John Clarke (Baptist minister)

Governor Endicott said that Clarke and his company deserved death

William Witter was an elderly blind man with Baptist sentiments who was living in Lynn, Massachusetts in July 1651. He wanted to connect with his Baptist faith, but he was too infirm to travel to Newport, so Clarke, Obadiah Holmes, and John Crandall visited him at his home.[28][29] The party arrived on Saturday 19 July and held a religious service the next day. Those present included family and visitors and "four or five strangers that came in unexpected".[29] During the service, two constables appeared with a warrant signed by local magistrate Robert Bridge calling for the arrest of Clarke and his two associates.[30] No baptisms had been performed, but the wording of the warrant suggested that this was the reason for the men's arrest.[29] The men were forced to attend a Puritan religious service against their will, and they refused to remove their hats in church. Clarke stood at the end of the service and explained to the congregation why they refused to remove their hats. The men were detained that evening, then brought before the local magistrates the following day.[31] They were free to return to Witter's after being arraigned and before being taken to Boston. Clarke conducted a service and Holmes baptized three people.[32]

The prisoners were taken to Boston on 22 July and held until their trial on 31 July. They were brought before Governor John Endicott for questioning and were accused of being Anabaptists. Clarke replied that he was neither an Anabaptist, nor a Pedobaptist (one favoring infant baptism), nor a Catabaptist (one opposing infant baptism). The governor said that the three men "deserved death, and he would not have such trash brought into his jurisdiction."[33]

During the trial, the court was represented by Governor Endicott, Deputy Governor Thomas Dudley, and magistrates Richard Bellingham, William Hibbins, and Increase Nowell. The Reverend John Cotton weighed in with denunciation for the prisoners, and the Reverend John Wilson struck Holmes while he was in the protection of the court.[35] The men were charged with: (1) holding an unauthorized religious meeting; (2) disrupting an authorized meeting (wearing their hats); (3) administering sacraments illegally; (4) maintaining that the Massachusetts churches were not true churches; and (5) maintaining that infant baptism was false baptism.[32] The men were sentenced without any accuser or witness speaking out against them.[36]

The outcome of the trial was that Holmes was fined £30, Clarke £20, and Crandall £5.[28] Holmes had been given the heaviest fine because of his excommunication in Seekonk and for administering the baptisms in Lynn.[32] Clarke protested their heavy fines, and Governor Endicott replied that Clarke "was worthy to be hanged."[37] In court, Endicott told Clarke that his beliefs would not stand up to those of the Puritan ministers. Clarke responded to this by writing a letter to the court from prison the following day, accepting the implied challenge to have a debate with the Puritan ministers on religious beliefs and practices.[38] The challenge was initially accepted, but Clarke's fine was paid by some friends without his knowledge and he was released from jail. He left the area, and was then accused by the Puritan elders of defaulting on the challenge.[39] He made two more attempts to debate the Puritan clergy, but the case was dropped by the court and the debate never took place. Clarke had drafted four points of discussion which detailed his beliefs and position.[40]

Clarke was heavily fined, while the defiant Obadiah Holmes was whipped in Boston in 1651

Friends raised the money to pay the fines for Clarke and Crandall, but without their consent and contrary to their wishes.[41] As soon as Holmes discovered what was happening, he was able to forbid the payment of his fine as a matter of conscience, though friends attempted to pay for him as well.[42] As a result, Holmes was taken to the town's whipping post on 5 September 1651 and given 30 lashes with a three-corded whip.[43] He told the magistrates, "You have struck me as with roses", and he claimed to have felt no pain during the incident; however, he could only sleep by resting on his knees and elbows for many days afterwards.[28][31][44] Much later, Rhode Island Governor Joseph Jenckes wrote, "Those who have seen the scars on Mr. Holmes' back (which the old man was wont to call the marks of the Lord Jesus), have expressed a wonder that he should live."[45]

Following the men's arrest and ill treatment, Sir Richard Saltonstall wrote from England to Reverends Cotton and Wilson of the Boston church: "These rigid wayes have lay'd you very lowe in the hearts of the saynts."[46] Shortly after the incident, Roger Williams wrote a letter to Governor Endicott, making an earnest plea for toleration in matters of conscience and religion, but the request was unheeded.[47] However, Williams did not let the matter rest, and used Clarke and Holmes as the subjects of his book The Bloody Tenent Yet More Bloody (1652). Williams gave a copy of this book to Clarke and wrote in the front: "For his honoured and beloved Mr. John Clarke, an eminent witnes of Christ Jesus ag'st ye bloodie Doctrine of persecution, &c."[45]

