April 1875 — the same year his father died. Henry later married Emily Gill (known as Minnie) in 1878; she died in 1885 giving birth to their son Edward Blomfield Clarke. Henry's sister Martha then moved in and raised the children.
He retired from Wellington in 1879, returning to Waimate where he farmed successfully and served the church as a lay reader, Sunday school teacher, and synodsman.
He died at Waimate on 28 October 1902.