Martha Cilley Bouton was born on 29 January 1843 at Concord, Merrimack, New Hampshire.² She was the daughter of Reverand Nathaniel Bouton D.D. and Elizabeth Ann Cilley.¹ She married Major Jacob Green Cilley, son of Major Jacob Cilley and Harriet Poor, on 29 January 1861.¹ She married Colonel Arthur E. Clarke on 22 January 1894.³
     
     Mrs. Martha C. (Bouton) Cilley is a woman of rare social ability, with a gift for entertaining, and who is the unquestioned leader of many distinguished circles. After her husband's death she lived for several years abroad, and later made her home in Buckingham street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at Washington, D. C. While in Cambridge she founded the Old Cambridge Shakespeare Association, of which organization she is a life member, which included in its membership the eminent scholars and critics, Henry N. Hudson and William J. Rolfe. She was one of the first two regents of the chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution founded in Massachusetts. Upon her return to Manchester as the wife of Colonel Arthur E. Clarke, she assumed a leading position in the state. In 1875 she founded the Ladies' Aid and Relief Society. In 1890 she was appointed by Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, wife of the president, state regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution in New Hampshire, and in 1894 she founded the National Society of Colonial Dames in New Hampshire, of which she has been the continuous president. She was appointed in 1895, president of the New Hampshire Society Daughters of the Cincinnati. She is a member of the National Martha Washington Association, and of the Society of Colonial Governors. She inherits the historical interests of her father and is a member of the Massachusetts Historic-Genealogical Society. She is president of the New Hampshire Audubon Society, and the Animal Rescue League of Manchester. Her home, wherever she has been, has always been a social center and the scene of unlimited hospitality.³