John Clarke (Baptist minister)
John Clarke (October 1609 – 20 April 1676) was a physician, Baptist minister, co-founder of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, author of its influential charter, and a leading advocate of religious freedom in America.
For other people with the same name, see John Clarke (disambiguation).
John Clarke
20 April 1676 (aged 66)
Newport, Rhode Island
Clarke Cemetery, Dr. Wheatland Blvd., Newport
(1) Elizabeth Harris
(2) Jane (_____) Fletcher
(3) Sarah (_____) Davis
Physician, Baptist Minister, Colonial agent, Deputy, Deputy Governor
Clarke was born in Westhorpe, Suffolk, England. He received an extensive education, including a master's degree in England followed by medical training in Leiden, Holland. He arrived at the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637 during the Antinomian Controversy and decided to go to Aquidneck Island with many exiles from the conflict. He became a co-founder of Portsmouth and Newport, Rhode Island, and he established America's second Baptist church in Newport. Baptists were considered heretics and were banned from Massachusetts, but Clarke wanted to make inroads there and spent time in the Boston jail after making a mission trip to the town of Lynn, Massachusetts. Following his poor treatment in prison, he went to England where he published a book on the persecutions of the Baptists in Massachusetts and on his theological beliefs. The fledgling Rhode Island colony needed an agent in England, so he remained there for more than a decade handling the colony's interests.
The other New England colonies were hostile to Rhode Island, and both Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut Colony had made incursions into Rhode Island territory. After the restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660, it was imperative that Rhode Island receive a royal charter to protect its territorial integrity. It was Clarke's role to obtain such a document, and he saw this as an opportunity to include religious freedoms never seen before in any constitutional charter. He wrote ten petitions and letters to King Charles II and negotiated for months with Connecticut over territorial boundaries. Finally, he drafted the Rhode Island Royal Charter and presented it to the king, and it was approved with the king's seal on 8 July 1663. This charter granted unprecedented freedom and religious liberty to Rhode Islanders and remained in effect for 180 years, making it the longest-lasting constitutional charter in history.
Clarke returned to Rhode Island following his success at procuring the charter; he became very active in civil affairs there, and continued to pastor his church in Newport until his death in 1676. He left an extensive will, setting up the first educational trust in America. He was an avid proponent of the notion of soul-liberty that was included in the Rhode Island charter—and later in the United States Constitution.
Early life[edit]
John Clarke was born at Westhorpe in the county of Suffolk, England, and was baptized there on 8 October 1609.[1] He was one of seven children of Thomas Clarke and Rose Kerrich (or Kerridge), six of whom left England and settled in New England. No definitive record has been found concerning his life in England other than the parish records of his baptism and those of his siblings.[1][2]
Clarke was apparently highly educated, judging from the fact that he arrived in New England at the age of 28 qualified as both a physician and a Baptist minister. His many years of study become evident through a book that he wrote and published in 1652, and through his masterful authorship of the Rhode Island Royal Charter of 1663; further, his will mentions his Hebrew and Greek books, as well as a concordance and lexicon that he wrote himself.[3]
The difficulty with tracing Clarke's life in England stems largely from his very common name. Rhode Island historian George Andrews Moriarty, Jr wrote that this was probably the same John Clarke who attended St Catharine's College, Cambridge, but he may also have received a bachelor's degree from Brasenose College, Oxford in 1628 and a master's degree there in 1632.[4] Another clue to his education comes from a catalog of students from Leiden University in Holland, one of Europe's primary medical schools at the time. The school's ledger of graduates includes, in Latin, "Johannes Clarcq, Anglus, 17 July 1635-273" (translated as John Clark, England).[5] It is apparent that Clarke earned a master's degree from the concordance that he wrote, where the authorship is given as "John Clarke, Master of Arts".[6]
Founding of the Newport church[edit]
In 1638, Roger Williams established a church in Providence which is now known as the First Baptist Church in America. The next Baptist congregation was established by John Clarke on Rhode Island and likely had its beginnings when he arrived on the island in 1638. Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop wrote that there were "professed Anabaptists" on the island from 1640 to 1641. Boston lawyer Thomas Lechford wrote that there was a church on the island in 1640 of which Clarke was the elder or pastor, but he understood that it had been dissolved.[20] Nevertheless, Clarke conducted public worship in Newport from the time of his arrival until 1644, when a church at Newport was founded.[21][22][23] The church remains active as a Reformed Baptist Church and carries the name of United Baptist Church, John Clarke Memorial in honor of its founder.[21]
Ancestry and family[edit]
John Clarke was the fifth of seven known children born to Thomas and Rose Clarke, all born or baptized at Westhorpe, Suffolk, England. Margaret was the oldest child, born about 1601, and next was Carew, baptized 17 February 1602/3, followed by Thomas, baptized 31 March 1605. Mary was next, baptized 26 July 1607, then the subject John was baptized 8 October 1609, next was William baptized 11 February 1611[95] who probably died young, and the youngest, Joseph, was baptized on 16 December 1618. Margaret married Nicholas Wyeth and lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mary married John Peckham, and came to Newport, Rhode Island with her husband and four brothers, Carew, Thomas, John, and Joseph.[1][96][97]
John Clarke was married three times, his first wife being Elizabeth Harris, the daughter of John Harris who was lord of the manor of Wrestlingworth in Bedfordshire.[1] This was the wife who was with him while he was an agent in England, and she died in Newport a few years before Clarke. Following her death, he was married on 1 February 1671 to Jane, the widow of Nicholas Fletcher, but she died the following year on 19 April 1672.[14] Clarke had a daughter with Jane, born 14 February 1672 and dying on 18 May 1673.[6]
Clarke's third wife was Sarah, the widow of Nicholas Davis, with whom Clarke had had a long association. Davis, like Clarke, had been an early settler of Aquidneck Island in 1639, but became a merchant and moved to Hyannis in the Plymouth Colony.[98] Davis had many business dealings in Massachusetts, but when he became a Quaker, he was imprisoned and banished from there in 1659, and later lived in Newport.[99] He transported Quaker founder George Fox from Long Island to Newport in 1672, during Fox's visit to the American colonies. Soon thereafter Davis drowned, and within a year and a half his widow married Clarke.[98] Sarah survived Clarke, and died sometime about 1692.[14] She had children who were remembered in Clarke's will.[100]