John Clarke was an English-born American clergyman, statesman, and author. He was a deputy governor of the Colony of Rhode Island for three terms and served as a pastor of the Baptist Church in Newport.
Background
John Clarke was born on October 08, 1609 in Westhorpe, Suffolk, England. He was the son of Thomas and Rose (Kerrich) Clarke, the sixth of eight children and the midmost of five sons, four of whom ultimately settled in Newport, Rhode Island. His maternal grandfather was William Kerrich, of a Suffolk family, while the Clarkes belonged to Bedfordshire.
Education
Clarke was educated at the University of Leyden while living in Leyden, Holland.
Career
Clarke landed in Boston in November 1637, just after the General Court had taken its last rigorous action against the Antinomians. His unselfishness stands out clearly as he placed himself among the defeated supporters of the “covenant of grace, ” who recognized him at once as a leader. He and the others went first to Exeter, New Hampshire, and in the next spring he went with a party to Providence, where they were courteously received by Roger Williams, with whom they conferred about their plans. The result, after Clarke had consulted with the Plymouth authorities, was the decision to settle at Aquidneck.
Clarke was one of eighteen who on March 7, 1638, signed a compact incorporating themselves into a body politic. Although Coddington was selected as governor, Clarke, as physician and preacher, was equally a leader. A year later, these two with a few others moved to the southern end of the island, settling Newport. Clarke’s original relations with the Baptists are as obscure as is the early history of the church at Newport. He may have had contact with Anabaptists in Holland; he may have been among those in Rhode Island who, according to Winthrop, “turned professed anabaptists” in 1641.
From 1644, at the latest, he was pastor of the Baptist Church in Newport. The best-known incident in the career of Clarke was his visit with John Crandall and Obadiah Holmes to Lynn, Massachusetts, when on July 20, 1651, while holding a religious service in the house of William Witter, a non-resident member of the Newport church, they were arrested. Brought first to the public service of worship, where Clarke expressed “his dissent from their order, ” the next day they were taken to Boston for trial. The specific charges against Clarke were unauthorized preaching, disrespect in the assembly of worship, administering the Lord’s Supper to persons under discipline, and denying the lawfulness of infant baptism.
All three were sentenced to be fined or be whipped. A friend, without Clarke’s knowledge, paid his fine of £20. Later that same year, Clarke was sent with Roger Williams to England to protect the interests of the colony. In this they were so successful that Williams soon returned to America, but Clarke remained for ten years or more. In the fall of 1654 the assembly of freemen sent him a letter of thanks. A recent writer ingeniously identifies Clarke with a man who was somewhat implicated in the Fifth Monarchy movement, but by the time of the overthrow of the Venner rebellion had completely dissociated himself from the extremists. It seems doubtful, however, whether the Rhode Islander would have proceeded so rapidly in his task of securing the charter for that colony if he had not been quite free from political suspicion.
Of greater importance is the charge that Clarke was willing to use unworthy methods to advance the interests of Rhode Island. The basis of the charge is probably the pique of some Massachusetts leaders at his diplomatic successes, and at the worst, it represents his enemies’ interpretation of an attitude capable of a quite different explanation. It is possible that Clarke returned to America for a short time in 1661; he was in England on April 7, 1663, when he had in his possession the agreement with Connecticut as to the boundary between that colony and Rhode Island. During this year
he obtained from King Charles II a royal charter. This charter granted unprecedented freedom and religious liberty to Rhode Islanders. He returned to Newport in 1664, when he received the thanks of the colony.
While continuing to serve as minister and physician, he was elected to the General Assembly and thrice was elected deputy governor. He retired from political activity in 1672. The democratic character of the charter of Providence Plantation (1647) and of the Code of Laws at once adopted is traceable fully as much to Clarke as to Williams. Captious criticism has interpreted the recognition of the authority of Christ in the Compact of March 7, 1638, as a limitation even upon toleration; but Clarke’s attitude in Boston earlier and his influence later upon the legislation in Rhode Island show that for him nothing less than liberty of conscience was compatible with that authority; while his petition to King Charles II (probably 1662) contained the immortal sentiment—“a most flourishing Civill State may stand, yea, and best be maintained with a full liberty in religious concernments”.
Achievements
Connections
John Clarke was married three times, his first wife being Elizabeth Harris, the daughter of John Harrison. On 01 February, 1671, he married his second wife, Jane Fletcher, who died within about a year. Soon thereafter he married Sarah Davis, who survived until 1692.