One positive outcome of the ordeal endured by these men was the conversion and baptism of some of the witnesses. One such witness was Henry Dunster, the first president of Harvard College. Dunster's conversion in faith resulted in his removal as president in 1654, but helped inspire the creation of the First Baptist Church of Boston.[48] Some scholars have argued that Clarke's mission trip was planned to provoke the Massachusetts officials in order to support the cause of Rhode Island in England.[46] Shortly after Clarke arrived in England, he published Ill Newes from New-England, documenting the ordeal at the hands of the Massachusetts authorities. The book was an appeal to the king outlining the case for religious tolerance, and it was instrumental in shaping public opinion and generating support for a charter for the Rhode Island colony.[45]

Criticism arose as soon as Coddington returned to Rhode Island with his commission. In September 1651, William Arnold summed up the feelings of many of the Providence settlers when he wrote, "Whereas Mr. Coddington have gotten a charter of Road Iland and Conimacuke Iland to himself, he have thereby broken the force of their charter that went under the name of Providence, because he have gotten away the greater part of that colonie."[52] Clarke voiced his opposition to Coddington's rule of the island, and he was commissioned as the island's agent to England on 15 October 1651.[52] The following month, he and William Dyer were sent to England to get the Coddington commission revoked. Simultaneously, the mainland towns of Providence and Warwick sent Roger Williams on a similar errand, and the three men sailed for England in November 1651, just a few months after Clarke had been released from prison.[53] The men did not meet with the Council of State on New England until April 1652 because of recent hostilities between the English and the Dutch.[53]

Coddington's commission for the island government was revoked in October 1652, with the help of Henry Vane. William Dyer returned to Rhode Island the following February, bringing the news of the return of the colony to the Williams Patent of 1643, but Clarke remained in England with his wife.[53][54]

Very soon after arriving in England, Clarke published Ill Newes from New England: or a Narrative of New England's Persecution^[a] (1652). The book begins with a letter to the English Parliament and Council of State, conveying an earnest plea for liberty of conscience and religious toleration. This is followed by another letter addressed to the Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. The largest part of the book is devoted to Clarke's beliefs on conducting a church and why he thought that the Massachusetts churches were proceeding in the wrong direction.[55] Less than half of the book concerns the persecution that Clarke and his companions experienced at the hands of the Massachusetts authorities.[56] He wrote, "it is not the will of the Lord that any one should have dominion over another man's conscience. ... [Conscience] is such a sparkling beam from the Father of lights and spirits that it cannot be lorded over, commanded, or forced, either by men, devils, or angels."[57]

The book ultimately had the desired effect. The Massachusetts authorities became so alarmed over the contents of Ill Newes that Thomas Cobbet, the minister of the Lynn church, wrote a rebuttal entitled The Civil Magistrates Power in Matters of Religion Modestly Debated (1653). This book defended the use of force to maintain the "correct" church in the Massachusetts colony. This response was well written, but it did more to confirm the persecutions of Clarke's party than to defend the Massachusetts position.[55] Ultimately, the book helped Rhode Island secure significant religious liberties, prompting one Baptist historian to describe Clarke as "the Baptist drum major for freedom in seventeenth century America."[58]

Clarke was Rhode Island's official agent in England, although he received little compensation for his work. However, he remained active in his religious commitment and joined a Particular Baptist church under the pastorship of William Kiffin. One of his means of support was preaching at this church, which he called his "cheefe place for proffitt and preference", possibly because this arrangement offered him room and board. He also offered legal services and practiced medicine in London.[59]

Most of Clarke's time in England was during the Interregnum, when rule of the country was under Parliament and Oliver Cromwell as the Lord Protector. Clarke's primary purpose there was to secure a strengthened charter for the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations ensuring the religious liberties on which the colony had been founded, and Cromwell confirmed the validity of Rhode Island's 1643 patent.[54][59] Clarke also assisted the colony in 1656 by sending home four barrels of powder and eight barrels of shot and bullets, and in 1657 he handled a letter from the colony requesting assistance with legal proceedings against William Harris.[59]

An important acquaintance of Clarke's in London was Richard Baily, who provided him with legal expertise, helped him draft petitions to the king, and may have even helped him write Rhode Island's charter. When Clarke eventually returned to Newport, Baily sailed with him, later providing additional legal counsel and writing Clarke's extensive will.[60]

Charles II of England received at least ten petitions and letters from Clarke before affixing his seal on the Rhode Island Royal Charter.

