1857                Address Unknown, London, England

Alexander Hemmet Clark was recorded on March 27, 1857 in The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia).  Manslaughter By An American Photographer.—A singular case of manslaughter is reported in the London Morning Star, of March 3, substantially as follows:

It appears that a woman named Eliza Bunn, forty years of age, in company with another woman, called at the rooms of Alexander Hemmet Clark, an American Photographic artist, to have a little boy’s likeness taken.  After it was finished some words ensued respecting the payment of the cash.  Clark ordered the woman to leave the room, which they declined to do without the portrait, when a regular fight ensued between them.  Clark at the time had a small hammer in his right hand, and while deceased was struggling with him he struck her with it upon the head.  He was first arrested for the assault merely, for which he was fined twenty shillings and costs; but it was afterwards appeared that the wound with the hammer had fractured the skull of the woman, of which wound she died in a day or two.  Clark was then arrested on the charge of manslaughter.

The second announcement was recorded on May 17, 1857 in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York).  Alexander Clark, the American photographer was indicted on Wednesday, at the Central Criminal Court, for the manslaughter of Eliza Bunn who had a quarreled with him over the photograph of her son.  Clark’s plea was that he acted only in self-defence, after the deceased had struck him; and the jury found him not guilty.

Alexander Hemmet Clark was not recorded in A Directory of London Photographers, 1841-1908 nor he is recorded in any of the American photographic directories the I have consulted.