John Clarke (October 1609 – 20 April 1676) was a New England English-born politician, physician, and Puritan Baptist minister, co-founder of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, author of its influential charter, and a leading advocate of religious liberty in America.
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 established America's second Baptist church in Newport. Baptists were declared heretics in Massachusetts and were banned there, 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
John Clarke was born at Westhorpe in the county of Suffolk, England, and was baptized there on 8 October 1609. 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.
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 General 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.
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. 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). 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".
Rhode Island
Clarke arrived in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in November 1637 when the colony was in the midst of the major theological and political crisis known as the Antinomian Controversy. A major division had occurred within the Boston church between proponents of so-called "covenant of grace" theology, led by John Cotton, and proponents of so-called "covenant of works", led by John Wilson and others.
The controversy ultimately resulted in many people leaving Massachusetts Bay Colony, either voluntarily or by banishment. Some went north in November 1637 to found the town of Exeter, New Hampshire, while a larger group were uncertain where to go. They contacted Roger Williams, who suggested that they purchase land from the Narragansett people along the Narragansett Bay, near his settlement of Providence Plantations. John Clarke apparently went with both groups, based on what he wrote in his book: "By reason of the suffocating heat of the summer before , I went to the North to be somewhat cooler, but the winter following [1637–38] proved so cold, that we were forced in the spring to make towards the South."
Clarke joined a group of men at the Boston home of William Coddington on 7 March 1638, and they drafted the Portsmouth Compact. Some historians suggest that Clarke wrote the document, based on its religious sentiment. 23 men signed the document which was intended to form a "Bodie Politick" based on Christian principles, and Coddington was chosen as the leader of the group.
Roger Williams suggested two places where the exiles could settle on the Narraganset Bay: Sowams (which became Barrington and Warren, Rhode Island) and Aquidneck Island (which was called Rhode Island at the time). Williams was uncertain about English claims to these lands, so Clarke led a delegation of three men to Plymouth Colony where he was informed that Sowams was under their jurisdiction but Aquidneck Island was not. This suited Clarke, whose desire for the exiles was to "get clear of all, and be ourselves". Aquidneck was in the territory of the Narragansett people, and Williams suggested that the Colonists pay them for the land with tools, coats, and wampum. On 24 March 1638, Williams drew up the deed granting Aquidneck Island to the settlers, which was signed "at Narragansett" (likely Providence) by sachems Canonicus and Miantonomi, with Williams and Randall Holden as witnesses. The names of many of the settlers were included on the deed; Coddington's name appeared first because he was responsible for the gratuity.
Clarke joined William and Anne Hutchinson and many others in building the new settlement of Pocasset on Aquidneck Island. Within a year, however, there was dissension among the leaders, and Clarke joined Coddington and others in moving to the south end of the island, establishing the town of Newport. On 2 January 1639, Clarke and three others were appointed to survey the new lands around Newport, and they were appointed to proportion it among the inhabitants on 5 June.
In 1640, the towns of Portsmouth and Newport united and Coddington was elected its governor. Roger Williams wanted royal recognition for these settlements and protection against encroachments from their neighbors of Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut. In 1643, he went to England to obtain a patent bringing all four towns (Newport, Portsmouth, Providence, and Warwick) under one government. Coddington was opposed to the patent because the two island towns had grown and prospered much more than the mainland towns of Providence and Warwick. He managed to keep the island towns separate until 1647 when the four towns finally adopted the patent and became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Clarke had some legal training, and historian Albert Henry Newman argued that he was the principal author of the first complete code of laws that was enacted by the fledgling colony in 1647. Rhode Island historian and Lieutenant Governor Samuel G. Arnold extolled the virtues of this code, calling it a model of legislation which has not been surpassed.
Founding of the Newport church
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. Nevertheless, Clarke conducted public worship in Newport from the time of his arrival until 1644, when a church at Newport was founded.A much later pastor of the Newport church was the Reverend John Callender, who stated in his 1738 Century Sermon: "It is said that in 1644, Mr. John Clarke and some others formed a church on the scheme and principles of the Baptists" (Burrage, 1894, p. 26). The church remains active as a Particular Baptist church and carries the name of United Baptist Church, John Clarke Memorial in honor of its founder.
Baptist activism In 1649, Clarke went to Seekonk (then in Plymouth Colony but later in Rehoboth, Massachusetts) to help organize a Baptist church. Roger Williams confirmed this in a letter to Governor Winthrop: "At Seekonk, a great many have lately concurred with Mr. John Clarke, and our Providence men, about the point of a new baptism and the manner by dipping; and Mr. John Clarke hath been there lately, and Mr. Lucar, and hath dipped them. I believe their practice comes nearer to the first practice of our great Founder, Christ Jesus, than other practices of religion do." Several members of the Seekonk church had quarreled with their minister Samuel Newman and had broken off from the main church, largely over the issue of infant baptism. Hearing of this division, Clarke and Lucar went to welcome the dissidents and baptize them by immersion. One of the Seekonk men was Obadiah Holmes who is considered a "pugnacious man [and] a hot-tempered fault-finder" by Clarke biographer Sydney James.
The Massachusetts clergymen and magistrates were angered when they learned of the Seekonk baptisms. In their eyes, they invalidated the earlier baptisms which the parishioners had undergone as children, and also invalidated the ministers who performed them. The magistrates wrote to their counterparts in Plymouth accusing them of doing nothing about the practices. The Seekonk church then excommunicated Holmes and he was compelled to move to Newport in 1650 or 1651 with a few other dissidents, following court action against him. He subsequently became an elder of the Newport church.
Imprisonment