In 1660, Charles II ascended the throne of England, and within two years the Act of Uniformity was passed requiring unified religious observances centered on the Anglican Church. The new king harbored prejudices against the Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, increasing Clarke's difficulty in crafting a charter that included religious freedoms.[61] Clarke's commission as the agent for Rhode Island was renewed on 18 October 1660, and he filed at least ten petitions and letters to the king between 1661 and 1662. He offered the king the complete loyalty of the Rhode Island colony, and then requested the king's sympathy and support to guarantee freedom of conscience in the pursuit of religious worship.[62]

Clarke wrote a particularly eloquent proposal in a petition received by the crown on 5 February 1661, with certain words emboldened within the document. His earnest request was "TO HOLD FORTH A LIVELY EXPERIMENT THAT A MOST FLOURISHING CIVILL STATE MAY STAND ... AND BEST BE MAINTAYNED ... WITH A FULL LIBERTIE IN RELIGIOUS CONCERNMENTS". These words became emblematic of Rhode Island's struggle for religious freedom and were soon included in the charter itself—and much later were chiseled on the frieze of the Rhode Island State House.[62] One of the later petitions dealt heavily with the boundary issues between the Rhode Island and Connecticut colonies. Clarke had to wait nearly a year for any action on the various petitions.[63]

An unforeseen emergency occurred in the spring of 1662 when Connecticut Colony Governor John Winthrop, Jr. was given an audience with the king ahead of Clarke, and he obtained a new charter for his colony. Winthrop was on good terms with many Rhode Islanders, but he also had a stake in the Atherton Company, which undermined the sovereignty of Rhode Island by buying large tracts of land from the Narragansett people west of the Narraganset Bay, where Rhode Island claimed the territory.[64] Clarke regarded Winthrop's conduct as treacherous, and Winthrop avoided Clarke while in England; he was able to get his charter approved in May 1662.[65]

Quotation of John Clarke on the frieze of the Rhode Island Statehouse in Providence

The Earl of Clarendon recognized the conflict between Connecticut and Rhode Island. He summoned Winthrop and Clarke in July 1662, representing the king in hopes of settling the boundary dispute between the two colonies. Both colonies claimed the territory between the Pawcatuck River and the Narragansett Bay. The boundary line between the two colonies was ultimately set at the Pawcatuck River, after months of negotiations involving lawyers and arbitrators on both sides. Those who had settled on Atherton Company lands were allowed to choose whether to be governed by Connecticut or Rhode Island. Once the agreement was reached, Winthrop returned to New England while Clarke made his final push for Rhode Island's charter.[66]

Following all the furore over the land boundaries, none of the other provisions of the proposed charter aroused any debate. Many of the provisions of Rhode Island's charter were like those in Connecticut's, except that Connecticut wanted a government similar to that of Massachusetts, while Rhode Island wanted the same self-government of the freemen that had been granted earlier in the 1643 patent.[67] However, the Rhode Island charter went much further in its guarantees of religious freedom.[68]

Following his great usefulness in England, Clarke became further involved in the affairs of the Rhode Island colony upon his return. He served for six years, from 1664 to 1671, as a Deputy from Newport in the General Assembly, and then served as the Deputy Governor under Governor Benedict Arnold for two of the three years between 1669 and 1672. With his legal background, he was appointed in October 1666 to make a digest of Rhode Island laws.[78] In June 1670 and again in March 1672 he was chosen as an agent to go back to England on behalf of the colony. His selection in 1672 was to make an appeal to the king because of incursions that the Connecticut Colony was making into the territory of Rhode Island, but the plan to send him was abandoned.[79][80]

From 1675 to 1676, Rhode Island became embroiled in King Philip's War, considered "the most disastrous conflict to ever devastate New England," and leaving the mainland towns of the colony in ruins.[81] This confrontation between many indigenous people and the English settlers was named for Metacomet, sachem of the Wampanoags, who had been given the English name of King Philip. Though Rhode Island was much more at peace with the Indians than the other colonies, because of geography, it took the brunt of damage from the conflict, and the settlements of Warwick and Pawtuxet were totally destroyed, with much of Providence ruined as well.[82] Because of the very high esteem Clarke held within the colony, he was one of 16 colonial leaders whose counsel was sought in a 4 April 1676 General Assembly resolution.[79][83] Two weeks later, while the war was still raging, Clarke was dead.[14]

