Thomas Henry Clarke was born on 21 December 1861 at Te Papa, the Church Mission property at Tauranga — the first purely European child born there. He was named Thomas Henry after a younger brother of Samuel (Thomas Harrington Clarke, 1833–1835) and Henry after his uncle Henry Tacy Clarke.
He married Charlotte Reynolds and the family farmed in the Waikato.
They had three children: Edward Alexander Wilo (Ned), Rebe Hazledene, and Joan Lee.
He died at Hamilton in March 1930.