Clench, Joseph B., 1790-1857 : Joseph Brant Clench, Indian Department official, militia officer, justice of the peace and office holder, was born in February 1790 possibly in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Early in 1811, he took the oath of allegiance and successfully petitioned for a 200-acre grant as the son of a loyalist. He fought in the War of 1812 and on 25 October 1813 he entered the Indian Department as a clerk in charge of Indian stores at Fort George (Niagara-on-the-Lake). During the 1820's, though officially a clerk, Clench served as an interpreter and also performed most of the duties of Alexander McDonell, the assistant secretary at Fort George. In 1828-1829 he attempted, with varying results, to secure additional positions and in 1829 attained the superintendency of the Mohawks and the Mississaugas of the Bay of Quinte and Rice Lake. In April 1830, as a result of departmental reorganization, Clench was named superintendent of Indian affairs in Delaware and Caradoc townships in Middlesex County.
Later, in 1833, while living in Caradoc, Clench was appointed magistrate for the London District and later served as chairman of the district's Court of Quarter Sessions and by November 1834, he had become lieutenant-colonel of the 5th Regiment of Middlesex militia. In the aftermath of the uprising led by Charles Duncombe during December 1837, Clench was foreman of the grand jury which found bills leading to the indictment of "a great number of persons charged with high treason and misprison of treason." On 8 December 1838, he was appointed to the court martial which, under Judge Advocate Henry Sherwood, tried some 44 prisoners.
Clench continued to rise in prominence in the Indian Department being placed in charge of the entire Western superintendency in 1844 which was comprised of all the reservations within the London and Western districts. He was also appointed agent for conducting the sale of Indian lands in these same districts in 1845. In the early 1850's however, after the breakup of his marriage, it was disclosed that his wife and two of his sons had purchased properties with monies from the Indian Department which resulted in charges of embezzlement being laid against Clench. These strains led to a deterioration of his health and to his resignation as lieutenant-colonel of the 6th Battalion of Middlesex militia in December 1855. He died from an apoplectic fit on 22 February 1857.
