Dr. John Clarke, Americas First Baptist Pastor Clark Comes to America from England Part One
May 25, 2020
Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives
Dr. John Clarke, Americas First Baptist Pastor
Clark Comes to America from England
Part One
John Clarke was born in England, (tradition says in Bedfordshire) on the 8th of October, 1609. Where he was educated is not known; but the following clause in his will may give some idea of his learning – “Item, unto my loving friend, Richard Bayley, I give and bequeath my Concordance and Lexicon thereto belonging, written by myself, being the fruit of several years’ study: my Hebrew Bible, Buxtorff’s and Parsons’ Lexicons, Cotton’s Concordance, and all the rest of my books.”
Previous to his coming to this country, he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of John Harges, Esq., of Bedfordshire. He entered the medical profession, and was, for some time, a practising physician in London. Under what circumstances, or in what year precisely, he came to America, I am unable to ascertain; but he seems to have brought with him a strong antipathy to the reigning spirit of the times, and an intense love of religious liberty.
He settled in Boston as a medical practitioner; but so much was he disgusted with the tone of public feeling in the Massachusetts Colony, especially as evinced by the banishment of Mr. Wheelwright and Ann Hutchinson, that he proposed to several of his friends to remove with him out of a jurisdiction that was the seat of so much intolerance. His friends listened to his proposal; and it was agreed that he and some others should look out for a place where they might enjoy the blessing of religious freedom. By reason of the extreme heat of the preceding summer, they first went North to a place which is now within the bounds of New Hampshire; but the severity of the next winter there led them, the following spring, to take a Southern direction. They agreed that, while their vessel was passing around Cape Cod, they would cross over, by land, having either Long Island, or Delaware Bay, in view, as a place for settlement.
They stopped at Providence, where they found Roger Williams, who fully sympathized in their principles and designs, and was disposed to render them all the aid in his power. He suggested two places to them as worthy of their consideration, – namely, Sowams, now called Barrington, and Aquetneck, now Rhode Island. Mr. Williams accompanied Mr. Clarke and two others of the company to Plymouth, to see whether either of these places was considered as falling within the Plymouth jurisdiction. They were met with great kindness; and, while they were told that Sowams was “the garden of their patent,” they were advised to settle at Aquetneck, and were promised that they should be regarded as “free,” and “treated and assisted as loving neighbours.”
Thomas E. Kresal from: Annals of the American Pulpit: Baptist by John Callender and Backus’ History N. E. III. – Benedict’s History of the Baptist. I. – Calender’s Hist. Disc. – Peterson’s History of Rhode Island.
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