While Clarke became very active in the affairs of the colony upon his return from England, he also resumed his leadership role in the Newport church. One major schism occurred in the church while he was in England, and another several years after his return. The first of these concerned the "laying on of hands". This practice was considered to be one of Christ's six principles as advocated in the biblical verse Hebrews 6:2, and the ritual was welcomed in the Newport Baptist Church. However, some members of the church wanted the practice to be mandatory, while others did not want additional restrictions placed on the parishioners. This disagreement prompted William Vaughan to break away from the church in 1656 and form his own "Six Principle" Baptist Church in Newport, sometimes called the Second Baptist Church of Newport.[84][85]

The second major division in the church occurred over the day of worship, when Sabbatarians within the congregation wanted to worship on Saturday. The practice was largely tolerated, with some parishioners attending one service, some attending another, and some attending both. The elder Obadiah Holmes, however, was hostile to the practice, and was rebuked by Clarke in 1667 over his harshness towards the Sabbatarians. Holmes subsequently withdrew from preaching at the Newport church, but resumed his pastoral duties there in 1671. When he continued to be critical of the Sabbatarians, they finally left to form their own church in December 1671.[86] Additional dissension occurred in the church, centered on the family of Giles Slocum. When Slocum's wife, Joan, denied that Christ was alive, she was excommunicated in 1673. Following this, her husband, their children, and their children's spouses all left the church, and became Quakers.[87]

Books

• Arnold, Samuel Greene (1859). History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Vol. 1. New York: D. Appleton & Company. OCLC 712634101.
• Asher, Louis Franklin (1997). John Clarke (1609–1676): Pioneer in American Medicine, Democratic Ideals, and Champion of Religious Liberty. Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8059-4040-5.
• Austin, John Osborne (1887). Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island. Albany, New York: J. Munsell's Sons. ISBN 978-0-8063-0006-1.
• Barry, John M. (2012). Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul. Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-14-312288-3.
• Battis, Emery (1962). Saints and Sectaries: Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Controversy in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-0863-4.
• Bicknell, Thomas Williams (1920). The History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Vol. 3. New York: The American Historical Society. OCLC 1953313.
• Bicknell, Thomas Williams (2005). The Story of Dr. John Clarke (PDF). Little Rock, Arkansas: The Baptist Standard Bearer, Inc. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 November 2014.
• Bremer, Francis J. (1981). Anne Hutchinson: Troubler of the Puritan Zion. Huntington, New York: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company. pp. 1–8.
• Burrage, Henry Sweetser (1894). A History of the Baptists in New England. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society. Obadiah Holmes.
• Clarke, John (1652), "Ill Newes from New England", in Gaustad, Edwin (ed.), The Baptist Tradition, Arno Press. Text online in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society Series 4, vol. II (Crosby, Nichols & Co., Boston 1854), pp. 1–113 (Internet Archive)
• Gorton, Adelos (1907). The Life and Times of Samuel Gorton. George S. Ferguson Co. p. 38. OCLC 4669474.
• Hall, David D. (1990). The Antinomian Controversy, 1636–1638, A Documentary History. Durham [NC] and London: Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-1091-0.
• Holmes, James T. (1915). The American Family of Rev. Obadiah Holmes. Columbus, Ohio: private.
• James, Sydney V. (1999). Bozeman, Theodore Dwight (ed.). John Clarke and His Legacies: Religion and Law in Colonial Rhode Island, 1638–1750. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0271028156.
• Peterson, Edward (1853). History of Rhode Island. J. S. Taylor. p. 144. Retrieved 26 June 2010. whose moral character has never been surpassed.
• Shurden, Walter B. (2008). Turning Points in Baptist History. Mercer University Press.
• Staples, William R. (1843). Annals of the Town of Providence, from its First Settlement to the Organization of the City Government in June 1832. Providence: Knowles and Vose. 1640 compact.
• Winship, Michael Paul (2002). Making Heretics: Militant Protestantism and Free Grace in Massachusetts, 1636–1641. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-08943-4.

Articles

• Moriarty, G. Andrews (January 1943). "Additions and Corrections to Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island". The American Genealogist. 19 (3): 131.
• Moriarty, G. Andrews (April 1948). "Additions and Corrections to Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island". The American Genealogist. 24 (2): 72.

Online sources

• "Liberty Ships built by the United States Maritime Commission in World War II". United States Maritime Commission. 4 May 2002. Retrieved 27 August 2015.